checked my oil today, cuz its already make that crazy noise at start up, pulled the plug expecting brown oil to pour out and nothing. the thing must be super low or damn near empty.

got the oil from gm & the SC took the whole 4oz bottle. that was at 62k miles check your levels peoples or u will be rebuilding you SC.

 

ROC,

where was the service port located?

 

Have any of you heard of the MCS Recharger? http://www.imperialmini.com installed mine last year at ~45K and it's worked great! Now, I don't have to go through this lengthy disassembly to check or change my SC oil every 20K miles from now on .

IMHO, 70K miles is way too long to run contaminated oil wearing on the seals- it should be maintained like transmission gear oil. A proper flush and then a 25K mile interval is more reasonable which also closely matches Eaton's recommendation. Since most R53 owners have reduced SC pulleys at 15%, the next even service interval of 20K is calculated by taking 85% of 25K.

 

im interested in the recharger... how does it work.. how much...

and is anyone else on this board using it?

 

It works by using a hydraulics system on both ends of the SC. The recharger device replaces the non-accessible PTO plug on the water pump end. The kit is optionally priced, and depends on what components you need.

 

someone posted this link on another thread about this same topic...

http://www.imperialmini.com (http://www.imperialmini.com/)

 

Unfortunately, the above provides no useful information. If you're going to tout a product (your only posts here have been about the product), information for the product should be available.

 

my charger just hit the wall.... mmmmmm after 8 month storage now i know why i was loseing psi.. hahaha its good when u can laugh about it.. **** happens live with it

 

So how much does the Imperial unit cost??

 

I messaged them and the unit cost 300 which includes just the unit itself no supercharger oil which u can add for another 24$

 

About 9 months ago, my son and I checked the supercharger gearbox lubrication levels while we were in the process of replacing the radiator core support, radiator and AC condensor. Both sides were bone dry. Red Line gear lube was used because it was the only thing readily available when it was time to put everything back together. A bit over 8,000 miles later, everything seems to be running fine. The only noticeable difference is a more pronounced gear whine, particularly when the engine is cold. As far as I can tell, the Red Line is adequately lubricating the gears, and there is no external indication of lubrication leakage. We may tear things down again this Fall to see how things are holding up.

 

$300! im sorry, but those bits do not constitute a $300 price tag... seems like we're paying for their website with a price like that...

 

I agree I think I'd save the 300 take a day off to swap water pump and change sc oil and gaskets and o rings and still have change after and worry for another 50k or whatever it is

 

I am new to NC and I just got a mini SC 2004 and I just learned that it doesn't use the engine oil. I would like to give the mini that maintenance and also a SC pulley, which I am still thinking which one to get, 15% or the 17%. Dose anyone know of a place that I can go?

 

Dmiranda,

Get an Alta 17% pulley, an Alta removal tool (you can rent one from most vendors you'll get the pulley from) and you can do the work, yourself. Do you have a garage where you can work & have the car on Jack stands for a few days?

 

15% if you plan to do any track days. 17% OK if just street driven.
Don't waste time/dollars on SC maintenance because too big of a job and you still have an old SC and water pump (water pump driven off SC). Just wait for it to have problems (maybe never) and then replace the SC, water pump, and gaskets. If doing a pulley; get a kit with pulley, belt, and spark plugs. You should be able to rent puller from whoever you buy the pulley.

 

To QuikMni,

On doing the Supercharger service, if you take your time (do it over a few days or better yet, a week) the job IS doable by anyone and it is NOT hard. Yes, you have to drain the radiator of all coolant, remove the front bumper cover + metal bumper guard + radiator shroud but after that the engine is "wide open" for you to see what you have to do to remove the S/C.

If you just watch the MOD MINI videos on YouTube you can assess, easily, whether it's something you can tackle or not.

Thanks very much to MOD MINI (Kurt) for what he has done for all of us who own Mini's and need/want to save money by working on our vehicles, ourselves!

 

This is horrible advice. The bumper and radiator comes off very easily and doesn't take long at all. Once off the supercharger is right there looking at you. The oil and gaskets are under $50 and no special tools are needed for the job. I owned my mini for a week and took on the task watching Mod mini video. It only took 5-6 hours for my first time touching a mini. I could probably do it in half the time now.

 

What are the gasket that I will need? I am going to change the water pump while am at it.

 

The gaskets are the green intake horn, orange throttle body, black water pump O ring and crank sensor O ring.
Follow this video and in the description are the part numbers, I'm not sure if he includes the crank sensor part number but it's best to change it too because it'll be right there and they leak oil often. The gaskets and oil ran me about $50. The video is so great that you'll be fine. It's really easy, fun and satisfying.
If you are getting a new water pump, the o ring (seal) will be on there. I used my old pump and just used a new seal (o ring)

 

I can give you a few pointers that would make the job a little easier when removing the intake duct that's not really clear in the video. And also be careful handling and maneuvering the intake duct. There are two vent lines (gray & black) that could break if not careful. I broke the gray line that goes to the map sensor and had to tear it all apart again. The second time only took me a couple hours.

 

Yeah any help that I can get will be great.

 

The intake duct is the hardest part of the job but it's not that bad with a few pointers. It's also the most delicate because it has two vent tubes that can be broken if not careful. This is also where the green jam gasket goes.

Using lube when disabling the round rubber hose works wonders. I use a flat head screwdriver and lots of lube and pry down on the rubber tube while using my fingers in the throttle body side and pulling down with force. All while prying with the screw driver on the round intake tube to help slide it off. Once the rubber tube is clear of the intake, the horn side will come free with a little tug.

When reassembling.....
I found it easiest by first sliding the well lubed round part on to the manifold. But only slide this part on about half way. Now slide the horn end on and be sure that it seats properly by looking under and on the sides. Now you can slide the round end all the way up and you should hear and feel a "pop" sound indicating the horn has seated. Look under horn to be sure and finally look at the screw hole, It should be lined up almost perfectly.

 

The round rubber hose or tube should be generously sprayed with lube followed by prying the rubber open to let the lube saturate. Use a strong large screw driver or pry bar to work the tube down some. It's on there tight as heck. Put a few fingers down the throttle body side for leverage and pull down while prying the rubber hose down. Keep working it and it'll slide off. You will not be able to remove the horn side first. The rubber end must be pulled down before the horn side will become free.
Putting it back on is the same, but slide the rubber hose on the manifold only half way. then start working the horn side on. Once the horn side is almost completely on, slide the rubber hose part completely up and the horn side will follow with a "pop" sound. Make sure the horn side is on properly by looking underneath and all around. You'll know it's seated by the screw hole location being centered. Put the hose clip back on, insert and tighten screw and the hardest part is done.

 

I pulled down my supercharger recently after 150k miles and untouched. After some internet reading I thought I could get away with an in place oil check but this is wrong way to do it: When I removed the PTO filler plug, the oil emptied out really quickly all over the motor and ground. It was literally seconds. I plugged it again and proceeded to pull the supercharger right off and then poured out the remainder of the PTO oil into a small bottle. It was probably 1/3rd an ounce (10mL), if that. It was virtually dry.

Since the filler hole is at the bottom of the 'PTO gear case', the normal oil level is well above the filler hole when the supercharger is mounted on the engine. If you fill only until it drips out ala gearbox style, you've got almost nothing in there! I could only lean the supercharger 30 degrees from vertical before the oil would seep out the filler hole with 2 oz of oil. This is not the case with the front gears - horizontal inspection is OK from my experience.

So thus if you're gonna check the oil, pull the supercharger off: If its bone try, it needs to be filled vertically. If it was full, well you're gonna lose most of it and off it comes anyway.

PS the oil was very clean and gears were perfect. Seems I've been pretty fortunate...