Taking care of the turbo - lots of starts/stops

david1pro

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I'm wondering if the owner's manual recommends idling a short bit after a hard drive.
The manual says nothing about this. It says a lot about keeping the camera in the front window cool, though. LoL.
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tcaudo

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Hey guys, I just got a new EX-T last week and had a question since this is the first turbocharged car I've ever owned.

I drive a lot, and a lot of it is short trips with starts/stops. I've heard this can be hard on turbos, but this is based on information almost a decade old.

What, if anything, should I be doing to make things easy on the turbo? Letting the car idle a bit before shutting it off? Are there systems in place nowadays to make this unnecessary?

Should I look into getting a turbo timer, or a turbo blanket?
Just follow the maintenance program set by Honda. The turbo is made of some of the highest quality metals in the world. I dont see any of us having issues as long as we do the maintenance required at the mileage honda recommends.
 
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jmr

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I tend to error on the side of caution and use only quality synthetic oils and change it after 4K miles since turbo's are hard on oil with high heat levels. I figure oil is cheap and a turbo is not plus I didn't get a extended warranty.

I just did my first oil change on my EX-T yesterday and was surprised how dinky the oil filter is it reminds me of the ferocious horn they put on these. BTW I drained out 4 quarts with filter included.
 
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dangng009

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Hi Guys,

From what I can understand tradition turbocharger system from OEM will most likely have an oil and cooling system for the turbocharger. It seem this is same for Honda turbocharger as it's made by Mitsubishi with OEM Mitsubishi turbocharger always running an oil and cooling system from what I have seen on the mits engines such as the 6G72 VR4, 4G63 and 4B11. If you guys take a look at the 1.5T available on the internet it show two small coolant lines running from the turbocharger bearing journal where the turbocharger bearing seal sit between the compressor and turbine of the turbocharger. On the 1.5L civic engine the turbocharger oil line runs direct from the top of turbocharger house and exits a large diameter metal outlet tube that goes into a rubber coated line that runs down to oil pan or back into engine block. The coolant lines are ran between the journal bearing and is much smaller but you can clearly tell its a coolant line as one end of the line runs directly behind the coolant pump impeller.

I have an example of the 1.0L 3 cylinder Honda made in EURO and you can clearly tell an oil line on top and dual coolant lines run right below the top oil feed line on the turbocharger. If you compare that to the 1.5L US market shows a similar set up. If you guys really want to verify this then remove your heat shield, bypass valve, and electronic waste gate actuator and top plastic intake tubing. BTW this is just my IMO.

Honda Civic 10th gen Taking care of the turbo - lots of starts/stops 16_Civic_Sedan_1_5L-T
Honda Civic 10th gen Taking care of the turbo - lots of starts/stops Honda-Civic_Sedan_2016_1600x1200_wallpaper_a0
Honda Civic 10th gen Taking care of the turbo - lots of starts/stops honda-1.0-turbo-engine-3
 


17siturb0

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Hey guys, I just got a new EX-T last week and had a question since this is the first turbocharged car I've ever owned.

I drive a lot, and a lot of it is short trips with starts/stops. I've heard this can be hard on turbos, but this is based on information almost a decade old.

What, if anything, should I be doing to make things easy on the turbo? Letting the car idle a bit before shutting it off? Are there systems in place nowadays to make this unnecessary?

Should I look into getting a turbo timer, or a turbo blanket?
It's 2017 man. Turbos have come a long ways, you don't need to worry about that stuff. Just drive it like any other car. Keep up your regular maintenance.
 

shadow

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Snoopyslr

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Cool, thanks for the reassurance.

For the record, I deliver pizza full time for a living.
I'd assume you know to just leave the car running every stop then right?

Unless you just got done doing a 0-100-0 then shutting off, I wouldn't worry about a turbo timer on this car. As stated above, this is a coolant fed turbo also. Most turbo timers are for cars with big turbos, no coolant, making big boost. The larger the turbo, the more heat soak.
 


Draken187

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In case anyone wants to know more, Garrett has a good write-up on modern turbo technology. Good read on why modern turbos can continue cooling after shutdown:
https://turbobygarrett.com/turbobyg...iles/Garrett_White_Paper_01_Water_Cooling.pdf
Only thing i will say as im not an expert on turbos.. As that from everything i read is to let it chill for a min or 2 in idle before shutting it all down.. I do this after 90% of my drives.. I dont do it if im going to the gas station down the street, due to knowing i didnt sppol up the turbo at all.. And since someone is usually sitting in my car when we go there anyways.. I dont shut it down for the 2 min i will be inside..

Again.. Im no expert.. But this is what i have learned by reading all the experts advise... New and old..
 

Draken187

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Oh and ya... This isnt a ceramic turbo from i.e. a buick grand national.... So its not like its gonna crack if you dont do warm up/cool down procesures...

But damn wouldni love to get my hands on one of those...

One of the most powerful cars ever made.. But they broke cause people dodnt read the directions.. Specially about the ceramic turbo
 

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I have and still am driving a 2011 STI. Early 2012, I installed a Garrett water-cooled ball bearing turbo. The car has never been idled to cool down the turbo. A minute or two before the destination, I drive easy to cool it down.

Not sure if this helps, but I also add 3 oz. of Auto-RX every oil change as preventive maintenance.

https://www.auto-rx.com/

So far the turbo is healthy.
 

Snoopyslr

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I have and still am driving a 2011 STI. Early 2012, I installed a Garrett water-cooled ball bearing turbo. The car has never been idled to cool down the turbo. A minute or two before the destination, I drive easy to cool it down.

Not sure if this helps, but I also add 3 oz. of Auto-RX every oil change as preventive maintenance.

https://www.auto-rx.com/

So far the turbo is healthy.
Gotta be careful with these cleaners on cars with higher mileage. I learned this the hard way lol. I used a cleaner just like that one on my WRX a few years ago. I had around 120,000 miles on the car and thought it would be good to really scrub every fluid in the car. I developed a valve cover gasket oil leak, rear main oil leak, oil pan seal oil leak... basically every seal in my car oil touched began to fail. It's been a ridiculous amount of work replacing all these seals... all because I used one of those "oil cleaners".

Bottom line, I don't trust them for two reasons. 1st, there is no guarantee your gaskets are safe from the cleaner(nor is there a way to check). 2nd, sometimes those buildups are actually sealing leaks in your higher mileage engines.

Run a good quality oil from day 1 and make sure you're changing your oil at appropriate intervals. Outside of that, I don't think there is any reason to use stronger detergents than you already find in quality oil. It's not 1970 anymore, oil has drastically improved.
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