hey,

i was wonderin if a pulley voids warranty?? also how hard is it to install? i hard you have to remove supercharger and it is a major pain and would cost a lot to install

minimania has a new 3-picece pulley? watever that means, and they say it is easier to install and gains 20+ hp for only 200 dollars

 

The warranty is only in question if they find out about it.
(mmmwwWAAAAAHHH HA HA!)

I would say no, it doesn't Void the Warranty per se, however if you end up having an engine failure based on too much boost (compression) or a drivetrain failure from too much horsepower, then you may be screwed out of the powertrain warranty only. Obviously, more horsepower via non-approved aftermarket items will not affect other parts of the car, therefore the warranty should still apply to the rest of the car. I haven't read the contract, so I'm shooting in a very dark area here :lol

What does Randy and his amazing experience say about this?

Cheers,
Ryan

 

to install the pulley, you need to get access to the blower. The first method, in the "How To", is the hard core technique and takes someone who knows what they are doing about 6 hours, start fo finish. Of that time, about 5 minutes is actually fitting the pulley, the rest is typical nuts and bolts, just a lot.

Then one brave soul found you can remove the motor mounts and jack the motor high enough to get at the pulley; this takes about 2 hours, start to finish...same 5 minutes to install the new pulley.

There is one hard part, no matter the method or type of pulley. Tne stock pulley is an interference press fit on the shaft and not easy, maybe not even possible, to get a hold of with a conventional puller. If you don't have the right tool for this, it can be frustrating.

The "P&D" pulley is an interference fit, like the stock method used by Eaton, the blower maker. If you heat up the hub to 500 degrees (like a pizza...you can do it in a toaster oven), it will slip on the shaft. You have to work quickly, but the method is fast (5 minutes) and totally reliable, as judged by the difficulty in removing the stocker.

The mini mania pulley uses an industrial style two part taper fit hub; it slips on the shaft (at room temp) and grips when the bolts pull the two tapered parts of the hub together. I haven't installed one, but it can't take but a minute or two.

With the P&D pulley, you can remove the pulley from the hub (and replace it with a stock size one, for example) at any time without having to jack the motor or remove the hub (and the shrink fit.)

You can probably remove the MM pulley in a similar fashion, but you would need to break the taper. I'm not sure that could be done in situ.

As far as the warranty, hard to say. There has been talk that the JCW upgrade has warranty support, and it includes a 15% pulley, so a 15% pulley change would not seem to be a generic problem. Not an issue I would want to test hoever.

 

well mayb the JCW pulley will only be 199 and then i can get it installed by dealer for 100 dollars, but if it is 6 hours of labor that will cost about 600 dollars, which is a joke! just forget, 6 hours and voiding the warranty isnt worth it i guess

 

Once the new pulley is on, either the P&D or MM, can it be seen if a MINI mechanic was to just take a look around the engine bay? I haven't stuck my head into my engine to find out. In other words, if one were to install a 15% reduction pulley is this something that could be noticed without pulling the engine apart? Or is it pretty stealth?

Paul

 

They may not to be able to see it right away, but once they drive your car and realize the power difference, I'm sure they will snoop around to find out what it is.

 

>>They may not to be able to see it right away, but once they drive your car and realize the power difference, I'm sure they will snoop around to find out what it is.

However unless they are diagnosing a specific issue that needs them to wind the engine out and stay at WOT they aren't really going to notice.

Those that have the pulley, what does the car feel like at normal non-WOT driving? I'm thinking that in regular driving the pulley shouldn't be that noticable until you wind the engine up around 4000+rpm and start to approach WOT.

Paul

 

Paul,

You actually feel the pulley right away, and the pitch of the supercharger is different as well. They'd probably find it in no time.

As far as the warranty - they would have a pretty strong leg to stand on for any drivetrain related issues. The rest of the warranty would of course be fine.

Paul - you can see it if you are looking for it, but unless you look right at it, it is pretty stealthy.

Ryephile - it has been a long and amazing journey - which always endows some different experience .

Let me know if you have other questions.

Randy

 

>>well mayb the JCW pulley will only be 199 and then i can get it installed by dealer for 100 dollars, but if it is 6 hours of labor that will cost about 600 dollars, which is a joke! just forget, 6 hours and voiding the warranty isnt worth it i guess>>

The warranty issue is one thing. But even with 6 hours of labor, the pulley installed won't cost more than $600. Most people modding their MINIs are spending $600-800 on an exhaust and possibly another $50-100 for installation. The exhaust will give you 8-15 horses - mostly high end without ANY other mods. Start adding mods and the exhaust numbers will be cut in half. The pulley will give you around 15 HP and more importantly, about 15 or so lbs of torque and LOTS of low end power which is really what we're all looking for.

BTW, don't even think of installing the pulley yourself unless you're a REAL expert.