Of course a turbo timer is not nessaccary, it's just convienent. You can easily just sit in the car, letting it idle while you finish listening to a song. Look at the back of your sun visor. There's a note about letting the car idle for at least 60 seconds after a long drive or hard driving.

The oil can coke on a turbo that is just shut off instantly. Some say this leads to a short turbo life. I have also heard that synthetic oils don't coke the same way. I perfer to not take chances.

Most turbo timer makers also have a harness that plugs into your stock ignition wires. You seperate the connection below the steering wheel, and plug the two ends into the adaptor. Very easy. I did still have to splice the ground wire to the emergency brake wire, so the car will shut off if the emergency brake is lowered. The only other thing is to ground it.

I have a Blitz FATT, supposedly automatic. The auto time is way to short though, usually only setting at 40 seconds. I just set mine manually for 70 seconds and called it good.

 

I read about it in the owners manual for my car, it says to let the car idle for 30-40 seconds after freeway or spirited driving.

I just leave mine set to 30 seconds, or at a minimum wait for the oil pressure to drop before shutting off the engine.

If you drive your car REALLY hard you can end up making the exhaust manifold and part of the turbo glow red. It's really cool looking at night especially. Whenever driving it that hard I let it cool for a couple minutes.

For the 2G you can get a harness that plugs right in, no wire cutting necessary. I can't imagine that they wouldn't make one for a 1G. The harness is like $15.

 

A lot of people argue that with our modern water cooled turbos it's not needed. I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Hey FastFWD where exactly on the column is the harness? I just glanced under thre today and I see many harness far underneath, I didn't take the steering column cover off to check. I'm putting my HKS turbo timer V in this weekend and just wanted to get a heads up as to where to look. This one is kind of cool, it tells you 0-60, 1/4 mile times, and a couple other things. It measures off your stock tach and spedo so it's not really accurate, but it'll give you a gauge as to how much new mods did.

 

You have to remove the column cover to see the harness. Going from the steering wheel, towards the dash, you will see a harness under the steering column. That one is not it. (I thought it was) Farther down, following the column, there is another harness, covered in grey fuzzy sponge crap. That is the harness. I think, if I remember, the harness has some blue on it, maybe the snapping piece to hold it together? It's kind of a pain to get it to open, but it will. That is where the adaptor harness goes.

 

If the harness is anything like the one for 2G cars, I hope you have small fingers. The connector I had to undo was crammed up into the steering column and I had to wedge my fingers in there to release the snap.

 

The one on the 2G is blue. I agree, it was a pain in the !*@
to get to.

 

Yeah as mentioned the harness plug is under the dash. Remove the cover. It should be right above the gas pedal. It's rapped in foam, so just remove it, and insert the harness.

 

Thanks, I'll be putting it in tomorow.

 

IMHO, they are for lazy people. There is a moderator, I forget which guy, that says he will never buy one for his car and that they are a complete waste of money. I always laugh when I read that... is it you 4npower?

 

Turbo Timers

Hmmmmm,
I don't believe you need one, unless you are constantly late.
I will say this though, ANYTHING UNDER 60 SECONDS is BAD!
Even if you are cruising at low speeds for a few minutes previous to parking. If you look at your EGT gauge and use your watch...you will see the temp. drop alot in 60 sec., the next "substantial" drop in temp. will occur at 3 minutes total time after parking. If you run her hard, zip into the parking lot, and want to shut it off...you should wait and watch that egt gauge, if you don't have a timer.
So, if you run synthetic oil and can spare your turbo 60 seconds, you don't really need one.
If you run dino oil and can't spare 3 minutes, you should get one.
Just my .02

 

.

[Edited by Chia Wei Chen on 12-10-2000 at 12:18 AM]

 

I find it very convenient to have a TT. Since my garage only opens from inside, I just take out the key from the ignition, open the garage door, put key back in and drive. If someone gets in the car in the 30 seconds I open the garage and wants to drive it off, engine gets cut off. Now, is it ok to leave the a/c on with the key off the ignition? Anyone know anything? Does it drain the battery or something?

 

Now, is it ok to leave the a/c on with the key off the ignition? Anyone know anything? Does it drain the battery or something?

You can leave the AC on, the stereo blasting, and the windows going up and down, it doesnt matter. The car is running, nothing will get hurt and the battery will be fine. All the TT does is intercept the signal to shut the car off, and delay it by however long you have it set for.

-Dave

IMO, they are not necessary, but very useful. I have one and I let it go for 3 mins after normal driving, and 7-10 mins after hard driving. I cant afford a new turbo

 

Thanx Turbolover2. For some reason I read somewhere that the ignition has to be on the ON position for the battery to charge. Nothing bad has happened so far. Knock on wood.

 

OK time for me to make a ass out of myself and ask a stupid qustion. What are the pins on everyone elses harnesses shaped like? I ask, because my HKS harness is shaped like a rectangle (ie six pins, three long, two high), but the ignition harness is shaped like a U (ie two pins on the top, 4 on the botom). I am sure I have the right harness, it has the light gray foam, it's towards the bottom of the steering column, the colors of wire are the same as those leaving the ignition, the light around the ignition turns off when disconnected, and I traced all the wires to this harness. The HKS harness is labeled as the correct one for 1Gs. I'm not quite sure what the deal is here. If someone wouldn't mind checking the configuration of their harness I would really appreciate it.

 

Chia is right about the key in theory, but thats exactly what a turbo timer does.

It fools the car into thinking the key is in the on position. You can turn the key off, but leave it in and the turbo timer will start counting down anyway.

All a turbo timer does is fool the car that the key is in the run position for however long you set it to. Nothing too fancy .

There are some newer ones that do other stuff as well, but excluding those thats all there is to it.

 

Chia is right about the key in theory, but thats exactly what a turbo timer does.

It fools the car into thinking the key is in the on position. You can turn the key off, but leave it in and the turbo timer will start counting down anyway.

All a turbo timer does is fool the car that the key is in the run position for however long you set it to. Nothing too fancy .

There are some newer ones that do other stuff as well, but excluding those thats all there is to it.

Old thread eh?

Anywho, if the timer is mearly tricking the entire ignition system how come all auxilary systems turn off but most importantly why do the radiator fans turn off?

 

Old thread eh?

Anywho, if the timer is mearly tricking the entire ignition system how come all auxilary systems turn off but most importantly why do the radiator fans turn off?

In my experience, (apexi TT) the radiator fans do not turn off. The car runs as normal until the timer runs out and then the car shuts down.

 

it wasnt wired "correctly" there are work around if this is the case.

 

Use synthetic oil. Let it idle for a bit before you turn it off. If you have been idling at stops alot, and dind't boost much right before parking, 30 seconds is ok. The harder you drove and boosted, the longer you should let it idle.

Also frequent oil changes (if your car is running rich, or burning oil the oil will get contaminated with unburnt fuel and/or partially burned oil), so change it when it gets dirty from that crap if it gets nasty before the 3000 mile or whatever interval.

 

After racing or running it hard I usually Turbo Time it for 4 or 5 minutes . I Turbo time mibe for a minute everytime It runs for 5 minutes or less not past 3,000.

I am going to get a Turbo timer soon, My friends always get annoyed while they wait for my turbo to cool down

 

I have a remote start in my car, that I have set for five mins, so I use that as my turbo timer. It works great! And it's great for starting the car up on cold mornings. Just don't leave the car in gear. I made that mistake once and cracked the paint on my bumper.

 

At least it didn't go into the river or a lake.

 

I have a remote start in my car, that I have set for five mins, so I use that as my turbo timer. It works great! And it's great for starting the car up on cold mornings. Just don't leave the car in gear. I made that mistake once and cracked the paint on my bumper.

Funny, I had my car in the shop getting a tire replaced and they parked the car in gear and accidentally remote started my car. My front bumper is screwed now. Fortunately, I'm replacing it anyway.


I just bought the Apex'i TT for my car and got the greddy harness (apex'i doesn't make one for the 2g's). If I use the greddy harness, will I still be able to have all the features of the Apex'i TT?

I think TT are a great idea. I get tired of waiting in my car for it to cool down. For a year, I've watched my EGT gauge as a cooling method.

 

I have one on my 2g but neither 1g's have one...on reflecting after purchasing one for the 2g that was easily something else or partially something cooler I couldve bought if i was less of a convience whore.