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What Is A Turbo Timer

goeyz

By goeyz,
in General Automotive Discussion

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soon2b33 Enthusiast

soon2b33

Posted
Posted

well as ur turbo is made up of different materials, its good to let it cool with a turbo timer, to keep oil / water flowing thru, since even under actual boost your turbo still spins at quite a few thousand rpm, tho nothing compared to the 40,000 plus rpm of boost..

Links Veteran

Links

Posted
Posted

Turbo's tend to not start making boost until they are spinning at 20,000rpms..

main use for the turbo timer is if you've been driving on boost for a long duration of time, the heat generated by the turbo is huge..

if you than pull up.. stop the car.. turn it off and walk away it has to disipate the heat somehow.. it's meant to stop the oil from sitting in the turbo and causing some side effects, not exactly sure what they are but when your driving you constantly have a cool air flow going past the turbo.. Think it's heat soak in the oil - can have bad sideeffects..

As for legalities - they are not legal in N.S.W. - main reason for this is a) it's illegal to leave a car running while you are not within the vehicle and B) in the case of an accident, if you have a turbo timer when the car crashes the engine/power will not shut off straight away which could either keep the engine running or the power which could cause further injury.

Before you complain - I have a turbo timer in my car which doubles as a boost gauge.. quite useful..

also - to answer your question - most turbo timers that automatically pick a duration to stay on go on how long you've been on boost for.. if it's >0 vacuum it will start adding time to the count.. mine frequently gets up to 20+secs which really would only matter if I turned off the car then and there..

  • 3 weeks later...
SKY 34 Mentor

SKY 34

Posted
Posted

I went tru pit twice with HKS BOV and Turbo time...and passed...of course I disconnect the BOV so when the pit guys drive does muted sound...I think Turbo timers are Legal in W.A. ....the pit guys did not give any comment on it...

SKY031 Grand Master

SKY031

Posted
Posted

...that would be because race tracks are private property and you dont have to obey the same rules that you do on the road.... otherwise there would be a policeman up the end of each straight with a hair dryer :D

Tosh Grand Master

Tosh

Posted
Posted
Unless you're planning on doing trackwork, timers are mostly used for wank factor.

I mean, think about it, if there was a real need for one, manufacturers would have taken that into consideration.

The temperatures achieved with normal or even "spirited" street driving aren't dangerous enough to cause any damage to the turbo. (Unless you have cooling issues)

....but this isn't the case here, so back on topic  :D

There is a thread covering this topic in NA performance which can be found here

Also be made aware that turbo timers are not legal in all states.  B)

That's not always the case.....

Manufacturers don't include turbo timers in the cars to save costs. Anyone that's owned a WRX would know this.... Manufacturers always put a warning in inside the cabin to say that if the car has been driven hard or done alot of freeway driving, to let it idle for 30 sec ~ 2 mins to let the car cool down before shutting it off. WRX's have them as a sticker near the drivers door latch. My MR2 had it written on the underside of the sun visor along with other warnings.

The temperatures achieved with normal or even "spirited" street driving aren't dangerous enough to cause any damage to the turbo. (Unless you have cooling issues)

Therefore this statement isnt necessarily correct. The temperatures achieved ARE dangerous enough to cause damage to the turbo and hence why there is a warning inside the car to tell you to cool it down.

Turbo Timers are essentially a little convenience IMHO. It lets the car cool down while you can lock it and go on about your business, negating the need for you to sit in the car while it idles for a couple of minutes (which can seem like an eternity when you're in a hurry).

Having said that, Subaru in particular (and I'm sure other manufacturers) have developed a system to cool the turbo down properly when the car is shut off. It keeps pumping water and oil through the turbo to sufficiently cool it down before completely shutting off. This was first introduced on the Liberty B4 and allows you to shut the car off immediately without fear of damaging your turbo and without the need to install a turbo timer in the vehicle.

Hope this has helped :O

Kennedy Mentor

Kennedy

Posted
Posted
Having said that, Subaru in particular (and I'm sure other manufacturers) have developed a system to cool the turbo down properly when the car is shut off. It keeps pumping water and oil through the turbo to sufficiently cool it down before completely shutting off. This was first introduced on the Liberty B4 and allows you to shut the car off immediately without fear of damaging your turbo and without the need to install a turbo timer in the vehicle.

Hope this has helped :D

You would think that other car companies would or should be using technology similar to this. Sounds like the perfect invention to look after your turbo and also keep the car legal.

If Subaru put this in the B4 then why didn't they put it in the WRX? Is it in the STi?

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