hey i got into my mini the other day and this noise just started out of nowhere, it sounds like something is scraping together in the top left area of engine (supercharger area) almost as if the supercharger turbines are sheering each other, but its not consistent, it will come for a few seconds and go away and sound perfectly fine, then come back for a little while then go away, i didnt drive it that much after hearing the noise just about 3 miles back to my house and i didnt want to gun it to see if i lost any power incase i might ruin something more and i didnt see any temp lights come on.. if i put my hand on the intercooler duct to the left when the noise hits it vibrates like crazy... iv been online everywhere trying to find a straight answer weather its defiantly my supercharger or not so i can start taking it apart to fix it but nowhere describes the noise im experiencing, im planning on removing the belt and running it without the belt for a few seconds to see if the noise goes away to help me narrow it down some..but hopefully some of you guys can check out my video and shoot me some suggestions as to what might be wrong THANKS... btw i have 117k miles and a 15% pully

http://youtu.be/1cydLSE23Xc

 

dang thats a terrible noise. while the engine is running shine a flashlight on the pulley and see if its momentarily stopping from spinning. if its is do what you said by removing the belt. if you have a scanguage make sure you are not overheating from failing gears. but before you do all that look for something coming loose thats vibrating. hope its nothing.

 

Oh man! No one wants to be hearing sounds like that!

Sounds like a bad bearing someplace. It could be in the supercharger but I suppose it could be something like the belt tensioner as well. Looks like an automotive stethoscope would be useful right about now.

I'm at just over 100k on my '05 MCS. I picked up a spare supercharger at a salvage yard last year. I think having it on the shelf next to my car is adding extra life to the one in my car!

Let us know what you discover.

 

yup having spare charger is reassuring that your cooper s will be back the next day on the road. peeps selling my 2003 supercharger (second one on the shelve)

 

Sounds like mine shortly before it locked up. Replaced under warranty.

 

ok thanks for the replies..so i started off by taking the whole front end off down to the motor and removed the belt and started inspecting all the pulleys by hand to see if i could discover something that way, and everything seemed perfectly fine including the supercharger, until i was really stumped and was about to just pull the sc for the heck of it i sat there double checking all the pulleys till the alternator pulley after a couple spins would start grinding inside and eventually get stuck like something was jamming up inside there even with a pair of channel locks was very difficult to spin no matter what way i spun it, so immediately deemed that as the culprit, i ordered a new alternator online, and it just came in today im gonna throw it on tomorrow and put everything back together and hopefully thats all it was

 

I vaguely recall hearing something like that moments before my SC seized doing 80 on the highway. And by moments I mean about 30 seconds without a chance to do anything to prevent further damage. What a painful memory that is.

 

yep, the alternator was the noise..just got it all back together and everything is back to normal now, thanks guys

 

Glad you got it all settled!