I have a 2005 Mini S with 98,000 miles on it. I have read several times that the supercharger has a 100,000 mile life expectancy. Is this true? And if so, does anyone know of a good shop in the Grand Rapids, MI, area that can rebuild a supercharger?

 

You've posted in the wrong section. This is for the Countryman model. You want the 1st Generation section of the forum.

 

It's a turbo by the way

 

No, the OP is correct...the 1st generation S model cars were supercharged, not turbocharged.

 

Oh.

Didn't know that.

SO much for my namesake!

 

Operational life of an SC is much like that of humans. It can die at 65, or make it well past 100. The CoD is usually SC fluid seeping out of the rear PTO and the water pump gears eating themselves into oblivion.
You can have your SC rebuilt, or source a used one and either have it checked out, or rebuilt. Having one ready to be installed will reduce downtime. You can also have your SC pulled and checked/refilled. As long as all the gears are in good shape, an R&R can get you another 100K.

 

There's nothing magic about that 100K number, it's just an average. I recently pulled the supercharger off a car, changed the fluid and reinstalled it - that car had 175K at the time and is still going strong, although we did put in a new water pump just in case - it's a lot of work to pull that thing!

My suggestion, either be pro-active and change the fluid at about 100K if you have the skills, and if you don't - don't worry about it and just drive it.

 

We offer rebuilt superchargers, but honestly if yours is working I wouldn't worry about it until it dies. The cost to R&R it to change the fluid is the same as replacing it. so save your money till it does as you may be able to go another 100k.

 

Thanks everybody. I was thinking of pulling it and having it rebuilt just to be pro-active, but it's running just fine, so I think I'll keep driving for now!

 

+1. sound advice.

 

Just FYI, it is possible to add s/c oil to each end of the s/c. If you do this, and find it's low when you open it up, you probably will need to do it on an increasingly frequent basis because the oil disappears by leaking past the seals. Once the seals have begun to leak they'll simply deteriorate from there and leak the oil out more quickly. Here's a link to the Bentley Manual's directions for adding s/c oil to each side of the s/c.

https://wiki.bentleypublishers.com/d...er+Oil+Service

I had a mechanic's shop check the level and, if necessary, add oil to both sides (gave 'em a print out of the Bentley directions so they'd know what the heck to look for and how to do it) at 84,000 miles - they said the front was not down at all and the back was down a tiny bit, meaning my seals were probably in pretty good shape at that point. I'm now at 110,000 miles and have had no issues so far. I'll probably have it checked again at between 130,000 and 140,000 miles, and if it's begun to get bad will probably begin saving for a replacement.

Don't recall what I paid specifically for this work; it was part of a larger work order that included changing the serpentine belt, flushing the cooling system, changing the Pentosin p/s fluid and a couple of other things.