Turbo: nobody home?

shadonoz

SkyActiv Member
Contributor
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State of Jefferson
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2017 CX-5 GT AWD+
Watched the SavageGeese review last night, and one comment struck me as very worrisome. It was at the very end. He mentioned that once in awhile he'd punch it and not get the performance he was expecting, in other words reduced or no boost. He stated that's why he's not crazy about turbos in general, cause that often happens. I know exactly what he's talking about, because my old turbo would do that very rarely, but most memorably when passing on a 2 lane with a semi coming at me-- not good. I almost jammed my foot thru the floor.

My question is have any of you new turbo owners experienced this at all?
 
That's really weird. I've never heard of that, or hear that, from any of my friends with turbo vehicles. If it's a "thing" for real, surely there is a physics behind it and it's studied and available?
 
My CX-5 isn't a turbo, but I've never experienced anything like that with my 3.5L twin turbo F-150.
 
I always thought this was known with turbos. Do ten 0-60 pulls and the later ones will all be much slower than the earlier ones. This is especially true in August in the south!
 
That's really weird. I've never heard of that, or hear that, from any of my friends with turbo vehicles. If it's a "thing" for real, surely there is a physics behind it and it's studied and available?

Well good, then you've learned two new things today, unob:

1- What he described is, indeed, a thing.

2- Something can be a thing even if you haven't experienced or heard of it. Imagine that!

I was asking if anyone else had experienced it, not if they hadn't, thanks.
 
Well good, then you've learned two new things today, unob:

1- What he described is, indeed, a thing.

2- Something can be a thing even if you haven't experienced or heard of it. Imagine that!

I was asking if anyone else had experienced it, not if they hadn't, thanks.

If you ask whether or not someone has experienced something, they either have, or they haven't. Either way they're answering your question.

If you were only looking for responses from those who have experienced the issue, then you should have phrased your question as such.
 
Maybe I don't exactly understand the question, but it sound like the notorious "Turbo Lag." It is often a comment by performance car reviewers and another is torque steer.
Some turbo models are much worse than others and there are those that have gone to great extents over the years to reduce or eliminate turbo lag altogether.
Some manufacturers slap a turbo on the engine and don't care.
 
Watched the SavageGeese review last night, and one comment struck me as very worrisome. It was at the very end. He mentioned that once in awhile he'd punch it and not get the performance he was expecting, in other words reduced or no boost. He stated that's why he's not crazy about turbos in general, cause that often happens. I know exactly what he's talking about, because my old turbo would do that very rarely, but most memorably when passing on a 2 lane with a semi coming at me-- not good. I almost jammed my foot thru the floor.

My question is have any of you new turbo owners experienced this at all?
You think this is bad? Some last gen VW Turbos - has such bad lag (not boost) that taking a quick left with oncoming traffic was scary.
Repeated runs you get less boost due to temperature - really not a thing if you use the turbo occasionally.
 
I have to agree re: Turbo lag versus an issue with turbos in general. I've owned turbo cars since 2004 and never experienced any type of loss of power EXCEPT when hitting the rev limiter on the top end :)

In terms of turbo lag, I always knew how to minimize by keeping my RPM's up and just under where the turbo(s) spooled up when I needed to pass someone quickly. Otherwise, I have no clue.
 
Maybe I don't exactly understand the question, but it sound like the notorious "Turbo Lag." It is often a comment by performance car reviewers and another is torque steer.
Some turbo models are much worse than others and there are those that have gone to great extents over the years to reduce or eliminate turbo lag altogether.
Some manufacturers slap a turbo on the engine and don't care.

Not lag, repeated dyno runs give you less and less power each time.
 
I think he meant Mazda tuned the turbo 2.5l into non beast mode. For good reason= Reliability, less torque steer on FWD models, and of course mpgs.

Mazda designed it to provide 310lbs tq but in a controlled manner.

The cx-9 I test drove had no turbo lag issues and the auto transmission was quick.
 
My question is have any of you new turbo owners experienced this at all?

If you ask whether or not someone has experienced something, they either have, or they haven't. Either way they're answering your question.

If you were only looking for responses from those who have experienced the issue, then you should have phrased your question as such.

Read it again. I was asking people with direct knowledge, not the people without. I didn't say "or not". Looking for data, not uninformed opinions. That's why I phrased it just that way.
 
I think he meant Mazda tuned the turbo 2.5l into non beast mode. For good reason= Reliability, less torque steer on FWD models, and of course mpgs.

Mazda designed it to provide 310lbs tq but in a controlled manner.

The cx-9 I test drove had no turbo lag issues and the auto transmission was quick.

You're right about the design. And he was actually really supportive of that, as most everybody but the boy racers are. But did you hear what he said at the end? I may have misinterpreted it, but it sounded like he was describing anomalies. You would only notice it when hammering, and it wouldn't happen every time.
 
You're right about the design. And he was actually really supportive of that, as most everybody but the boy racers are. But did you hear what he said at the end? I may have misinterpreted it, but it sounded like he was describing anomalies. You would only notice it when hammering, and it wouldn't happen every time.

The word you are looking for is 'Certainty'. With NA, you stomp you get a very predictable response assuming road conditions etc. remain same. With Turbos - with each hard pull the power reduces a slight bit. I remember seeing repeated dyno runs on a turbo on you tube- not sure which model year but the horse power started dropping a bit with each run.
 
Read it again. I was asking people with direct knowledge, not the people without. I didn't say "or not". Looking for data, not uninformed opinions. That's why I phrased it just that way.

I read it just fine the first time. Again, you asked if owners have experienced this issue. Either they have, or they haven't, but both responses are answers to the question you asked.

If you only wanted those who have experienced the issue to comment, you should have asked "Turbo owners who have experienced this issue, what are your thoughts?"

Regardless of semantics, your goal is clear now - "Looking for data, not uninformed opinions." I have no practical experience with this issue, so I'll bow out.
 
He's talking about a complete loss of power
The rest of you are all ,"yea, each Dyno pull gets you a tiny bit less".. Slightly less. Not total loss of power. Pure bulls*** in my experience. That's not a turbo thing.
Geese really said this?
 
This could be one of two different things: 1) The engine de-tuning itself due to heat soak by pulling timing. This isn't a huge loss of power and doesn't constitute a safety issue. 2) A rare condition in turbo engines where prolonged exposure to very high humidity while running at a steady light load for a long time can induce a false misfire condition that throws the engine into a sort of limp mode. This *is* a huge loss of power and it feels like the engine has been caught completely flat foot and is dead. It also can be a real safety issue if it happens during 2-lane passing. I had this happen to me exactly once when I owned my Hyundai Veloster Turbo. After driving for hours in the rain at 100% humidity I needed to pass a car. After a moment of acceleration the engine just went dead and stuttered like it was running out of gas. It took about 10 seconds before it began to come back and pull again, and the ECU had pulled timing as much as it possibly could so there wasn't much power there still. My father's 3.5 EcoBoost F-150 also did this to him exactly one time under similar circumstances. It's rare but it's a thing.
 
I read it just fine the first time. Again, you asked if owners have experienced this issue. Either they have, or they haven't, but both responses are answers to the question you asked.
It is abnormal for it to act that way, so hopefully it would be a rare occurrence. I don't want to know who hasn't, ESPECIALLY people who have no experience with this engine. I want to know if anyone else has. That's why I deliberately didn't say "or not".

If you only wanted those who have experienced the issue to comment, you should have asked "Turbo owners who have experienced this issue, what are your thoughts?"

We all have different styles. Sorry if it was unclear to you. Seemed really clear to me. But that's why we're talking.

Regardless of semantics, your goal is clear now - "Looking for data, not uninformed opinions." I have no practical experience with this issue, so I'll bow out.

Glad we're on the same page now. And glad it hasn't happened to you.

Sorry if I offended you, but keep in mind I was replying specifically to unob and his comment.
 
He's talking about a complete loss of power
The rest of you are all ,"yea, each Dyno pull gets you a tiny bit less".. Slightly less. Not total loss of power. Pure bulls*** in my experience. That's not a turbo thing.
Geese really said this?

Watch him for yourself.

It's not a complete loss of power. The engine feels like it just reverts to normal aspiration. It still runs, but you don't get the acceleration you expect. At least that was what mine would do. And it didn't have anything to do with stress or repeated hot runs or anything like that. It would happen during normal driving when flooring it.
 

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