well, the general consensus(some disagree) is that you dont need a turbo timer, and you generally dont need to let it sit idle before you shut it off.

The turbo is water, in addition to oil, cooled. The water cooling system supposedly continues to work as long as the turbo is still too hot. Once it cools to the appropriate level, then the cooling system stops doing its thing, and everything is gravy.

If you just raced the car, its still a good idea to let it sit for a minute or 2 to let the car as a whole cool down.

Personally, I let it sit if I just drove it hard, but otherwise, I don't worry about it.


More important, is letting it properly warm up when you first start it. In the morning(cali, so not too cold) I usually let it sit for a minute or so idling, then I keep it below 3000 rpms till it's at operating temperature.

Whenever I drive, if the car isnt at operating temp, I take it very very easy, and I suggest you do too, it will help your car as a whole last longer.

 

I do the same thing in the morning. However in Ohio I am almost to work by the time it fully warms up.

 

The temperature gauge that comes with the WRX is a "dummy" gauge, typical for almost all cars these days. It only reads one temperature (normal) and only redlines in an emergency (overheat) and the data is purposely slowed down to even out the reading; your radiator coolant is most likely up to temperature by the time the needle even moves, and long before it reaches its normal position.

I grilled my dealer about this, and he said something to this effect: "Sports car people are nitpickers, and if Subaru had put a degree-accurate guage on there, we'd have everyone coming back in all the time to "fix" coolant temp surges that are totally normal, or wondering why their car runs two degrees hotter than their friend's WRX."