Re: Care and feeding of turbos?

["Robert F. Dunne" <0004474605@mcimail.com>]

Lynn,

I too made the jump from a non-turbo Audi to a 200T (1990). I now have 
130k miles and I can say that the turbo has required no maintenance. 
I change my oil/filter religiously at 3k miles, but I do that on all of
my cars. The other thing I do after running the car hard is let it idle
for a minute or so to let the turbo cool down. There is no switch to turn
off the turbo (other than your right foot !). There is a boost gauge as part
of the computer readout on the dash. In terms of driving (mine is an auto..
shivers from the rest of the list..), there is some turbo lag, but you'll
be amazed just how fast this car really is once the turbo spools up.
Once you've driven the car for a couple of weeks, you'll know instinctively
when the boost kicks in and can use it for passing, merging, etc. at will.
In short, I think you'll be pretty happy and not in for any higher 
repair/maintenance costs. One added benefit when you buy a turbo is that
the rest of the car is equipped for the additional horsepower (i.e., 
springs, oil cooler, sway bars. brakes, etc.) All nice additions to the
extra horsepower..

Bob Dunne
'90 200T 

Date:     Mon Jan 13, 1997  7:47 pm  EDT
Source-Date: Mon, 13 Jan 1997 17:36:08 -0500
From:     Lynn Smith
          EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
          MBX: lynn@dvcorp.com
 
TO:       quattro
          EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
          MBX: quattro@coimbra.ans.net
BCC:    * Robert F. Dunne / MCI ID: 447-4605
Subject:  Care and feeding of turbos?
Message-Id: 81970113234718/0003765414DC2EM
Source-Msg-Id: <199701132236.RAA06422@gemini>
U-Sender: owner-quattro@coimbra.ans.net
U-Mime-Version: 1.0
U-Content-Type: text/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
 

I seem to be narrowing my search for a new quattro to the 200 models.  I've
never owned a turbo before, so I'm wondering what to expect.  How's it
behave while driving?  Is there a lag in acceleration while the turbo kicks
in?  Is a boost gauge standard?  Are there any user operated controls,
other than the throttle?  For instance, some Audi's have a switch to
disengage the ABS, can you turn off the turbo?

How about maintenance, is there any regular maintenance required?  Should
I expect a 200 to be less reliable overall than the same model 100?  One
dealer indicated as much.  What is the failure mode for a turbo?  What's
the cost to recover from it?

No doubt my ignorance on the topic of turbos in general is showing.  I
have a pretty good understanding of most of the systems on a car, but I
don't know anything about the principle behind turbo charging.  Anyone
care to give me a high level education?  How does a turbo wring out more
hp from those same 5 cylinders?  Can you recommend references for further
reading?

TIA,

-- 
Lynn Smith
lynn@dvcorp.com