Well the rattle from the front of my Mini could no longer be put off as "normal". I removed it today to inspect the drive gears on the water pump side. Sure enough, it was bone dry and chewing itself to pieces! I'm glad I didn't wait any longer!!! I could have sworn from listening to it that the belt side was the one failing, but it was fine.

This is what "Murry" looks like right now..


I guess I will do some other maintenance while I have it apart... Hoses, O-rings etc....

I guess a good cleaning is in order too...

 

you can get used ones for $300 or so....

Matt

ps Yours went earlier than most, later than a few. Guess you just got lucky!

 

Were you running a reduction pulley?

 

Nope... Bone stock....

 

Mine went at about the same mileage and I just had Randy Webb install a pulley about 100 miles earlier, took it to my local dealer (Service writer is a friend) but they wouldn't touch it because of Randy's pulley, so I got a stock pulley from Webb, exchanged pulley at my work (Honda) and the MINI dealership replaced the s/c under warranty (they "forgot" I had the pulley good to have friends). I know the pulley didn't cause this, as it was the bearings on the left side of the unit that failed, but I bought a s/c for $150 on e-bay have it in the rafters in case something happens in the future......AND I have 20k more miles on her!

 

Although it can accelerate wear a bit. If you think about it, as a 100k mile part, with the difference in driving styles and average RPMs, that could be a sizeable spread in total SC rotations....

Anyway, this is not a really common failure, but common enough to cause concern. Lots have gone longer, some have gone shorter. But it's a known failure mode...

Matt

 

Anyone worried about Ebay SC? You dont know how many miles are really on them. I think if I was to do all the work I would want a new replacement.

How hard was it to get to the SC and take it out? Looks fairly easy.

 

Getting to the SC is not to bad, You just have to take your time and think things through. I spent about 3 hours tearing it down. I found a great post on this site with lots of pics on how to do it. I'm no stranger to a wrench though (23 years A&P Mechanic so YMMV...)

 

a basic rebuild is under $500 including shipping. And that would probably end up being a better build than stock....

I found one off eBay. $300, claimed under 50 miles on it and it sure looked the part...

Matt

 

Well I finally got the MINI back together last night. I was up till 3 AM finishing up everything. All in all it's not a bad job to tackle yourself, you just have to take your time. Best of all NO LEAKS!

It's good to be driving Murry again!

I didn't realize how much I missed it. It took about 2 weeks for the rebuilder to find a serviceable core to rebuild for me. (mine was shot) I have to give kudo's to PSE superchargers on the quality of the part I received from them.

now to go drive...

 

Wonder if it would be a good idea to just take my SC out, take it appart and refill the oil, and then out it back on the car.