Turbo simmering?

[BFG TERRANO]

Or what ever it's called? Idling the engine after a drive for the benefit of oil circulation in the turbo. Does anyone bother any more? Is it needed on new cars? I have a hire insignia with auto stop, sometimes when you pull up it auto stops very soon? I always do idle for a bit in my Audi A4 petrol turbo, am I just wasting fuel?

[MaximumJed]

I don't think many people ever did, however some cars have an auxiliary pump to keep oil / water flowing to the turbo to cool it even after the engine has been turned off.

[thatdude]

I think it's more of a concern when you've been thrashing quite hard (track day or whatever), since the heat from the turbo can burn the oil left sitting in the bearings etc. Let it run so oil can cool the parts down to an acceptable temp before shutting down. A lot of modern turbo systems are water cooled as well now right? That must help a lot with reliability and reducing the need to let an engine idle for a bit.

I always think it's not a bad idea to have a gentle period of running for any engine after hard use, be it keeping a light load at moderate revs or letting the engine idle for a minute. I don't know if there is any actual truth to that notion though

[Krikkit]

If you have a water-cooled turbo, chances are it has an auxiliary pump to cool it down in the event that it's too warm. Otherwise a little gentle driving at the end of a journey without boosting too much will get everything back to decent temps.

[jimbobsimmonds]

Tbh in normal day to day driving I don't; but tbh I don't like to thrash it on the last couple of minutes to my house. Also on a DC at 70 I doubt my turbo is under much; if any load so won't be cooking itself.

However, when I do a track day I always do a cool down lap and then a couple of minutes of idle. I've seen onboard footage of my engine in standard guise causing the turbo to glow red under a long motorway drag!