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I'm new to this forum, but have experience with vehicle forums in general. So far, I've been a part of PlanetIsuzoo, Vehicross.info, Acurazine.com, and MR2.com forums, to name a few... I'm looking forward to sharing my experience with the MINI Motorists here at NAM.
This thread will follow my progress with the 70k Mile 2006 MINI Cooper S that I bought a couple weeks ago. I'm no mechanic, fabricator, or super-modder by any means. I'm more of a jack of all trades, with my hand in many different pots including gardening, building, reptile husbandry, and computer science. My issue is, when I get interested in it, I obsess over it for a while until I've exhausted myself, then move onto another subject that piques my interest.
Well in an effort to save money, I decided I should get back into working on my own vehicles again. This will be mostly light duty style work... No cylinder head work for me anymore! With that in mind, Here are the immediate items on my MINI that need to be addressed and I will be explaining how I came to this conclusion:
1) Starter Motor
2) Inner-Outer Tie Rods
3) Crank Position Sensor O-Ring
4) SUPERCHARGER
5) Idler Pulley
Ok, so to start with, right away before buying the MINI I noticed that the starter was making extra noise when starting the car. This likely means that the gear which should be going out to engage the flywheel is not retracting quickly enough, and thus is spinning too fast which will eventually burn out the motor prematurely. I used that as leverage with the price of the car, but I'm assuming that the P.O. knew the other issues it had, but chose not to disclose anything else.
Well driving home after the purchase, I decided to try really listen to the car at a higher RPM.... at 5k, I heard something blow and I started to smell some burning rubbery type of smell. After that happened, I no longer heard the distinct supercharger whine, but a much higher pitched whine and a grinding noise in place of the regular supercharger whine. The car no longer pulled as strong as before. I was immediately angered over this and worried that the car would overheat. Thankfully I was able to get it home without it overheating. I was able to source JCW supercharger from YouTuber Mod MINI. I went to his house and got the supercharger which I believe will be good for a long time coming... At least I hope.
I also noticed that once I hit 50 mph, the wheel would shake quite a bit. I thought that it could be a tire balance issue,so I took it to Les Schwab. Of course, after they inspected it, they quoted me nearly $1k to replace the tie rods and the two back tires that had a bit more ware on the outside than the inside. The rest of the tire looked OK to me, so I very politely declined and they were able to rebalance the front tires, which helped a lot with the shaking, but didn't eliminate it. So tie rods will be replaced while I have the MINI up on jack stands.
I successfully put the MINI into front-end service mode, and took off the radiator. This made changing the crank position sensor o-ring so easy! OK, so long bio is over. Next post will hopefully be pictures of the old supercharger out and my findings about that. Then I'll get the new supercharger in, put it all back together with a JCW belt, and will then work on fishing that starter out.
Superchargers rarely implode like that. I predict that you will find that the crank damper pulley has failed. Please report back.
Oh, interesting suggestion.. I should have added to my original post that when I took the intercooler off, there was SC oil in both boots. I'll now also look at the harmonic balancer and see about replacing that as well... Thanks for the input!
when I took the intercooler off, there was SC oil in both boots.
It's quite normal to have oil in the intercooler in these cars, but it's usually not from the supercharger! Aerosolized oil is pulled into the intake from the PCV valve and collects in the IC. It's a common complaint, and the reason oil catch cans are popular on this car. Hopefully it's not the SC. Good luck with your diagnosis!
Last edited by HaltCatchFire; Oct 16, 2018 at 02:40 PM.
It's quite normal to have oil in the intercooler in these cars, but it's not from the supercharger! Aerosolized oil is pulled into the intake from the PCV valve and collects in the IC. It's a common complaint, and the reason oil catch cans are popular on this car. Good luck with your diagnosis!
Thank you for the explanation... There was actually no visible oil when I looked in the IC(it's super clean looking inside), but only in the grooves of the boots/flanges that connect the IC to the SC output and air intake. I might look into an oil catch can. Are they even necessary though, or is it just preference not to see the oil? I imagine if it was designed that way, it's probably better for the system...
As for the crank dampener pulley... I decided to get an ATI super damper, and opted to get the 2% size increase with the weight reduction as well... I'm starting to feel addicted..
This MINI still has the stock intake/exhaust though. Would it be fine to keep running all these little mods with the stock plugs, intake, and exhaust?
However... it turns out there's no issue with it at all. popped open the PTO plate and there's brand new oil in it. The gears look great.
So much for that.. now I'm guessing all that is wrong is the crank pulley. At least I'm putting a JCW SC in and this is a lesson learned. I'll have an extra SC just in case I need it, I suppose. I can't check the crank pulley until I get the new one with the pulley puller in the mail in the next couple of days.
Since you have an '06 you should have a teflon coated supercharger. The pre-facelift SC's aren't teflon coated like the JCW SC's. The other difference is the pulley, which is about 11% smaller on the JCW. If you're thinking about changing your pulley to a 15% I would use your current SC and save the JCW as a backup. It's also easier to remove the standard pulley since JCW specific pullers are harder to find.
Well I'm not so keen on spending much more on this mini right now, plus the crank pulley I got is a 2% increase in size, so probably about the equivalent of using a 15% pulley.
For sure! I'll look into that right away while I have the mini up in the air. I think I'll keep both SC's to experiment with. The one I'll put a 15% pulley on down the road, and use as a backup. I do want to get an ECU tune on the mini in the near future to get the most out of my mods, as well. Anybody know of good tuners in Washington State?
EDIT: Ok so I do have a sawzall, so.... I guess I may be doing that next... We'll see, after I change these tie rods.
So a minor update. I got the super damper in today and pulled the "old" crank pulley off..... The old one is in perfect shape and must have been changed out recently. The crank seal looks to have been replaced recently as well. The only thing that might have been wrong with the car was probably just the idler pulley. That still sounds pretty bad, and I have a new one coming in the mail on Tuesday. Also, when taking the supercharger off, I did notice some leakage around the water pump area. It looks like the part that goes from the pump to the block needs a new o-ring. But I can't find where to buy any of those. I'm pretty mad that I did all this work for nothing, but I guess it should be best to replace that o-ring before I put the supercharger back on. Any ideas where I can get a gasket?
So I ordered the o-rings from amazon, since they're cheaper than the dealer, but I have to wait until next week before they arrive. In the meantime, I decided to inspect both superchargers because I noticed the JCW was noisier than my original when I was manually turning the pulleys... I have to say, the fins on the JCW one I got from Kurt kind of concern me. Will these impact performance? gashed fins on the JCW SC
By contrast, the SC from my MINI is in near pristine condition, with only one minor gash... From my MINI This is the only imperfection on the fins
Basically, should I put my SC back and just put a JCW pulley on it instead of using the gashed out one?
I've decided to buy a 15% pulley from Way and put it on my original SC. I'll have this JCW SC just in case, I suppose. Or if anybody wants to buy it, PM me. I'll give you a deal
I'm going to see if the JCW belt I bought will work with this 15% pulley, since I have the 2% super damper installed. Otherwise, I'll get the 15% pulley belt from Way.
Be sure and change both water pump o-rings. There's one on the pump outlet itself and another one under the flange that attaches to the block (they are the same size). Replacing both will save you headaches in the long run.
Be sure and change both water pump o-rings. There's one on the pump outlet itself and another one under the flange that attaches to the block (they are the same size). Replacing both will save you headaches in the long run.
I did remove both o-rings but the ones that came off my water pump were not the same size. The one that goes from flange to block is slightly bigger than the one that was on the pump outlet. Either way, I did purchase both o-ring types and will see how they fit when I get them.
I noticed that somebody had previously gunked the the pump o-ring section. I'm guessing because it was leaking, and must have continued to leak, because there was very little coolant in the reservoir. So maybe the o-ring they used wasn't the right size.
Here are links to both the o-rings I bought:
BMW Mini Water Pump Flange O-Ring
I'm anxious to get the MINI back on the road, but I want to put it together properly. So if there are any other suggestions anybody can think about, please let me know.
The water pump gaskets and the 15% pulley arrived today, so I installed the pulley and gaskets. The new gaskets definitely fit much better than the old ones and I can tell they'll fix any leak that might have persisted on that water pump... I'm having a bugger of a time putting the pump/SC back in. Before I fix it to the block though, I want to make sure I'm putting this grounding wire back where it needs to go...
Having recently done this myself, I don't think that you can mount the s/c with the air intake duct already in place. And, I recall that you should loosen the bolts that hold that coolant flange to the block so that it can wiggle a bit while you align the s/c with its mounting holes, that flange, etc. After everything is in place it will be possible to tighten those bolts.
Having recently done this myself, I don't think that you can mount the s/c with the air intake duct already in place. And, I recall that you should loosen the bolts that hold that coolant flange to the block so that it can wiggle a bit while you align the s/c with its mounting holes, that flange, etc. After everything is in place it will be possible to tighten those bolts.
You're 100% spot on with that advice. I had to take the intake duct off and loosen the water pump flange before I could install the SC. Thank you for the tip! I finally got all the belt drive components on, but the JCW drive belt may be just very slightly too long... I will verify by putting tension on the belt, but I'm guessing that I might need to go to a 15% belt. I thought that with the 2% crank pulley, it would compensate for the 15% pulley and still allow good tension on a JCW belt. I didn't have the time to check it yesterday, but will do so tonight.
Now all that's left to do is install bother inner tie rods, and put everything back together. I really don't want to mess with the SC for another 60k miles, after this experience! Some people make it look too easy
I may have missed it in the previous posts, but you are putting in a new water pump, correct?
When my kid’s R53 had a similar “bang, scare the crap out of him” type noise, it was the pump. Bearing seized and put a lot of strain on the motor and specifically the S/C.
