Turbo timers with modern turbos. Useful or not?

NYSpeed Automotive
1

2012 Subaru WRX. Water cooled turbo. Necessary? Opinions?

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turbo timers originally came to market when turbos were oil cooled ONLY. Now that most turbos are also water-cooled in addition to oil cooled, turbo timers are much less necessary for cycling the fluids through after hard running.

My $.02

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So in other words, not necessary for the occasional romp around town? How long should I lay off the go pedal before shutting her down?

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I generally let mine idle down 30sec or so before shutting it off, lead footed romp around town or not…

5

If it’s stock or midly modded and factory psi, I wouldn’t worry much about it.

6

Not needed at all on a modern Subaru.

<–ran the stock turbo for 70k miles. GT30 (400whp+) for approx 15k miles and counting, no turbo timer. Note, the stocker didnt die, it was just time for a big upgrade.

7

Thanks for the replies fellas. I think my remote start has a turbo timer like function.

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We discussed this on another forum and don’t know that we really got an answer. Mine came with one installed and I do not have water cooled turbo’s, that I’m aware of. It was set at 90 seconds and being that I have an oil temp gauge, I could watch the oil temp rise, which I would think is not good. I would however, let it run a little after some “spirited” legal driving as I think it would be beneficial. I don’t know the answer to this.

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I have one, never use it unless I’m raced the car hard and only for maybe 1 minute.

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So you’ve never used it then.

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The gauntlet has been thrown.

12

lol, not this year.

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I put 50K on my turbo SHO and I never had a issue on that (relating to the turbo).

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never had one on car or truck. never had any turbo related problems. I do warm up and cool down my vehicles though

15

boo.

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I also warm up and cool down mine - stay out of boost until the temp comes up, let it run for a few minutes after a highway jaunt over two hours - and no issues yet (wood-knocking).

What would be considered a “safe” cool-down time? I run mine for 2-3 minutes before shutdown.

17

I hardly pay any attention to how I drive mine… I don’t sweat oil circulation at low temps because I run (factory spec’d) 0w-40 and the car has a factory oil circulator pump that humms away if I shut it down hot. I put 70k on the stock turbo so far, still pulls like day 1.

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i only had mine set to 30seconds because i was so annoyed with the “HEY YOU LEFT YOUR CAR RUNNING” and by the time they got to the word running it would shut off by itself. I only found it annoying, but i’d prob put another in my car now :snky:

19

Lol I still have yours that I bought and I set it to 30secs all the time, I get that expression all the time.

In reality if you have water and oil cooled turbo you don’t need it. It’s really only for oil cooled turbod cars. In my talon in the sun visor it has a safety list and it says to allow the car to warm up before operating and to cool down at least 60secs after driving. Just my thoughts…

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in the summer warm up it not as big of a deal but in the winter proper lubrication is important. Thick oil does not lubricate properly