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In Oblivion, are there quests that have a time limit? During most quests, the player can do a quest task, then go off and do something else unrelated to that quest for any length of time. The player stumbles upon that incomplete quest and jumps back into the quest. Are there any quests that will fail if the player waits too long between specific quest stages?

Some quests depend on the time of day (Doom Stones working 6 pm to 6 am come to mind, but that is not a quest) or date (Necromancer's Moon), but the player can just wait for the next time.

I thought there were a couple of Oblivion quests like that, but I cannot recall which ones.

The Great Gate has a time limit to take the sigil but it is counting down the minutes on screen as you go. However, before the battle starts, if you leave the assembled army (like go hang out by the Bruma stables, or go farther) Martin will quickly (automatically?) die. That is the only time I can think of where wandering off kills the quest. I have never had Martin die in the actual battle before the big gate opened even the several times when I jumped on a side boulder and just stood there waiting to go in.

And do not wander off during the part of the main quest between the book store and hooking up with Baurus to go into the sewers because Baurus will come looking for you and he can't fast travel so if you go down to Leyawiin for some reason (like I did) you have to walk (WALK) all the way back with him after he finds you.

Another thing you do not want to do is open a gate to OW-2, take the hatreds weapons and then go back out the portal hoping to farm more weapons in three days. If you do that then subsequent OW-2s will not spawn hatreds weapons in the pods. If you take the weapons then also go take the sigil and shut down the gate.

There are some quests where if you do parts of them (irrationally) out of order the game glitches but I don't know what they are (Ultimate Heist mavbe).

And there is one cave system in the deadlands where if you go in the back side (where it comes out very near the tower) you will be trapped inside because one of the inner sections becomes disconnected and the doorway doesn't open into anything. Walking through the wall to get out just gets you into gray space iirc.

Also the Fines quest in Cheydinhall will glitch and the guy won't show in the tavern if you report back to the castle after dark. Make sure you report back when the Count is sitting on his throne so the guy can run right to him.

Finally, kill the king litch after taking the great welkynd stone or he will follow you forever.

'A Brotherhood Betrayed' in Bruma has a time limit.

A Brotherhood Betrayed (24 hours game time)
Great Gate (15 minutes of that other reality time)

Any others? I searched the Oblivion pages for the phrase "time limit", only the two quests.

Thank you Chicken Slayer and Lord Timster for your answers.

This quest puts you on somewhat of a timer in that you will succumb to serious withdrawal symptoms if you don't progress quickly enough through the dungeon: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Shivering:Addiction

Not a fail condition but makes use of 45-second countdowns.