Turbo cars have one big disadvantage - heat. Heat is the enemy of reliability in an engine. Vacuum lines, hoses, and electrcal wires get brittle with heating up, cooling down, etc. over and over again. If you take 2 comparable cars of the same model (ie - same car but one with factory turbo, and one without), the NA will me more reliable.
"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting." - Steve McQueen
the heat seems to be a big thing in what kills most FDs,people mod em and forget bout cooling.Originally Posted by David88vert
reliability is about the same for well-built and well-maintained turbo cars versus NA, in my experience. the main difference is in the cost/frequency of maintenance.
now i currently own and daily drive a boosted integra for the past 3+ years (and counting) and put around 60k miles on it of spirited driving on it. i had an NA teg before that and put 110k on it. i have yet to have any issues with the car besides the normal wear and tear stuff that happens with any NA car. i've driven this car to south FL (700 mile trip) probably a dozen times, in the summertime with the AC on the whole way. for me, this car is one of the most reliable vehicles I've owned and I would drive it anywhere.
but the maintenance costs are higher. i use synthetic oil and change every 3k miles, when I could get away with regular oil NA. I change my spark plugs every 10k or so (although I probably don't have to) where I could easily go a year NA. The car burns a little bit more oil than it did when I was NA. i had to heat wrap the wires on the a/c fan bc the manifold kept melting them...lol.
so yeah there's those little things...but this is speaking for a modded NA versus a modded turbo car. more moving parts (especially when they aren't stock) means you have to be more attentive to maintenance. but it doesn't take away from reliability. stock NA vs stock turbo might be a bit different.
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