I've been MINI-less since last Friday.

It's understandable that the pulley will void the supercharger warranty, but the water pump???



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The water pump is driven by the supercharger pulley. So when you spin the blower quicker, you spin the water pump quicker. So yes, they have a valid case for refusing to warranty a pump in that situation.

 

Don't you have the JCW? Why does the JCW pulley suddenly void its own warranty?

 

This is the "gamble" that aftermarket parts give you.
There is a legitimate rejection of warranty for a few failures once an aftermarket part is replaced. Gary at MINI Peabody listed the supercharger itself, the water pump and the head gasket as warranty rejects with an aftermarket pulley.

Other aftermarket things might affect something else.

I have seen comments from people saying that the cost of a new engine is less than the difference between aftermarket and JCW ... not sure if they factor labor costs into that.

 

Wait a second.

Is the water pump driven by the supercharger pulley or is it driven by the engine using the same belt that also drives the supercharger?

Assuming that the engine drives the water pump, the supercharger pulley would have nothing to do with the water pump, regardless of how fast the supercharger pulley is spinning. The speed of the serpentine belt is determined by the engine speed and will turn the water pump at its normal speed regardless of how much faster the supercharger is spinning.



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SE Regional, BAMA Club Moderator: PM me

 

>>Don't you have the JCW? Why does the JCW pulley suddenly void its own warranty?

Luckily because of the JCW kit, the water pump was covered under warranty!


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>>There is a legitimate rejection of warranty for a few failures once an aftermarket part is replaced. Gary at MINI Peabody listed the supercharger itself, the water pump and the head gasket as warranty rejects with an aftermarket pulley.

I can understand the reasons for voiding the warranty on the supercharger and even the water pump, but why the head gasket? Can someone please explain the justification?

 

(is head gasket the wrong term here?)

Increased air pressure. From what I was told, the JCW kit replaces the gasket with a stronger one ... I guess an aftermarket pulley install does not do that.

 

>>Wait a second.
>>
>>Is the water pump driven by the supercharger pulley or is it driven by the engine using the same belt that also drives the supercharger?

It's driven off of a shaft on the backside of the supercharger. The blower belt is not used to power any other components but the blower itself.

 

No, the belt speed IS related to the supercharger pulley speed. The supercharger pulley is attached to the engine via a belt which also drives the water pump. So a faster spinning supercharger pulley spins the belt faster which increases the forced air AND the water pump speed.

 

That is ABSOLUTE BS because ONLY the supercharger is going quicker as a result of the smaller pulley - everything else is turning at the same rate.

 

do the math! pulley does not increase water pump speed or flow. bmw is loosing their *** on bad product. the 7 series is a lemon and the mini is a low cost car for them so they will not support the car with any cost. they will deny any warranty items when they can so they can save money. im finding that the dealers want to cut all cost and if they can blame the owner for any chance of product defect they will try to avoid replacing the part or fixing the car. :evil: :evil: :evil:

 

Yucca i think your right....now the assumption might be that w/pulley the car will most likley be driven harder and at higher RPM's ; can reach higher RPM's faster; and thus caused failure by motor madness! it would behoove all of us to see a tear down of a " damaged by reduced pulley " waterpump posted just to see which component failed and how ( ie. heat,stress,vibration etc.)..Logically one would have to ask : is there a water pump upgrade in the JCW? also can anyone get that "List " from gary at peabody mini and post it?...you know they maybe mini dealerships but there still just car dealerships who have to turn a profit and when money is involved ...well...kinda why they are STILL called "Dealers" don't you suppose?

 

The pulley drives the blower, on the rear of the blower the water pump is driven by a gear off of the blower rotors. So yes, it does indeed rotate faster if you use a smaller pulley... how else does the blower make more boost with the smaller pulley? It spins faster in relation to crankshaft rotation. Blower spins faster = water pump spins faster. Pretty darn obvious to me. Of course I have dissassembled one of our superchargers, so I am not operating just on assumption.

Also, the belt drives the power steering, alternator, and the air conditioning compressor, not just the blower. Its just hard to see that from the top with everything right up against the passenger fender well.

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I can understand how the head is effected by the additional heat of an after market reduced pulley but a failed water pump being nixed is an odd cause and effect relationship, unless the belt has not been properly tensioned or the length reduced causing the water pump to slip.
Just a thought.

 

Dave, did they explain why the water pump is a $1000 job? Is it really that hard to get to?

 

>>The water pump is driven by the supercharger pulley. So when you spin the blower quicker, you spin the water pump quicker. So yes, they have a valid case for refusing to warranty a pump in that situation.

I don't believe that is accurate. The belt is the same length and the supercharger pulley is smaller so as the belt goes over the smaller pully it turns faster. if the pulley is 10" around the belt has to travel 10" to make one turn and if you reduce the pulley to 8" the belt turns it one time every 8" of travel. I do not see how this could have any effect on the waterpump.

Earl

 

I wonder if the few people that MINI dealerships get to charge a $1000 for a water pump, will make up for the fact that I, nor any car person I know, will never, ever recomend a BMW or MINI product to a family memebr. For this simple reason, the JCW doesn't get a upgraded water pump, or transmission. So for BMW to claim these parts were damaged by increased load or horsepower, means they are either screwing the JCW owners by hoping the failures come after the warranty expires, or screwing the modders on parts they know could fail prematurely anyway. I guess that's what the bean counters do, huh.

 

I can't believe how many people aren't reading what is being said here!!!

THE WATER PUMP IS DIRECTLY CONNECECTED (THROUGH GEARS) TO THE BACK OF THE SUPERCHARGER. THE WATER PUMP IS NOT PULLEY DRIVEN BUT DRIVEN OFF OF THE SUPERCHARGER. SPIN THE SUPERCHARGER FASTER AND YOU PUMP WATER FASTER!!!!

Sorry for the rant but it had been said 3-4 times in this thread and yet people are still not getting it!!! The water pump is actually connected to the supercharger, not with a belt but an actual physical connections.

Check out the episode of Tuner Transformation I was on, Ian Cull has a video of it online, they show the entire assembly and show them removing the stock waterpump from the supercharger to connect to the "new" JCW supercharger.

Paul

 

Let's clear this up even more (thanks paulmon)

*The waterpump is driven off the back of the supercharger

*changing the ratio of the supercharger will change the speed the waterpump spins

*a 13.8% reduction pulley (JCW size) on the supercharger will spin the supercharger 13.8% faster, which will spin the waterpump 13.8% faster

--->davecsumini: If you have a JCW with the JCW pulley, your waterpump is covered under the JCW warranty, no if-and's-or-but's!

 

I assumed that the JCW pulley was spinning the water pump 13.8% faster. Ryephile seems to agree, if that assumption is wrong, then I am too. If it's not then, a leaky water pump gasket, for instance, a known factory flaw on some cars, or a prematurely failed pump, that has happened to non JCW or pullied cars without any modifications whatsoever, should not, as a policy, be thrown back in the face of the customer who is spinning their waterpump 15% faster, until they are within 1.2% of said warranty expiring. Presuming they want any of my future buisness or recomendations. This was my point, but not the point of this thread, so I will drop it.

I am glad they got your car fixed davescumini, Happy Motoring. :smile:

 

Thanks for clearing that up, Ryephile!

I think I know a lot about my MINI, but I always seem to learn something new from you.

On a side note, MINI is replacing my entire brake system under warranty Thanks for checking it out with me the other day.. . .

 

More clarification before this thread gets out of hand:

Dave has the stock JCW pulley on his car. The dealer replaced his faulty water pump under warranty.

The same dealer had previously told both of us that an aftermarket pulley would void the warranty -only- on the supercharger. The fact that the water pump is apperantly also not covered (if a pulley was installed), and is friggin expensive to have the dealer replace, probably came as quite a shock.

If the water pump is driven off the supercharger, they probably have a valid argument for voiding water pump warranty on cars with aftermarket pulleys.

 

Maybe these pics will help:

water pump attached to back of supercharger:



closer pic of water pump:

 

>>Dave, did they explain why the water pump is a $1000 job? Is it really that hard to get to?

As depicted in the pictures above (thnx, BC23), replacing the water pump is apparently a big job, involving removal of the front bumper, radiator, fan, intercooler, etc...


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