Who has diesel or petrol car with a turbo? Most of the modern new cars got them no matter if it’s petrol or diesel.
Do you know what turbo does? It pumps up the air to the combustion chamber, and that mixed with fuel gives you more power! Also, at the same time the car is more fuel-efficient.
Ok, so now whose car shuts the engine off when you stop at traffic lights? (In manual cars, you need to select neutral and lift the clutch.) This system is called auto stop-start.
So, imagine when you are leaving a motorway, and you are stopping before the roundabout with a red light. Now the exciting bit: Do you know the revolutions of the turbo? In my one litre engine, it might be up to around 200,000 rpm. Once again two hundred thousand revolutions per minute. So when start-stop is active, the engine stops and turbo don’t get oil to cool it! That damages the most expensive part of your engine.
Why are manufacturers not saying anything about it? They want your engines to break down so you can buy a new car, right?
So my advice is:
- Press the button to switch off auto stop-start! (The button is a letter “A” with an arrow going around it.)
- When you start the engine in the morning, let it run for 2-3 minutes before you move off, so the oil gets a bit warmer and your revs are dropping to an idle level (in my Focus, 750 rpm). Take it easy until the engine gets to a working temperature about 90º (so ideally don’t go over 2,000 rpm). It may take around 10-15 minutes for the oil to get to that temperature.
- When you stop, let the engine running for another 2-3 minutes especially after accelerating hard or leaving high-speed roads so that the turbo can stop spinning!
Contact me if you need to chat about it.
Remember, whenever you are moving off from your driveway, or you are on a highway, think Mike’s Way!
