MINI Turbocharger - Genuine MINI 11657647003

Turbo Maintenance

When looking to perform an upgrade or replace a failed turbo let's ask ourselves if we really treated our Turbo well and whether or not the new Turbo will be happy with us.

Turbochargers are cooled by oil and in some instances by coolant. Generally all turbo applications require some sort of cool down period after strained or used at higher than normal temperatures. It is always a good idea to practice a turbo cool down procedure regardless of how new or how old your turbo powered car is.

The cause of failure for most turbos aside from sucking something through other than air is simply overheating and oil failure. Oil breaks down much faster in a turbo powered application. Why? Oil is directly fed into the turbo to cool it. A turbo operates at temperatures that are a lot higher than in the crankcase. Now if we shut off the car after a hard run or a high speed run without circulating the hot oil out of the turbo and not allowing the turbo to cool down that oil will boil inside the feed lines and the turbo case.

Oil subjected to excess heat will leave heat spots and contaminants behind that are suspended in the formula. This is sludge. In order to avoid this and to take care of your entire lubrication system we recommend periodically performing an engine flush.

We have partnered with Liqui Moly to create industry leading engine maintenance kits which can be found HERE

Or you can simply buy the flush itself HERE

We strongly suggest you treat your engine and turbo with an oil additive such as CERATEC which not only reduces friction but will give the engine the ability to run for some time even after oil pressure is lost. You can find CERATEC HERE