Something towards the front of my engine has been making a mess. I'm worried that it might be the oil from the waterpump gears or maybe from the supercharger itself.
The oil pan is seeping but the gunk collected is above the oil pan and some on the transmission housing.

Here are some photos (I labeled to help with identifying location)





It looks like something has made the supercharger a bit gunky. :(



And to add to my suspicion it has been making an odd rattling sound if you nudge the throttle at idle and if you don't give it enough gas when you're starting out in first gear. See this video for an example.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfG6zXvXMAE

Please note there is an odd lower pitch sound that in the video when I blip the throttle. This isn't present in person and I think it has something to do with the mic. Trying to figure out what that rattle is though. It seems to be focused underneath the center of the intercooler. :|

 

Does the rattle stay when you push the clutch in? on the video it sounds similar to my 06 (76k). On my car it has something to do with the flywheel/throwout bearing if I push the clutch in the sound goes away completely.

 

It does not matter if the clutch is pushed in or not. It still makes the same rattle.

 

Guess the next step would be to check to see if its coming from the supercharger on the water pump side. There was a thread I saw once it described a way to get a screwdriver down onto the water pump housing to use it as a stethoscope. If you do a search for supercharger rattle it should come up. that would be the next thing I would try. Especially if you say its coming from around the middle of the intercooler.

 

The weird thing is that the sound is not there all the time. Only on initial throttle under load about 80% of the time. Usually when I just start the car in the morning it's nice and quiet... sometimes up until it's fully warm. It seems to depend a lot on the temperature outside.

 

That mess is from your Crankshaft sensor O-ring.

 

Oh really?
That seems plausible. I'm guessing you can't get to that without "loosening the modular front end".

Have you seen that before?

 

He's right the oil you see could be the crankshaft sensor o ring, You also need to make sure the supercharger inlet gasket isn't leaking, that is also common to leak.

Both jobs requiring the front end to be put in service mode.

If you need a supercharger let us know we have rebuilt ones and NEW ones in stock.

 

Sent you a PM. I'll be needing to replace my fan and the oil pan gasket and according to the manual those both require the "service mode"... I could do it all at once!

so many things going on the repair list...

 

The SC only holds 4 oz or so of oil...very thin stuff...so not likely to make much of a mess.
Los of that "gunk" you are pointing out is pretty standard..watch your oil loss rate to determine if the leak is severe enough to need fixing. Remember, the oil is blown around when driving, mixed with dirt...so most motors, unless they have been recently Cleaned...Will have some caked on gunk like yours...
Sure, it needs to be fixed, but it depends on the lies rate...remember the old joke...when it stops leaking, it is out. Very few non collector car motors are perfectly dry.