I've been told to and not to change the oil in the supercharger. My wife's son bought a 2005 R53 S with 195,000 miles on it that seems to have no problems. No mods, not even an exhaust. Not even mushrooming of the strut tower area! All the maintenance has been performed at the local dealership and is a one owner car. The water pump was changed at I think 130K, but didn't find any records of changing the oil in the supercharger. Talking to one of the mechanics at the dealership, he didn't recommend changing it. Basically if you pull the supercharger, he recommended changing all the seals internally, not just the oil. Any suggestions here? Pull it and service the oil, let it be? Not sure what it takes to get into the supercharger.

 

It's always a good idea to, especially with that many miles.

 

I'd wait a while to see how many opinions you get here then add up the pros and cons and go from there. I'm not yet in the same boat but the crew is lowering it in to the water. My main indie wrench has advised against so far.

 

If there are no maintenance records of it being done, it's a concern of yours and you have all the equipment to do it yourself, it might not be a bad idea. There are plenty of great threads on NAM that can help you through the process. HERE is a good one. Parts listed for the job - supercharger oil HERE, green supercharger gasket HERE, throttle housing gasket HERE, and water pump o-ring HERE.

 

If it hasn't been touched in 200k miles, why touch it now? Unless it is making noise, I would leave it alone.

 

Agreed.
I'm at 154K miles and my MINI has been a tank or sorts. No noise, yet, so I'll have to cross that bridge when it comes. I have spare pieces here and there, (thermostat, coolant tank, axle), that are ready to go. Learned a bit with the mini that "if it ain't broke...".

 

+1
The SC is just an big air pump....
It does wear, and loose efficiency....think a 200k SC is like a 20,000 hr pt6? Well beyond its expected service life, due for overhaul, but chugging along "on condition".... (Yes, some AK operators have waivers to hour life limits if the cycle limits on some specific parts are followed under FAR 135...as a pilot it was not exactly a great feeling, lol).
Been discussed many times over the years...
Guess it comes down to how much you value your time....
Let's say you open it up do it today....
Guessing you are a pro from the name...so let's say you park the car in the corner of the hanger...let's face it, having your car parked in the shadow of a G5 is SWEET... pull out your toolbox, and spend 4-6 hours as a pro to do it, do it 100% right...
Figure $100 in gaskets, fluids (coolant, SC oil from GM, a tube of anaerobic sealent if you don't have some from work)...
If the fluid is low...seals were bad...so you then ship it off to get rebuilt...same cost to rebuild, even if the water pump drive gears are gone...
What did you accomplish? Parked the car at work...lol...waited a week...lol.
If you plan on it, you can do it with an exchange unit,...have the parts lined up..ready to go..
Now me....
If it is appart...I'm gonna do a rebuilt SC and water pump......be done....buy the parts, go in ONCE ....had a spare SC for 5 yeas...sold it shortly after I sold the car...
IF you open it up...and lube it..the "why nots" are huge...
Water pump? Your are in there....
What if the seals on that start to weep...

Messing with salted, corrded bolts and brittle old plastic parts...why have to chance doing it multiple times...guess you could....but...

Now...if you are not a pro...then a full day+, maybe a weekend for many...many never get the gasket just right...need to re-do it...yes the "one time gaskets" on the SC will leak if not pressed in just right...results...codes, or other issues...
If the miles on it makes you THAT nervous.... I'd just do it all now, or just roll the dice...do it when it goes.

 

Good point about not touching it, my wife's son was worried after reading stuff on the internet about the SC. At my old work place, Atlantic Aero, we could work on our cars in the hangar after hours. I did a ground up restoration on a 1978 classic mini there, paint, and all and had the interior shop redo the seats and door panels! Now at Citation, we aren't allowed to do anything. But at least I still have a big garage at the house. Getting on overhauled unit to just R&R might be a nice solution. This is his daily driver after all, and needs it to go to work every day. If we find more stuff broke, he'd be in trouble. So far I just bought all the gaskets, oil, and tensioner tool as needed to do the job. Also need to put in the aluminum coolant tank I just bought him as well to replace the factory plastic one. I know the water pump was replaced some time ago, just not sure on the interval if you need to R&R them at.

 

I'm kinda fearing that point of supercharger...and start thinking "Sprintex"...

 

Sprintex was all promise...
But failed to deliver....
Even RMW backed off after some issues if I recall...
Biggest issues are both the electric water pump, and the unit itself...
Reality is the stock SC is good for 250 HP....so it's not the limit for most...
And at that point....long life of ANY PART is not really a concern....

 

Lol...
Based on your location, I was wondering if you worked on the Krispy cream G5./ msybe kingair if i remember right)...Spent some time at the FBO there...talked to the crews a bit...flew the pc-12'...The blue and white ones for a bit...not a bad area.

Since a 200,000 mile car is on perpetual borrowed time (an simple accident totals it out) I would not go crazy on pre-emptive repairs... I'd do the basic fluids regularly... Look it over... And fix as needed.
With so many miles, longevity is as much luck as it is due to a good driver IMO, and a good wrench.
One tip..be careful...while the OEM pump appears to be a "gates" there are two different versions...gates sells a cheap Chinese one with crappy seals, and a better, more $$ unit...up to you if you want chance it...but a few folks have had issues out of the box...thir tensioners seem OK...
Do look at the crank damper...OEM is rubber with metal bands...kinda like the shearable connectors on some general aviation alternators (know some Barron's, etc)...issue is the same...rubber fatigues, and it slips and tears with age.
ATI and PRW make good dampers of a different desgin...the lightweight undamped ones a cheap...but put bearings and soul pumps at risk..lots of debates, but IMO, don't do it.
Inspection is a quick look, or if lifted, see if you can wiggle it sideways excessively.
I did 7500 mile oil changes, was fine...keep using premium, or valve job will be needed.

 

OK thanks for the tips. I may look into having Waymotorsports overhaul the engine when OT allows extra cash to help my wife's son out. At first glance, it seems like a great engine so far. Even the CV joints, shocks, springs, etc were all recently changed.
I never saw the Krispy Creams GV, I knew they got rid of a few planes back several years ago when the economy went bad, I used to work on their Lear called Donut one though! We had a few Pilatus PC-12s in a few times as well, pretty plane, like a real fancy Caravan. I miss working on Gulfstreams though. Love the plane. But I'm a bit sadistic and I like the Hawker 800XP as well and now that Textron bought Beechjet, we get them in now and then. Always fun to see new mechanics wondering how to take out the APU!

 

yeah...been 5-6 years since i've been through there...
As an old freight-dog, i loved the old stuff...
think a few folks think I must be crazy when i talk of flying cargo in the old Mettro3/MerlinIV (sa-227/sa-226) single pilot, no autopilot, all stick and rudder (had lots of good nicknames...like the San Antonio Sewer-pipe, San Anteano ***** ((no visible means of support-Tiny wings), etc, or riding in UPS dc-8's as a jumpseaters, or even NorthWests 727's and dc-9's.....fun old birds...got to fly...not just push buttons.
yeah...the fun thing about the pc-12 was fill the seats, fill the tanks, take off from 3,000 feet or less, fly for 7 hours at up to 30,000 feet, then land on a grass strip....kinda what made it fun!! could stop one in about HALF of a 2200 runway on an island we went too...a few owners had heavy iron too....fun days..
sounds like the car had some $$ spent on it!! Hopefully it was with good parts!! Good luck! Sounds like the kid is lucky to have you!

 

It is a pretty big job to get to the supercharger. If you have other things near it that need replacing, you might consider doing it while you have the whole front of the car apart, otherwise leave it alone.

I did mine when I took the front of the car apart to change the water pump, crank damper, some small seals and the thermostat. I was in there anyway and it was just a few more bolts to get the SC off.

Like the other said, if it is not making noise then you are good.

 

This^^^^

I just tackled the SC oil only at 100k only because I was knee deep into replacing everything related to the coolant system, ignition and all routine maintenance. FWIW, my charger had plenty of oil left in it, but appeared to be fairly dirty and smelled awful. Topped it off with some GM oil and hope to have another 100k of trouble free miles.