Hi all,
I have a R53 2002 Mini Cooper S. We have owned the car for about 2.5 years now. There is just over 100k on the odometer now. Our radiator started leaking and I decided to change the supercharger oil while I had the front of the car apart. I got the supercharger off and noticed some metal-metal wear inside of it. Below is a link to a video I shot of it. What do you think? Got some life left in it or is it rebuild time? Hard to diagnose from a video I know, but are these signs normal or indicators of a problem?

 

If it were mine and the snout and water pump ends were OK I wouldn't rebuild it. I think that wear is minimal and normal. But just my opinion.

 

+1
If it produces enough boost to keep you happy, does not make any odd noises, and the bearings and seals are OK, I'd keep running it....
Remember, the unit us just a big air compressor.....tolerances are very tight to matain efficiency....

 

Thanks for the replies. It was not making any obvious noise. Boost I haven't actually measured. I sent the video to Dustin at Auto X Cooper. They can rebuild our superchargers and know them quite well. He said the wear on the rotor and case appeared normal. He suggested the same thing as JAB_67 and ZippyNH.

His suggestion was to drain and replace the oil as I planned. Also to measure the quantity I remove and look for metal shavings in it to assess the health of the seals and gears. And then possibly remove the gear cover to get a visual if the removed oil looks bad. Sounds like solid advice.

I'll take some pictures and post my results. Could help others with high mileage cars. My main concern was if it was failing to catch it at an early stage to decrease the cost of repair and rebuild rather than letting it go longer and screwing up more stuff.

 

One note....
That is likely a NEWER sc....
The coated rotors (black) were standard on 2005+ refresh cars and all JCW cars (did not hear you say you had a JCW).
Some rebuilders do add a Teflon painted on coating to buildup worn rotors and bodies to tighten them up....but the stock Eaton coating seems more rubbery almost than paint like...
The bit of slop you feel might be from the water pump....if sc is off the car, IMO, spend the $100 and get a new one....too much work not too with that many miles....also be sure to replace the "green" gasket on the sc...they usually leak if reused...same for the water pump o-ring.

 

Yea, looks like its coated. Look for date stamps or the part #. If it has the JCW Tuning Kit , it will have the black coating.

This is what a new one looks like.

 

Yeh, the play is from the waterpump I think. I realized after the video that the label on the supercharger is from 2006. So it must've been changed at some point. The previous owner gave us a very extensive set of records, but I don't recall seeing any supercharger work on there. He did change the pulley and add an alta airbox. Maybe he did some other stuff at the same time.

And I ordered a complete set of supercharger and intercooler gaskets from ECS tuning. They have a nice kit with most of them under one ordering number. The old ones were cracked and shot.

 

Thanks.

Yep the kits is right here:

Supercharger Service Kit Part # 11610020836KT

http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/SiteSearch/11610020836KT/

 

You guys know your stuff! Anyone know of a reliable place to buy a new sc in Colorado? Don't need one yet, but it would be nice to know. Looking into buying an R53 soon, and I'd like to know of a reliable place in CO to take her. Also, can you simply install a new one yourself?

 

Getting the supercharger off is a pretty labor/time intensive job. It is not technically difficult. There are a lot of steps, a Bentley manual is a HUGE help (I would say necessary for this).

As far as tools go, a decent socket set, a belt removal tool, and vise grips for hose clamps are all you really need.

 

A member did a pretty good write up here as well:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ge-how-to.html

 

After looking into it again, it looks like ESC tuning might be just what I'm looking for! How hard is it to install yourself? And if it's too hard, where in CO can I trust to do a perfect job?

 

Oh, and to answer your question, I believe the supply of "new" superchargers is LOOOOOOOONG gone. Mini sells rebuilt units. So you can get a genuine rebuilt, or another rebuilder like Auto X Cooper to do it.

If you go with a rebuilder you can do a bit of customization. Such as different coatings on that rotors or better seals that *may* help it retain oil better.

 

Thanks Kinderwood! Very useful. Bookmarked that one.

 

Right, I'm looking for refurbished only. Thanks a lot mate! Teflon coating, yes or no?

 

Basically if you can get it off you can get it on. Mechanic labor time is probably around 4-5ish hours (just estimating). Took myself a lot longer, but I'm working outside without air tools.

 

I'm not an expert, but my understanding about coatings is this. Simply speaking the coatings will not give you more boost or performance. What they will do is lower the temperature on the rotors.

It also allows the rotors to maintain a very tight tolerance. They can intentionally "overcoat" to make the rotors contact each other. The coating then wears away forming a tighter seal than bare metal.

The benefits are not huge from what I understand though.

 

Here is the superchargers at the top of the page the page. The "New" is still available in the JCW version ( 11657556981 ). The factory remains are available in the JCW version ( 11657557875) and regular SC ( 11657540124 ). They did have some new regular Cooper S SC a little while back but they were bought up. Maybe they will come back again, here is for hoping.

http://www.ecstuning.com/Mini-2005-Cooper-R53-S-Coupe-L4_1.6L_W11B16A/Engine/Supercharger/



Thanks

 

I stand corrected! I had no idea there were any new units left. Never thought to look under JCW number.

 

Makes sense. I think it would be a pretty good idea to coat them. Thanks ECS tuning! I already took a look at your products.

 

You are welcome, we have the AC Delco SC Oil there also under that link as well as all the little bits and pieces. For the area around the SC.

Thanks

 

So I took the water pump off and tried to drain the old oil out. Two things.

1) No oil came out. As in not a drop.
2) There seems to be oil underneath the pulley and around the water pump gear. Dunno if something dripped on it or if it came from the supercharger gears.

So I opened up the PTO gears and there was no standing oil, just a thick black goo coating the walls. Tried to open snout and then realised the pulley has to be removed and I don't have a puller.

With this new info, what do you think? Clean it up and refill or rebuild? Video below. Thanks for any help.

 

If the gears ran dry, rebuild....
Even if you "caught" it before the gears were hurt, the seal is bad, so refilling it will be little more than a band aid.

 

Why is the fill/drain plug still showing sealed?
The water pump plug/fill drain is on the end....
Just got a chance to watch the last half....where you got the end off...

 

I replaced the drain plugs to make the video. Since I would be flipping it around, didn't want to dribble any out if it did ever decide to come out.

Yeh, I got it this far and I would hate to have to pull it again if it all leaks back out again. If the oil is gone it had to go somewhere. And that is a good point, even if I fill it again it will just leak again. Who knows how long.

After sitting and thinking I'm inclined to say rebuild. Maybe the gears are still salvageable. If I refill w/o rebuild I could trash the gears later, a much more expensive proposition.