Extreme newbie

B

Belker

Fresh Recruit
Hi,
this forum seems to be the place for my questions. I'm a real newbie. Serious newbie.
Moved down to Nairobi a couple of months ago, and quickly realized I needed that driver's licence I never got in Sweden. Now that I'm done with that, I'm about to buy a car and I thought a Starlet would be a nice thing to drive here. Small, quite fuel-efficient and easy to park.
The car that I'm looking at is an EP-82 Starlet GT mkI from 1990. I just wonder if anyone can explain to me the basics of how the turbo works. The seller says the turbo "kicks in" at around 3000 rpm. What does it mean? How do I notice when the turbo is on? There are two different turbo modes, one "Low" with a green light and another one that I don't understand. Can you explain?
I took the car for a drive yesterday, and it was really nice. Extremely responsive engine, compared to corollas and volvos I've driven before. So easy to accelerate.
One problem: it's a bit wobbly in high speeds, what do I do to correct this?
These questions are probably really basic. but if anyone wants to help out, you'll have one more member in the community very soon.
Thanks in advance!!!!
:homer:
 
A

AdamB

Member +
Welcome along to the site :)

First off, a turbo works by using the exhaust gas to spin a propeller shaft, which in turn on the other end of the shaft spins another propeller, it creates a pressure to force air into the intake, creating above atmospheric pressure (boost). When they say the turbo kicks in at 3000rpm, it means that the turbo is generating that boost pressure at that engine speed, for example at 3000rpm the turbo will be developing 0.7 bar of boost above atmospheric pressure. The lights on the dash indicate which mode it is in, the hi/lo button is a simple boost controller. It has two preset modes, lo boost 0.4 bar, and hi boost 0.65 bar. The more boost, the more air is being forced into the intake by the compressor (inlet side of turbo).

I hope you get the idea, although i'm sure someone else may be able to explain it better, or even if you look it up on google :)
 
B

Belker

Fresh Recruit
Hi guys! Thanks a lot, I googled around and now I got it. Bought the car today, took it for a ride in rush hour traffic in Nairobi, awesome to drive...
 
B

Belker

Fresh Recruit
Btw, I've looked around a lot for a user's manual for the car online. Do you guys know where to find the pdf? Mine is a 1990 Starlet EP82
 
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