Do Turbos Still Need More Care?

I know the oil gets very dirty looking quickly in a car with a turbo. I do not know if the performance characteristics of the oil have suffered, but it sure looks it. I used to change the oil more frequently in my Lotus.

 

I have the later motor in my daily driver and have it serviced per the book. The dealership uses Castrol and I think the intervals are 5k miles. There is a service message that pops up when it is due.

 

My wife has a 1.8 VW Turbo. Mobil 1 every 5K miles w/no issues. So far 49 K on the clock.

 

I do, I have 3 turbocharged vehicles and 2 non turbos, the turbos get changed 50% sooner. oil is cheap!

Cheers

 

We have 2 Audi A4s 1.8Ts.

My wifes 1995 is chipped to 200 HK versus stock 150, mine 1998 is upgraded with larger turbo, injectors, exhaust giving 250 HK. Both get driven like they are meant to. Mileage is 380ykm on the 1995, 320tkm on 1998. I´m using Shell Helix synthetic 5/50 oil which is changed at intervals of 30 tkm. There is only a moderate oil consumption between oil changes on the 1995.

So my experience is no special maintenance cause it is turbo. But heat around the turbos has an effect. The seals for the topcower has been changed. On the turbos Ive repeatedly replacded the vacumm housing some activating the boost control walve, the rubber belly inside the actuators fails.

 

50% sooner was the VW recomendation too. 5k on synthetic for a turbo, 10k on naturally aspirated

 

The warranty for the EVO VIII (19psi twin scroll turbo) mandates Mobil 1, and specifies 3-5K miles per change. And that's the tried and tested 4G63 mill.

I had a "Die Hard" actually melt (internally) from proximity to the 8psi turbo in the AllTrac.

Turbos certainly teach you the difference between oil grade and oil type. Those of us who grew up in the American muscle car era tended to equate peformance with oil weight: 10/40, 10/50, etc. But 0W30 *synthetic* is pretty normal for turbo cars -- especially rally cars, where oil temps can run between -20F and +"cigar lighter".

But comparing to the Ferrari, I note that turbos have outrageous temperatures, but little mass to hold heat. By contrast, the Ferrari's entire engine bay gets up around 190F, so it'll heat my whole garage during cool-down. Despite the turbo, the EVO's engine bay doesn't seem to radiate as much heat after shutdown. (But then, the EVO's oil cooler is almost three times the size of the 328's.)

One caution the AllTrac had that I didn't see stressed in the newer EVO was an instruction to allow 2 minutes of turbo cool-down between the use of boost and shutdown. Perhaps that's due to the multi-step turbo application in the EVO, compared to the on-off nature of the 3sGTE's turbo.

From the driver's seat, the biggest difference is the turbo lag. Heel and toe is far more effective in the 328 (normal breather with a cable operated clutch -- then in the EVO (huge turbo lag, and a stupid anti-burnout damper in the "hopeless" hydraulic clutch).

The EVO needs those big honkin' brakes, because you really have to dump down on the straight, then stand on the "spool up" pedal to have power for the corner. You can finesse the corner more with the 328. Having been an Italian RWD driver for decades, going in, I wound up scrubbing the fronts off the AllTrac in a very short time, before I got used to the understeer the combination of AWD and turbo lag gave the ricer.

 

i did a turbo coversion of my 81 635 bmw. max miles on synthetic oil was 3k. oil is cheap as stated before and replacing the turbo, engine internals is definitely not. i think it's worth doing often, especially since it's a 10 minute, driveway job. jon s.

 

depending on what size and how many psi you are running, expect 2K-3K synthetic oil changes and a investment into a quality turbo timer.

it will prolong the life of your bearings.

A good general rule of thumb, (if you can), on your way home from beating the snot out of your car, keep your car under low rpms for about 5 minutes or so before you park, and if you can again, let your car sit running idle for another 10 minutes.

at 90-100K rpm, the bearings can get pretty hot and look forward to doing a backstroke in quality oil to cool down.

 

My old 300zx turbo is nothing like the new age WRX's and EVO's (think it's a T3) but i did add a booster to get it to 10psi. 22 years old and has 140,000 miles on it. Change about 5k intervals and the oil always looks like it did when it went in. Get almost as many looks and nice comments with it as i do the 308.