The question about turbos started me wondering about reliability. I had to replace the one on my Mazda MX-6 long ago. It was an expensive repair. I think one was supposed to let the car idle for a minute after driving it to let the turbo wind down. Are the turbos in newer cars more reliable than in the older models?
The twin turbos on my 02 Legacy GT B have given no problems what-so-ever at over 170K kilometers.
The rough guide is if you've been really caning it immediately before stopping you should let it cool down before turning it off. For everyday driving, no problem.
I hope I'm not jinxing anything, but my turbo Porsche has 113K miles and is 27 years old, and so far, so good...
How many miles did your Mazda have when the turbo gave out?
I thought it was more a matter of not turning off the car if you've just been using the turbo. I live in a housing development where I'm driving at 15-20 MPH for a minute or two before I get home, so I figure that serves the purpose to let the turbo cool down.
If you're in a situation where having a turbo Subie would be helpful, I don't think you should abandon that idea and buy a naturally aspirated model instead just because of your previous bad experience.
Patty
I would have to say, generally - yes. More are using water cooled center sections - which definitely help - and most also reccomend - or require- synthetic lube - which also reduces the bearing coking problem. In the early turbo days - like the first turbo Ford mustangs, the catalyst was between the manifold and the turbo - so when (not if) the catalyst brike up it went through the turbo, destroying it on the spot. The early Saab and Volvo turbos were considered consumeables with a roughly 24,000 mile lifespan. When Toyota brought out the water cooled turbos on theLN pickups and theTurbo Supra, the lifespan was generally about 100,000 miles - and many of todays turbo engines have a turbo lifespan approaching
250,000.Of course, when the kids start jacking up the boost and doing other mods, or running turbo bottle babies, all bets are off.
I want to say 93k but I'm not sure at all anymore.
I think it was as much about lubrication as cooling. The turbos would take awhile to wind down and would run dry for a bit. Some irrigation power units had turbo problems due to sudden shutdowns. The various engine safety gauges would kill the engine immediately if they sensed a problem. The turbos would keep spinning without oil. The solution was to put an aftermarket reserve tank above the turbo with a flow restrictor. The oil would lube the turbo while it wound down. I have a 99 2.5RS with about 123,000 miles. It should last me a long time no more than I drive. The farm economy in the U.S. has been really good. I work in a farm related business so don't have much time to bum around. All work and no play, dontcha know.
Yep, you need to let it wind / cool down before turning the engine off ... of course that's usually only if you've been driving like a stupid "boy racer" anyway. You can get Turbo Timers fitted that keep the engine running for a while. You also have to let the engine warm up properly before using the turbo.
There's a turbo on my 1994 car and it's done nearly 180,00km with no issues. I doubt I've ever really used the turbo though (maybe one or twice when trying to create a bigger gap behind me for another car to be able to get in) and I also have a 5 minute or so drive from the motorway through normal suburban streets and traffic lights before the engine is turned off at home, shops, or workplaces.
I did consider getting a turbo time early on, but it seemed a bit of a waste of money - the cheap ones are really only a clock telling you when to manually turn off!
Which makes one wonder why people are paying what they are paying for used boy racer cars with turbo.
I second the recommendation to steer clear of mineral oil or "semi"- synthetic in a turbo -> good recipe for that garbage to clog the part in question.
There were actually some pretty fantastic "turbo" oils available that were not synthetic a few years back, but I think the synthetics have pretty well taken that market today.
In the 10 years I was a Toyota service manager we never had a turbo failure - turbo Supra, Turbo RN pickup, Turbo LN diesel pickup, or Turbo Celica..
Uber supremo minerale oil. I wonder if they were competitive with walmart brand synthetic.
so I have to stop making toyoda jokes now :^)
Well, I learned something again. I'd never heard of water cooled turbos until now. Turbos are pretty common on farm equipment. I don't farm so I don't actually own any. The only ones I'm around are on irrigation motors. I don't pay much attention since I'm there to fix the irrigation system. The battery connections are about the only thing I'll mess with on the engines. Anything else is the farmer's problem.
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