The owner manual says if you are hard on it or driving long distance to let your car idle for 2 mins before you shut it off. But I would love to get more info about your topic. I know you can buy an TT Timer. and it will shut off your car by its self and turn on your Secuirty.

 

found some answers on another forum but still curious what you guys think....

 

I drive gently for the last 1-2 minutes of my drive or more, then when I park the car I raise the window, set the e-brake, etc before shutting the car down. As long as you drive gently for the last 3-5 minutes of your drive, you really shouldn't need a cool down period, that would be your cool down period.

(PS 75 degrees is not hot weather, don't worry about it too much. )

 

The stock turbo is water cooled which was added to keep the oil from coking inside the bearing house of the turbo. I had a 83 Audi 5000T no water jacket in the turbo and I had to clean it out twice and I would cool it down after driving 2-3 min. Also if you are using a full synthetic oil you should not have any problems with the stock turbo.

All that being said on my Passat and my Audi (chipped) I will cool them down if I get off the freeway and stop right away at least minute before I shut off the engine

 

yeah i've though about a turbo timer, but tuition and what not. no cash for something i can do myself.

 

yep, made it a habit this summer do a cool down lap before shut down.
so how bout at the gas station? rushing to work, im late, drove the car hard and i gotta get gas... or milk or something. i have to let the car sit for maybe 20 mins... leave it running or lock it up?

 

and hey it sounds like these turbo timers are just a timer that kill the car after a set time. could i make a gauge out of a long-corded oven-timer, that would tell me the temp of the turbo? might be cheaper and more accurate:wrench:

 

If getting gas, I would shut it down. You won't be at the station long enough to worry about anything, and if you leave it running when there, there is risk of fire from a number of causes, though it's not highly likely. I would only worry about letting it idle a minute or two if driving hard just before arriving at your destination. Then, I would let it run 30-60 seconds. If you're running late, that 30 seconds won't make you any later. Chances are you're already late.

 

When I get to my destination, I open the door, when the door chime stops beeping (about a minute) I shut the car off. That's my method.

 

When heading home, I have about six blocks to go after getting off the highway. 25 mph on residential streets should be enough, I think.

On the other hand, the girlfriends house is right off the ramp - and I usually hit 80 sliding over from the fast lanes to the exit. So I let it idle 2-3 minutes before shutting down. Gives me time to take in the trash cans and empty the mailbox.

 

i can tell my friends/fiance dont total believe i'm not being pretentious when i say "the turbo needs to cool down"

 

I know this practice is used because of how hot a turbo can get, but when I'm driving in my 2.8L V6 and I'm using the AC, I try to turn it off and let the car quiet down for 20-45 seconds. When that AC fan is going on top of the rest of the car it sounds like jet engine(at least in my building's garage it does) My reasoning isn't for the heat, as much as forcing the AC fan and everything to just stop at full speed seems like it could be detrimental long-term. Probably just me being paranoid though.

 

say its 75 degrees and you just drove the **** out of your car. you pull up to the gas station to get gas...? i personally don't even shut the car off, usually.

Pretty sure that state law in Illinois says you have to shut your car off at the gas pump. That aside, I *always* turn my car off at the pump.

i cant tell my friends/fiance doesn't total believe i'm not being pretentious when i say "the turbo needs to cool down"

Wait ...what? That's one of the hardest to comprehend sentences I've ever seen here. And unless you're driving like a jerk the entire time you're out and about, there's a good chance your car's internal systems are doing what they're supposed to do and you don't need to sit around and cool your turbo. Pop the hood. Is it glowing red? No? You'll be fine. (Or are you drag racing from light to light?)

 

Pretty sure that state law in Illinois says you have to shut your car off at the gas pump. That aside, I *always* turn my car off at the pump.



Wait ...what? That's one of the hardest to comprehend sentences I've ever seen here. And unless you're driving like a jerk the entire time you're out and about, there's a good chance your car's internal systems are doing what they're supposed to do and you don't need to sit around and cool your turbo. Pop the hood. Is it glowing red? No? You'll be fine. (Or are you drag racing from light to light?)

state law? gotta be federal.

sorry bout the clarity, i edited it. and yeah i'm usually driving it pretty hard, but im very polite.

 

ive got a couple of tdis and the general consensus is to run them for 30 sec if you are city driving, and 3 min if you are highway driving.

seems to help me so far, ive heard lots of horror stories of people frying their tdi turbos by shutting it off right when they stop...

 

I've learned over the years that, unless you're pretty much FLYING (30mph+ over the limit), you won't get to your destination much earlier than if you just sit back and take it easy. So I'm REAL easy on the car for the last couple of minutes into the drive, then shut it down after 10-30 seconds or so.

 

Lot of interesting posts in here. I usually take it easy while driving my car too and from work, theres no need to drive all fast and furious. car has 181k on the OEM turbo and it is still pulling strong, as for letting it cool off, I'll just coast down the hill to my house in neutral and then let the car idle for a few while I gather up everything that I need to take in the house. Then turn it off.

On a side note, even if your rushing to get somewhere unless you are constantly boosting your car your not being rough on your turbo...

 

30 seconds to 1min. depending. The turbo timer takes care of it

 

Usually 1-2 minutes after hard driving, either by driving easy or idling (when I had a 1.8T). The V6 has an after run coolant pump, You can shut it down anytime. I am still waiting for someone to adapt one to the 1.8T.

 

I kind of use the door ding method but with the seatbelt.

Before I shut the car off, even at gas stations, I undo my seat belt, then every 8 seconds or so the seatbelt dinger goes off. Depending on how hard or long I've been driving I count dings. No less than 4, seldom more than 10. I'll listen to the radio and just chill while I wait.

Some times if I have packages, I'll unload the car then turn it off.

And then there's the times when I've really been whackin' on it that I'll just let it idle in the garage for a few minutes with the hood up, garage door open of course.

 

I almost never let the car sit running to cool down.

I arrived at this after doing a bunch of VAG-COM logging (block 115) of actual and called for boost. That clearly said that driving at 65 mph on level ground or non-aggressive acceleration in town (with just me in the car) doesn't spool the turbo.

Fully loaded on a hot day at freeway speeds up and down with the A/C running is a different matter: a minute or so.

 

i dont know if this has anything to do with the subject but after i come home on like a night of bumming around in the city and racing a couple of cars i turn off my car i hear a whirling noise coming from under the hood around where my turbo is. is this something that is cooling my turbo down? it only does it in the summer.

 

Unless you were running 10psi+ all the way to the pump, there's no need. Just the time in getting off an exit ramp and pulling into a station is enough time. Track time would be different.

Of course this is one of those questions that has no definitive answer. There's the engineer answer, the parts store answer, the guy who blew up his turbo answer, the friend of the guy who blew up his turbo answer and the answer from someone like me who has 190,000 miles on his car, 150,000 of it on a K04 that's been boosted over 20psi on nearly a daily basis.:lol:

 

John, that's a little bit of a hijack, but if it's not a cooling fan by the radiator, your SAIP may be miswired and running too much.

 

How many of you can relate to this story: you're driving to your destination and have to use the bathroom. You end up speeding to get there quicker only to realize you need to let the turbo cool down. Beating on it to get there faster only made your predicament worse - it's a lose-lose situation. The faster you get there, the longer you have to wait. Now you're stuck doing the pee pee dance outside your car for a couple of minutes. LMAO

 

put your stove on high and let it get piping hot. (or perform on the exhaust pipe) Add oil straight away and see what happens. Let it cool for a minute and add engine oil and see what happens. Let it cool for 2 minutes and see what happens.

Following that you decide how you want to treat your turbo.

This is a typical turbo cut away showing the oil passages to the bearings. The tolerances are extremely tight so you don't want any oil coking there and blocking the feed of oil.

 

I climb about 750 feet in the last 1.5 miles of my drive home. If the heater is on, I can feel it getting hotter as I go up the hill. I always let it idle for at least a minute, or more during the summer, while I bring in the mail or whatever. When I get to work (expressway, followed by ~1 minute of slow driving), I just shut it down after 5 seconds.

 

I climb about 750 feet in the last 1.5 miles of my drive home. If the heater is on, I can feel it getting hotter as I go up the hill. I always let it idle for at least a minute, or more during the summer, while I bring in the mail or whatever. When I get to work (expressway, followed by ~1 minute of slow driving), I just shut it down after 5 seconds.

Pretty much my technique.