Care of turbocharge

My new car has a 2.0 turbocharged engine. Someone told me I should warm it up and cool it down - but that was in passing and I never did get a chance to talk with him about what he meanse - now can;t get in touch with him. Is he saying just drive easy for the firtst and last 1 to 2 minutes of driving - or actually let it idle one to two minutes before and after each drive?

 

Yes, it is a smart idea to let car idle for a minute or two. They actually make turbo timers which allow the engine to run when you pull the key out. It will automatically shut vehicle down.

Turbo's get so hot that if you shut off the motor without allowing turbo to cool, you risk having the impellers or the housing crack. If this is a stock turbo, then I would say not to worry about it because the manufacturer would have installed it if so deemed.

 

Yes - it is the way the car came. If it required this special warm up/cool down I am surprised the dealer did not mention it (new Volkswagen Eos)

 

Usually only aftermarket turbos that are much larger then yours require this. I have not seen a stock turbo have this timer so you should be fine.

 

It's always a good idea to allow a turbo equipped engine to idle for a minute or so before shutdown. As HotinOKC stated, turbos run very hot so they need a chance to cool down and the cooling is done by the oil flow through the turbo. The problem with immediate shutdown is the chance the oil in the turbo bearing cavity, because of the heat, can "cook" on the bearing causing a carbon/varnish build-up.

 

Back in the '80, I used to install the Turbo lube kit for a private investigator Dept on their Buick Grand National fleet, they supplied the kits so I don't know where they get them, there's an external electric oil pump that connected to an engine oil pan that feeds oil to the Turbo shaft bearings when engine is not running and keeps running for short period of time after shutting it off.

Basically, when the driver door opened, power feed to an external electric oil pump and the oil starts pumping direct to the shaft's bearings, it turns off when engine is started, when engine turns off and key is out, there's a "Bimetal" switch(heat sensing switch) that mounted directly on the top of the Turbo housing that activates the electric oil pump and kept the pump running until it's cool off, depending on how long and how hot the engine was, the electric pump can run up to 10min then turns off by itself preventing running down battery.

Turbo engine on today vehicles are built different than back then, I'd think it's more durable but if you are not so sure, it's best to let it idling for a minute or two before drive or turn off.