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The supercharger in our MINI's is robust but at this point in the model's life its well known by now that the unit should be serviced at roughly the 100k point. Unfortunately, I don't this was widely known until a lot of MINI's (including mine) were well past this milage.
Luckily there was no failure by 139k so I decided to take her off the road for a bit and perform the service while replacing the water pump, crank sensor, idler pulley, temp sender, belt tensioner., hoses, overflow tank, radiator (with proper foam in place). there are other items as well plus cleaning and painting..Images tell the story without getting "wordy".
All in all the work wasn't too bad once in "front end mode" which is not a difficult thing to do at all. To get to this "mode" takes literally 20 minutes. The most difficult aspect was the lower rad hose and I mean by the potential mess. No petcock.
The start of the job. Front fascia and bumper beam removed. removed Radiator, removed, condenser swings out of the way. Supercharger removed cleaned block when removing crank position sensor, plate with O ring that attached to water pump which is attached to the supercharger. Coated with metal etch primer Coated with metal etch primer Painted with a medium silver heat resistant metallic enamel. Painted with a medium silver heat resistant metallic enamel. Idler pulley with 5 mm of play. AKA Bad. New idler pulley in place. Note new belt tensioner and ATL crank pulley in the back ground (installed 2016) Supercharger first clean. This fowl smelling oil came out. Not much of it!! Apparently caught in time. This job MUST be done to save your SC!! Installation of new oil front and rear of supercharger. New water pump Installed. Getting close to reinstall. New hose, intake gasket. NOTE. The gear oil is NOT for the MINI. It was there for another vehcile. Supercharger installed Reassembly New Radiator installed Condensor installed
Nice work! I am new to the Mini scene and this is the first thing that need to be addressed on ours.
Not afraid to sound like a newby here, so what is the "front end mode"? Also, did you get your parts locally or ordered on line and what site do you recommend if you did order online?
I know you went above and beyond on cleaning everything which looks amazing by the way but if you would of strictly did the job to just service the supercharger, how long would you say it took?
I think the whole "you need to service you supercharger" thing is a waste of time. At 100k miles....if it's low on oil (because of a leak), the damage to the bearings is already done. Putting fresh oil in the SC is not going to "save it". The bearings have already been damaged.
If it doenst' have a leak, the bearings still have 100K on them....so at that point, what is changing the oil going to do? Nothing. The bearings have a specific service life on them.....changing the oil one time is not going to make them last any longer. Sure, it might make people feel a little better about it.....but in reality, it's not doing anything to help the life.
FYI....I've got 174K miles on my factory JCW supercharger....still making good boost, no issues at all. The only time it's going to come off of the car is when a new one goes on.
By the way..nice car! I really like those wheels!!
I think the whole "you need to service you supercharger" thing is a waste of time. At 100k miles....if it's low on oil (because of a leak), the damage to the bearings is already done. Putting fresh oil in the SC is not going to "save it". The bearings have already been damaged.
If it doenst' have a leak, the bearings still have 100K on them....so at that point, what is changing the oil going to do? Nothing. The bearings have a specific service life on them.....changing the oil one time is not going to make them last any longer. Sure, it might make people feel a little better about it.....but in reality, it's not doing anything to help the life.
FYI....I've got 174K miles on my factory JCW supercharger....still making good boost, no issues at all. The only time it's going to come off of the car is when a new one goes on.
By the way..nice car! I really like those wheels!!
As someone who just replaced his super charger I'd like to heartily disagree with you. If the SC is low on oil it is not necessarily already destroyed. At that point your SC is definitely leaking out through the bearings or seals, which is to be expected as achieving perfect sealing through a rotating part is a preposterous idea. Topping that oil up to keep things lubricated makes perfect sense because if you don't the gearboxes will completely dry out and then your SC is completely dead.
The oil doesn't leak out at 10mL per day. It is a slow process. Your basically saying if your car burns a litre of oil between oil changes you shouldn't top it up because the seals are already leaking and your engine is shot.
Anyhow, I'm happy to hear your SCs are good. Not all of them were built to the correct tolerances like yours seem to have been. Maybe your SCs are low on oil right now and are approaching self destruction. You'll never know unless you check.
As someone who just replaced his super charger I'd like to heartily disagree with you. If the SC is low on oil it is not necessarily already destroyed. At that point your SC is definitely leaking out through the bearings or seals, which is to be expected as achieving perfect sealing through a rotating part is a preposterous idea. Topping that oil up to keep things lubricated makes perfect sense because if you don't the gearboxes will completely dry out and then your SC is completely dead.
The oil doesn't leak out at 10mL per day. It is a slow process. Your basically saying if your car burns a litre of oil between oil changes you shouldn't top it up because the seals are already leaking and your engine is shot.
Anyhow, I'm happy to hear your SCs are good. Not all of them were built to the correct tolerances like yours seem to have been. Maybe your SCs are low on oil right now and are approaching self destruction. You'll never know unless you check.
The problem is that they don't last forever. Why would I take the time and money to pull off a SC with 173K miles on it to change the oil? I'd be money ahead to just keep driving it until it starts making noise and just replace it.
Sure, in your case it makes sense. Also, a note, for some reason I read you post as indicating you had two cars one with 100k miles and one with 173k. Anyway, if the supercharger is still going strong at 173,000mi then it would make sense for it to just be genuinely worn out and well lubricated. Not all SCs will make it to that milage before running out of oil is my point. If someone has a Mini with 100k miles on it and the SC has never been checked then it is a given that the SC must have lots more miles to give if it is properly lubricated. So, it would certainly be a worthwhile investment of time to pop that SC open and top up the oil. Better safe then sorry.
I'm in the process of doing the same procedure to mine with 155K miles. Actually new to me, started but not driven. The story is in the 1st Gear thread. I'm not sure why you wouldn't want to do the SC oil change. Mine spins smooth but the oil was foul. The correct amount came out with no metal that I could see even with a magnifying glass on black paper. So, just like changing the oil on anything, PM helps. There was mention of bearings having a limited lifespan but as a note; I have a 1959 BWM motorcycle that has cone type wheel bearing as opposed to roller wheel bearing like most bikes have. Engineers much smarter than me have calculated that with proper lubrication these bearing can a will last over a million miles. Apples and oranges I know but considering the cost of an SC, getting it to 200-250K miles is worth the investment in time to me.
Curious if anyone has any suggestions as to any thing else to replace while it's apart.
So far, going with SC oil change, 15% pulley, water pump, T-stat and new housing, T-body cleaning, all new hoses, knock sensor, crank position sensor, belt, tensioner, colder plugs and wires. And a new alternator as it was stuck from sitting.
Am I missing anything???
CXRK, nice photos!
I couldn't stand the rusty block either. I used "foaming aluminum cleaner" then wire brushed the aluminum with a soft wire brush that polished up the aluminum and am right now waiting for the first coat of silver Por-15 on the block to dry enough for the second coat.
Thanks and I look forward to any suggestions.
robj
I did quite a bit of reading before starting on this and that's one of the things I saw. I actually bought a new crank sensor [and a new knock sensor], as I really don't want to go back in to this point for as long as possible!
I had some oily deposits on the engine towards the rear of the timing chain cover and at first thought it was the crank seal but looking closer a CV boot was torn and the oil/grease was on the suspension all around that so I think that was all from the CV joint.
Preventative maintenance is always goodness if you can stay ahead. We had planned to do the S/C service since the motor had 230K+ miles at the time, however, the water pump decided to fail spectacularly.
The seal on the pto on the pump failed and the bearings were toast. The failure also pushed coolant into the PTO gear chamber of the S/C through the seals. It was a mess and I’m not sure how to replace the seal on the PTO side of the S/C.
I ended up buying a used S/C and new pump so that we could get the car back on the road. And yes, new oil in the replacement S/C was added.
Just did the super charger service last week as my first ever work on a Mini product (I'm a VW/Audi/Mercedes guy). Figured Mini can't be too different.... Towed to me with a "bad clutch" and I was prepared to replace it with a SMF kit but found the drivers side axle popped out (later learned it had just been replaced). Since I already had it, I was asked to do the supercharger oil change. No where near as bad as I was expecting from the videos / how-tos... Changed the CPS oring while I was in there because it's obviously been leaking for quite a while. Trans fluid change / wheel bearing at the same time.
Local Mini Expert shop in Indiana quoted me almost $3k for Supercharger service, Replace Crankshaft pulley, and replace the thermostat and housing. Parts were $1100; so I think I'm going to read, watch videos and attempt to do this myself. I'm no mechanic - normally just do the basic brakes, replace a part, type stuff.
Local Mini Expert shop in Indiana quoted me almost $3k for Supercharger service, Replace Crankshaft pulley, and replace the thermostat and housing. Parts were $1100; so I think I'm going to read, watch videos and attempt to do this myself. I'm no mechanic - normally just do the basic brakes, replace a part, type stuff.
Holy crap! super charger oil was $22 for 2 bottles. Thermostat housing (genuine mini through fcpeuro) is like $50. $20 for a t-stat tops. Your're taking less than $300 in parts with the crank pulley so they are making about $800 in parts markup. I did this in exchange for landscaping work
Local Mini Expert shop in Indiana quoted me almost $3k for Supercharger service, Replace Crankshaft pulley, and replace the thermostat and housing. Parts were $1100; so I think I'm going to read, watch videos and attempt to do this myself. I'm no mechanic - normally just do the basic brakes, replace a part, type stuff.
Yes, a touch (like a very big slapping type) touch over priced quote there!
As mentioned the parts are not expensive and there are plenty of how-to videos and step by step directions. The work is not complicated. Take your time and you can do this over a few days if you wanted to. Having another car to use while you are working on the MINI will take the stress off of you as you do the repairs. Most expensive bit would be the harmonic balancer. Get the PRW or even better ATI and you'll be set for a good long while.
What special tools will I need to get for this job? I have all the normal sockets etc. I'm gonna go after the harmonic balancer also. Good thing is, the wife got kicked by a deer in my front cover (funny story) and I'll work on fixing that at the same time.
