rayzer57

Here is a good thread/article on turbo charged engine maintenance if you are planning to do your own servicing and not familiar with modern day turbocharges. It covers important issues about cleanliness, idle time for engine start up and cool down, air filters, engine oil priming, etc. http://www.turborepair.com/index.php...aqs&Itemid=154

After reading the entire article, I take away the following information. If you are planning to keep your car/engine as trouble free as possible for the long run, specially beyond the manufacturer warranty period, the article provide a few good tips.
1. Turbo equipped engines require a special treatment when operating.
a. Give the engine/turbo a little time to warm up, specially if it is very cold outside, before driving off.
b. Before engine shut down, let the engine / turbo cool down and it also allows the turbo turbine to slow down to a minimum speed. (Yes, turbo turbines do spin even at idle) This aids in reducing engine oil coking on the turbo bearing and minimizes the turbo spin down time.
2. If you do your own maintenance, it is critical that you are **** about not allowing any small particles to get into the oil. I see many shops use dirty (gritty) oil shop rags to wipe off the oil filter internal housing, for example. Having these small particles enter the engine could get trapped on bearing surfaces which will greatly shorten the life of that bearing over time. Engines made today are of much higher tolerances than in the older days and these small particles can do havoc. This is true for turbo and non turbo engines.
3. If you are to open up your oil filler cap or air filter box, make sure you clean the area of debris before opening. Again, this practice will helps to avoid any of the grit entering the engine.

If you were to compare two identical cars, one owner who does practice good operating procedure and has a competent mechanic perform the proper maintenance versus the second owner who disregards both the operating procedure and has an amateur / dirty mechanic perform service, which of the two you feel will have less turbo related issues in the long term.

Lexus has done their homework to some degree in their turbo design. They make their turbo turbine in house, which also included their exhaust manifold. This is a major departure from many other manufacturers who use third party turbo and adopt them to fit their engines. Lexus utilizes a separate cooling system dedicated for the turbo bearing area. This same cooling system is also used for the intercooler to keep pressurized air temperatures lower before entering the combustion chamber. These practices may prove over time to extend the life of the turbo and bearing but by no means is it bullet proof. Owner education is key, and that is the purpose of the article.

NXOwner

From the article...

Who does that? I

Even one minute is forever!

2merc3lex

Maybe someone who knows more about this particular turbo in the NX could come on and educate us regarding this. It is hard to believe that if this is that important that Lexus would stress these procedures at time of purchase.

jim256

From the manual (seems reasonable to me--but somewhat contrary to the article posted.):

Idling time before engine stop
To prevent damage to the turbocharger, allow the engine to idle immediately after high speed
driving or hill climbing.

Driving condition, Idling time
Normal city driving Approximately
20 seconds

High-speed driving
Constant speed of approx. 50 mph
(80 km/h)
Approximately
1 minute

Constant speed of approx. 62 mph
(100 km/h)
Approximately
2 minutes
Steep hill driving or continuous driving at 62 mph (100 km/h)
or more (race track driving, etc.)
Approximately
3 minutes

NXOwner

The quote from the manual has nothing to do with the lubrication of a cold turbocharger. That is strictly about cooling down. The question is about the lubrication warm-up period.

jim256

Correct--not warm up, but this is the only thing Lexus points out, or "stresses", which was what the poster questioned. And will anyone warm up a car for 3-5 minutes on first drive? Never happen. I have had Saab Turbos, even in the 80's with poorer oil specs, they only had cool down steps in the manuals.

MikeW83

I actually do every time I take the NX now... Only because it's Winter temps here. Not for my Turbo, but for my comfort! lol Once spring/summer come along, that'll go right out the window.

MikeW83

I'm also curious; When buying their NX, did anyone have the salesman, service, sales manager, etc. tell them about the turbo? In terms of driving habits, warm-up and cool-down. and all this stuff in the manual that Lexus will undoubtedly try to use against you down the road with turbo related repairs? (Not the fact that it has one)

Mine sure as heck didn't.

jim256

It wasn't mentioned by my salesman or the delivery specialist. I doubt there would be any issues in the warranty period given today's oil. With regular documented service it would be hard for Lexus to point to your warm up or cool down procedure. If you want to keep a turbo for many years or very high miles out of warranty, maybe extra steps are warranted, not unlike arguments about initial oil change mileage, oil analysis, and frequency of oil changes.

MikeW83

I thought about that too... A buddy of mine works for a similar Asian brand, and he warned me that almost all the manufacturers can indeed monitor your vehicle, and that the car stores records of these things in the ECU or something. Not to mention that if you pay close attention to the Enform small print, it sends "diagnostic and maintenance data" to Lexus, though.

LexBob2

It is unusual that this isn't covered at delivery. I have two (non-Lexus) turbo cars, and when this came up in another thread here, I checked the owners manual for both and nothing is mentioned about a cool down period. .I wonder if this is a best practices recommendation vs. something that's critical. It certainly can't hurt if you choose to do it.

2merc3lex

You would think that if this "warm up/cool down" procedure was really critical for long term viability of the engine that, as expressed above, Lexus would certainly cover this topic at delivery of car to customer. I would think the last thing Lexus Corp. wants is to have turbo engines failing, even with high mileage on older models. Not good for stellar reputation.

GlenK

I tried twice to post this article and thread on the Customer Service Forum and it apparently won't be approved. Would like to see their perspective but guess they don't want to address it.

Toneroni

i'm hoping its just precaution and not needed.
This is my first turbo engine and i've been trying to take care of it but doubt many people know this.
I wouldn't if I didn't see this thread!

satlawyer

This is an interesting post...I recently read an article on the Business Insider which stated that idling your car in the winter is actually bad for the engine as it strips the oil from critical components such as cylinders and pistons.

http://www.businessinsider.com/heres...ot-good-2016-1

Personally, I let my car idle up for about 30 to 45 seconds every morning (basically once the tachometer falls under the "1" range). Not really needed in Dubai, but it's just a habit that I choose to continue with.

However, the cooling down of the turbo is something that I don't do (this being my first turbo charged). How exactly does it work? Do you have to cool down after driving (modestly) on the freeways aswell?