my MINI is reaching 100k and i was wondering if I should have my mechanic perform maintenance on my supercharger, such as lubing it to prevent failure. Do you recommend this and how much do you think it would cost? Also if I did get it done, would it be easy for them to pop on a supercharger pulley while doing the maintenance, or would it still be a lot extra work for them to do that too?

 

i say why not, could save you 1500 bucks down the road...

 

It's about 6+ hrs labor for most shops I would say.....the below things can only be accessed during this time, or is best acessed during the SC service.

Replace waterpump.
Check replace thermostat/gasket ( if older brown gasket replace both )
Check Crank sensor O-ring seal
Replace Green Jam gasket for intake duct ( must change after disassembly)
Check Radiator hoses/replace
Check cooling fan assembly operation ( before dissasembly )
BPV inspection
Clean Intercooler, check couplers for cracks and leaks
Gonna need a new intake manifold gasket and Supercharger gasket as well.....

No sense in covering this ground twice if planning on keeping this MINI for any length of time. And yeah, good time to swap the pulley for sure.

 

2 Weeks ago i had my supercharger serviced it cost me 75$ for them to pull it off open it tell me how much was left and then put in new lubricant. It is a very smart thing to do around that mileage. My Stock SC is now at 120000k =D i got it serviced at 118000 75$ is much better than 1000$ down the road and hassle. A pulley installed on a car is average of 100-150$. If your getting the SC serviced i would highly recommend a pulley cause they will be right there already. It is the single best bang for your buck on these cars.

250$ roughly for peice of mind and an added 4-5 PSI and 20-25 horsepower is well worth it IMO.

I will add i was getting other maintanence done as well so that might be why it was so cheap for me to get mine serviced.

Good Luck!

 

Thanks for the responses...so does anyone else have a price to do this? Silver I know you said 75 but that was with other stuff. I want to get a price around how much it would be just to have maintenance done on the s/c.

 

One thing..the SC is a wear item....
so you may lube it up...so the gears last forever...but the boost may be dropping....
so keep it in perspective what you are trying to do....
for max boost, a rebuilt is most likely best, but for lowest cost...re-oil it up...but some have lasted 160k+ no re-oiling....

 

I got a new supercharger @40k I now have about 120k on it. I do about 95% of my time driving 80mph that may be why it hasnt crapped out on me. I would love to find a place that services them. Anyone know a a lubricant that would be good to use? I know that the GM lube is the only one used but doesn't RedLine or Royal Prurple make something better?

 

The GM lube is the lube that the oem installs when they are built....it operates at very high speed, so it is very thin, and very specialized....the sheering forces on the oil due to the gears and the speeds invoked are much more like what is typically involved in aviation applications (turbine engines/gearboxs). GM sells the oil because they have a number of cars that utilize supercharges from the same manufacturer as ours, but gm recommends a regular service interval.the oil is specialized, I would be very careful trying another product unless it is specficy made to do the job....and the quality or the property's of the said oil has never been an issue...it is the seals on the actual SC letting the oil slowly seep out that is the concern.

 

There has to be a good synthetic lubricant out there that beats the GM product. Anyone know of Fords SC fluid? http://k-mansparts.com/items/misc~fo...xl4-detail.htm

or

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/PAX-9030/

 

The lube is syenthic....
What are you trying accomplish or fix with "better lube"
when the lube is kept present, the sc gears (the lubed part) last for several overhauls...it is the contaiment of the lube which is an.issue, and the wear part, the sc vanes are unlubed....
Having seen the lube bottles, and the warnings on them, I suspect the lube is actualy exxon/mobil/bp 2380 turbine oil...used in turboprops...might be customized in some way, but seems to be related...the viscosity and the warnings, and the speeds of the gears are all very similar to the needs of the turboprops needs of said oil....just a guess...very specialized stuff.
Remember, there are different brands+degins of sc....(the eaton desgin is pretty old actually) if you use a drifferent oil, be sure it works in EatonSC....the speeds and the needs of different products can vary...it takes an engineer to tell you...without one...you are just guessing...

 

The ford stuff is the same stuff I think....it says it works on many mustang SC....the same desgin ad ours I believe.....

 

I would speak directly to eaton, anyone else is just guessing. and Zippy makes a good point, what are you trying to fix?? really, it's not like engine oil where your going to have any real life difference, servicing it is probably a good idea, but mostly to make sure the seals are all still good, a rebuild is advisable if your digging the SC out anyway.

 

I am just a skeptic and have a hard believing that GM is the only product suited for the Eaton SC. For example, how does the GM lube hold up to extreme temps? Does it liquify (thin out) to a point that it doesn't lube as well? Is there one that maintains the same viscocity in high temps longer or better than GM? Thats all I am getting at.

I live in AZ. it's 103 degrees today and I am sure the temp inside that supercharger is blazing hot. If therer are contaminants in the SC then I am assuming that its because of metal/metal friction. If the lube thins out does that not increase the amount of contaminants thus decreasing the life of the SC? Since its a pain in a** to get the SC out would it not be logical to find a lube that holds up better than the GM product?

IfI am way out in left field ( ) on this please tell me so and I will drop the idea. That way I can move on to more pressing matters like what kind of mods to install

 

I think most SC failures have happened because they run dry. The seals/gaskets have allowed the oil to seap out over time. I don't think the quality of the oil has been a problem.

 

$75 to get the SC serviced?! Sign me up!

 

Yeah...a great meachanic can do a sc lube in 4-6 hrs ...with $75 in parts......
Wonder what was actually done for that driver...a sc lube should take about the same hrs as a water pump replacement......

 

Cept he said 75 to service... which I assume 75 for everything. 4 to 6 hours of labor is easily 300 to 700 dollars.

 

I have 120k - 130k on my supercharger so I called around (6-7 different shops including a Mini dealer) all but one said a lube job cant be done. One of the shops said that it would take 6 hrs. and cost around $1000.

The dealer that installed it said that the lube is "lifetime" ...I immediately thought to myself..."there's that word again....hold your breath " and that the supercharger is "not to be removed and the lube is not to be changed out. But when the supercharger goes then call him back and he will give me a good deal on pricing".

I am not spending $1000 on maintenance. Lucky my supercharger is not making any funny noises. When it does go however, should I stick with the Eaton or go w/ another one that is easier to do maintenance on? I read somewhere on NAM that a MINI owner replaced their SC w/ a different brand. Any thoughts on that?

 

It's possible to top up the oil in-situ and if you have a syringe with a long tube and you could possibly remove the old oil. I'll check my SC oil again in another 5k miles (it's mainly used on track), I'll then top the nose gear side with the remaining XL-4 I have or replace with gear oil, the water pump side I'll probably switch to and electric pump set-up and fill the SC with EP90. From a reply I posted elsewhere:

Some gaskets can be reused (the metal ones) if you apply a thin layer of RTV silicone gasket sealant to them. If you want to replace then you'll need:

Inlet manifold to SC output gasket (metal) 17511524319 $1.98

SC Output gasket (metal) 17511520044 $5.68

SC Input gasket from throttle body duct (green rubber) 11610020836 $18.02

Throttle body o-ring (orange rubber) 13547509045 $13.04

Water pump to block O-ring (black rubber) - only need one but come in pack of two 11517509186 $2.54

Anti freeze 1-4 litres depending on how cold it gets where you are, same colour as that that came out blue or red.

De-ionised water (for cooling) usually in 5 litre bottles here in the UK

Super charger oil (can use GM or Ford Motorcraft XL-4, respective dealers in the US, Mountune for the XL in the UK) any good EP90 gear oil will also work - Magnusson in Australia use Castrol Syntrans truck gear oil as do Walkinshaw performance here in the UK (Official Monaro tuner [read Pontiac GTO]). Need about 250ml to do both sides of the sc, about 50ml for just the water pump size (Eaton say use a little less about 43ml or 1.4 US fl oz). Other SC owners have used BP2380 Turbine oil to good effect.

Gasket sealant - now some debate here, the real deal is some anaerobic such as Permatex anearobic sealant (try MSC industrial in the US, MSC JL Industrial here in the UK), I bought this but didn't like the idea of having to heat it up if I wanted to take the SC apart again, so I used Blue RTV silicone sealant - be careful with the application is you want to avoid it spilling into the SC gear chamber. The same silicone can be applied to the metal gaskets above - again use a small amount.

Degreaser to clean gasket surfaces and to clean out the intercooler and inlet tracts (might aswell seeiing it's all apart) I used Swarfega Jizer water washable degreaser (UK only I believe).

I think that is it.
Also do not take apart the SC rotors etc - just change the oil.
As for not having enough mileage on your car - ignore it, mine had 10k miles and had about half the required amount of oil in it, there are no set guides on when they run dry it's down to how much sealant Eaton used - or didn't as the case may be.
Enjoy,
Tim.

 

[quote=ellingtj;3305905]It's possible to top up the oil in-situ and if you have a syringe with a long tube and you could possibly remove the old oil. I'll check my SC oil again in another 5k miles (it's mainly used on track), I'll then top the nose gear side with the remaining XL-4 I have or replace with gear oil, the water pump side I'll probably switch to and electric pump set-up and fill the SC with EP90. "

I can syringe the nose side and change it out but as for the H2o side, wouldn't I have to drop the SC to get to it?

 

Well i guess servicing is bland. They drained the old fluid searching for any shavings which would show wear on my gears. Then added new fluid =D
Confusion!

Hence why only 75$

And to a SC wearing out my SC still pushes consistent 16 PSI with my 15% pulley =D

 

[quote=DMBFan2;3306058]I had the SC off when when I did the pump side, so thinking about it the drain screw maybe too shrouded, hmm I'd have to have a look to see if it would be possible. Certainly somethnig will have to be moved, throttle body and the modular front end pulled forward. Doing the job isn't hard but is a littel time consuming. If you can spare the car and the time it's quite a satisfying job to undertake especially when you give the all parts a degease and clean.

 

Starting this Sunday I will have a week of vacation and am looking for something that is worthwhile to do. So time is all I will have. Thats why I was thinking of checking out my SC.

 

I'm pretty sure that you can't check the pump side without first removing the s/c.

 

certainly you couldn't check - just musing on whether if possible to squirt some more oil in, can't remember where the drain plug is in relation to the water pump casing. I'd always remove as it provides opportunities for inspecting other parts.