Test Drove A Turbo'd Optima.

Hello,

So, my mom bought a Kia Optima...I think it's a 2011?
It's a single turbo'd 4-cylinder.

Anyway...I took it for a test drive.
To my surprise, it had some nuts.

I did a couple of launches in it, and the launches left me confused...
I held the brake, got the RPMs up, and let go of the brake. Instead of sucking you into the seat, the car would stop dead in its tracks. About 1.5 seconds later, it would start accelerating.
Is that normal for a single turbo'd vehicle, or no? (Never launched another single turbo'd vehicle, so I don't know.)

I only messed around with her car for about an hour. Never touched it since.
A week and a half later, her turbo blew out.
Did I cause this? Or were the weird launches an early sign of the turbo dying, or what?

do us a favor and post your vin from your 335xi so that no-one here buys it after you're done with it....

No worries.

I'm not expert - but it dying like that and then taking off could be a sign it wasn't doing well to begin with....

Good thing Kia has a great warranty

Yes. Fortunately, it got fixed under warranty .

Originally Posted by Hemorrhage

Anyway...I drove it like Clarkson.

Fixed your post

I'm not expert - but it dying like that and then taking off could be a sign it wasn't doing well to begin with....

Agree.

Did I cause this? Or were the weird launches an early sign of the turbo dying

Yes to both questions. You did drive it around for 30 minutes first so it was all the way warmed up, right????

That's traction control, not lag. They don't put huge turbos on those that should lag past a half a second. The power band is low, the torque is a big ole lump sometimes, and you can get them to run high amounts of boost (or what sounds high). But they're no disco potato...20 psi on a K03 turbo vs 20PSI on something like a GT28rs is different worlds or bent rods.

Turbo could've died out from it being **** quality. I hope they didn't engineer their own turbochargers...

Maybe your mom is a secret Le Mans or touring racer or something who goes to track days a lot. And she didn't let the turbo cool down after her really long, rough races. I'm assuming it's water cooled, and forgetting to let it cool down after every drive should not kill it in a week. Next time, turn the TCS/ACS/BS off and you can probably do some nice number 11's.