Back in June my transmission support bracket shattered while I was going down a hill .... after I got it fixed this new grinding/whining/rubbing sound appeared. My mechanic claimed, and still claims my super charger is on its way out. He hasn't really looked at it, and by no means is he a MINI mechanic, but he still thinks its the SC. This sound is seriously driving me crazy. I've replaced the belt tensioner, idler pulley, and alternator because I was sure one of those could be it. It wasn't.

I'm now down to 3 things it could be: The harmonic balancer (which ehhhh I really don't think so), the SC or Water pump (which again it doesn't have any other symptoms of failure), and lastly the A/C Compressor. My gut is telling me AC, and here's why: When I did the alternator last month, I was spinning all of the pulleys and for some reason the AC made a weird noise, like it was getting caught up and grinding. I figured it was because the clutch was not engaged and it was off. Then I remembered that when my mount shattered, the AC was on....

So now I'm wondering if the AC being on while the engine fell forward could have damaged either a bearing, the clutch, something. The AC works fine, I just think it's making that noise. I've also used a stethoscope and heard nothing from the SC.

Sorry for the long story guys but there it is. Below I have some MP4s for you guys to listen too and tell me what you think. The first is without AC, the second is with.

 

Im not saying it's your sc, but I drove mine with a bad sc for a few months. It's my daily driver and I had to wait until my vacation to fix it. It sounded horrible, like someone put rocks in it.

The water pump gears were almost completely gone but somehow it still worked. It was a pretty distinctive noise from the water pump side of the sc. So if your not hearing it, it's probably something else