I daily drive 0537 and plan to continue. I've had it since about 40K, one previous owner who I've met. Responsible guy who probably took better care of it than me. No current (knocks wood) issues, runs nice. It's not a track car, it does mostly highway, but it does live right next door to a 575 foot elevation drop with 13 corners in 1.5 miles. And that is every day, down and back up. If I drive this particular stretch of road correctly, I can get the mileage down to 11mpg. Car normally gets about 27, even though I am a spirited driver.

So that's 0537's history. I hear a lot of nightmare stories about rebuilding the supercharger. Advice on how to avoid this, when not to avoid this, how to minimize cost, all very welcome.

Thanks!

 

Run it till it fails....
Then spend $800-1000 on a QUALITY rebuild from steigimer or waymotorworks....then 5 hours labor to swap it...add new water pump and gaskets...
Alternately, you could remove the sc, add lube...still 5 hrs labour , and gaskets, water pump change optional....
My take...a SC is a wear item...why spend $1000 in labor to try to get the last 10% of its life...if the oil is low, the seals are bad, and it will go low again....and if you are a performance driver, the best, most efficient days are already behind it...boost WILL drop as the rotors wear ...
AND DO NOT buy a eBay rebuild....for $500, you WILL BE SORRY....a few stories of folks getting 2 that failed in months, THEN BUYING A REBUILD from one of the rebuilders noted above, and selling the eBay unit as a junk core....

 

+1 on Zippy's thoughts.
I have 90,000 on my car and drive it hard so I was thinking about removing the S/C to change the oil but then I added up everything else I would do at the same time such as replace the water pump and all gaskets. It quickly starts to make sense to just let the S/C die and buy a rebuilt or even new is not that expensive.

 

Zip has this annoying habit of hitting the nail head flush near every time. OP, pay heed.

 

Thanks guys, very smart answers.

 

Zippy is right, wait till it actually fails.

 

Yep, run it till it fails! I swapped my first one out around 190,000 miles just because I got nervous. My current one now has over 150,000 miles on it and is doing fine. Checked the water pump gear oil on the original one, and it looks fine. Both have run the majority of their lives with either a 15% pulley, or a 15% pulley and a 2% oversize crank pulley.

Nik