Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Mines is also underneath the steering wheel, behind the plastic facia/footwell - Cops and RTA have checked the car twice and did not find it. Note : Make sure you turn the car timer off at the same time you turn the car off so the cops don't wonder why your car is still running.

Tangles,

A turbo gets extreemley hot. Sometimes even glowing red.

Metal when it is hot should be cooled down gradually (on idle) not rapidley (turning car straight off).

Metal stretches and expands some what with heat and cooling it down to quick will make metal brittle, or crack, or worp.

Thats why my timer for example (apexi) is attached to the oxygen sensor. The more air that flows through it (eg. if your putting your foot down) the longer the automatic feature on the timer will keep the car on. I just set mine for a minimum of 30 sec and a max of 3 min, and the timer figures out how hard I have driven the car and sets accordingly.

Hope that helps

Yah I know matey, thats why I drive off-boost a few kms before I get home (usually, that is!) to give the stnd turbo some chance of cooling down, and if I have been on boost then I'll let the car idle for a short amount of time once in my garage.

Guess Im sort of trying to ruin the turbo - want a hiflow! LOL nah in all seriousness, I let it cool down but I dont leave the car running if Im not in it - my Stagea is our family wagon and I dont want my kiddies driving off in my car! Nor do I want to turn into FlameBoy at the local petrol station. :sick:

The timer thats in my car is a no-name Jap brand, and seems to want to make the car idle for 3mins, just seems dangerous to me, thats all.

Mate if you're worried about your kids driving off while the turbo timer is keeping the car running just get one with a handbrake safety feature. If the handbrake is released the car shuts off. Stops your car being stolen that way too.

My mate had a Greddy turbo timer installed in the ashtray in his R32. I thought that was a good spot.

Turbo timers can be useful if you're an impatient person but tangles has it right! The best turbo timer you can have is your self!

Before the flurry of posts come in, think about it. As well as the air flow over the engine/turbo what else cools the motor. . . . Correct. Oil and coolant, so you need air flow through the radiator for effective heat transfer. If you've just had a spirited run and you pull in and shut off - while your car sits idling it will only retain the heat or if your motor or fans viscous hub isn't in such good shape your engine will struggle to regulate temps. Where as if your controlled enough to drive sedately for the last few minutes of your drive, your engine will cool significantly quicker due to the increased heat transfer via the radiator. Those with an oil cooler are better off again.

And I have tested this with oil, water and exhaust temp gauges in my car

All that that said, If you drive hard and don't want to slow down before stopping than a turbo timer is better than nothing as the engine is hot but as I've seen from the exhaust temps, the turbo is much hotter and the run on period does disperse the heat to other parts of the motor slowly to bring turbo temps down.

Edited by ellie

I have a Apex'i pen timer and i dont even show it...on a 32 under your right knee is the fuse cover ive put it under that...no one can see it. I also used to have it mounted up my a'pillar and munted under the sun visor.

I got a Hks timer. Not exactly discreet but when I bought my car, it was installed in the din under my head unit. A real pain in the arse. The wires are drilled through the bottom, so I can't pull the console sorround off. Not a bad looking spot but.

If you want to go discreet, install it in the glove box or in the centre console.

  • 2 weeks later...

what did you guys use to stick it to the plastic parts of your dash?

Also, I know that being a meter away from your car with the engine running is illegal, but is having a turbo timer actually installed a defect?

Like if a policeman pulled me over and tried to defect me for having a turbo timer, couldn't I say, I sit in the car and only use it as a timing device and wait for the engine to cool down.. eg, you haven't actually seen me leaving the car with the turbo timer on and the engine running, and therefore cannont touch me??

I have the Greddy Full Auto Timer which is stuck onto the top of my steering column using double sided velcro tape.

The unit is black and when turned off blends into the column to a certain degree.

Don't really know whether or not it's totally necessary in terms of keeping my turbo alive but it did give me much more bottom end power and 25rwkw at peak :woot:

My turbo timer location is the same as my traction control device and my maximum power output limiter - in my head (i.e. a bit of basic common sense).

If you can't remember to cool down the turbo(s) by idling or driving off boost after giving them a flogging, then you shouldn't really be driving such cars.

Turbo timers also help thieves by offering clear and easy access to hot wiring cars. Finally, check with you insurance company about their opinion of turbo timers.

Just my 2C worth.

My turbo timer location is the same as my traction control device and my maximum power output limiter - in my head (i.e. a bit of basic common sense).

If you can't remember to cool down the turbo(s) by idling or driving off boost after giving them a flogging, then you shouldn't really be driving such cars.

Turbo timers also help thieves by offering clear and easy access to hot wiring cars. Finally, check with you insurance company about their opinion of turbo timers.

Just my 2C worth.

I remember them saying exactly the same thing in HPI.

Personally I think it's a bit silly to say that people shouldn't be driving turbo cars just because they use a turbo-timer.

I don't think it's a question of intelligence, I think it comes down to convenience.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • perhaps i should have mentioned, I plugged the unit in before i handed over to the electronics repair shop to see what damaged had been caused and the unit worked (ac controls, rear demister etc) bar the lights behind the lcd. i would assume that the diode was only to control lighting and didnt harm anything else i got the unit back from the electronics repair shop and all is well (to a point). The lights are back on and ac controls are working. im still paranoid as i beleive the repairer just put in any zener diode he could find and admitted asking chatgpt if its compatible   i do however have another issue... sometimes when i turn the ignition on, the climate control unit now goes through a diagnostics procedure which normally occurs when you disconnect and reconnect but this may be due to the below   to top everything off, and feel free to shoot me as im just about to do it myself anyway, while i was checking the newly repaired board by plugging in the climate control unit bare without the housing, i believe i may have shorted it on the headunit surround. Climate control unit still works but now the keyless entry doesnt work along with the dome light not turning on when you open the door. to add to this tricky situation, when you start the car and remove the key ( i have a turbo timer so car remains on) the keyless entry works. the dome light also works when you switch to the on position. fuses were checked and all ok ive deduced that the short somehow has messed with the smart entry control module as that is what controls the keyless entry and dome light on door opening   you guys wouldnt happen to have any experience with that topic lmao... im only laughing as its all i can do right now my self diagnosed adhd always gets me in a situation as i have no patience and want to get everything done in shortest amount of time as possible often ignoring crucial steps such as disconnecting battery when stuffing around with electronics or even placing a simple rag over the metallic headunit surround when placing a live pcb board on top of it   FML
    • Bit of a pity we don't have good images of the back/front of the PCB ~ that said, I found a YT vid of a teardown to replace dicky clock switches, and got enough of a glimpse to realize this PCB is the front-end to a connected to what I'll call PCBA, and as such this is all digital on this PCB..ergo, battery voltage probably doesn't make an appearance here ; that is, I'd expect them to do something on PCBA wrt power conditioning for the adjustment/display/switch PCB.... ....given what's transpired..ie; some permutation of 12vdc on a 5vdc with or without correct polarity...would explain why the zener said "no" and exploded. The transistor Q5 (M33) is likely to be a digital switching transistor...that is, package has builtin bias resistors to ensure it saturates as soon as base threshold voltage is reached (minimal rise/fall time)....and wrt the question 'what else could've fried?' ....well, I know there's an MCU on this board (display, I/O at a guess), and you hope they isolated it from this scenario...I got my crayons out, it looks a bit like this...   ...not a lot to see, or rather, everything you'd like to see disappears down a via to the other side...base drive for the transistor comes from somewhere else, what this transistor is switching is somewhere else...but the zener circuit is exclusive to all this ~ it's providing a set voltage (current limited by the 1K3 resistor R19)...and disappears somewhere else down the via I marked V out ; if the errant voltage 'jumped' the diode in the millisecond before it exploded, whatever that V out via feeds may have seen a spike... ....I'll just imagine that Q5 was switched off at the time, thus no damage should've been done....but whatever that zener feeds has to be checked... HTH
    • I think Fitmit had some, have a look on there (theyre Australian as well)
    • Hah, fair enough! But if you learn with this one you can drive any other OEM manual. No modern luxury features like auto rev-matching or hillstart assist to give you a false sense of confidence. And a heavy car with not that much torque so it stalls easily. 
×
×
  • Create New...