Ok so I was driving along all fine the other day when I started to hear a bunch of sounds little bit of whine, almost a mechanical whine, lots of chatter and by the time I could safely pull over it sounds like a very loud grinding mechanical sound and I feared my SC was toast.

Only thing giving me hope if after all my searching I have not found a case of a sudden catastrophic failure. So maybe it a pulley or something but at same times today when I took this video I let it run for 5 min total and the sound didnt change much. I went in the car and gave it a little gas and twice i heard a horrific higher pitch sound but it wasnt on the video. I dont have a boost gauge but it seems like its sucking air good because when i pop the gas you can hear the intake whistle sucking in the air.

Any thought? My plan if I can get a warmer day up here is remove the pass wheel and inner liner , take off the serp belt and move all the pulleys. The belt isnt burning at all though and seem quite taught. at one point when it first was on the side of the road there was a metallic type burning smell from serp side area but I can't replicate it. Almost thinking alternator type smell...thoughts?


Very much appreciated

 

waterpump let go?

 

Get the code for the SE light. Might indeed be a water pump. Did the temp go up?

 

Check if your crank pulley hasn't failed & been rubbing on the block. Is batt light on? Temp rising? Burnt rubber smell? All symptoms of crank pulley failure.

 

I was thinking that too, but it seems to rev smoothly

 

Thanks guys,

I will need to check SES light as that went on a week ago for a vacuum issue. Revs smooth, if it was water pump do they generally make noise when they go? no loss in coolant, may start again to see if gauge rises

 

So I checked the code, same P0456 that I have been chasing for a while, is there anyway to test if its the SC without removing it?

When I shut the car down I noticed whatever is making the noise if the last thing I hear slow down, like a loud mechanical whine/wind down sound

 

I would suspect a crank pulley.
Another thought is to check the intercooler connections. Are your intercooler bellows loose, cracked, or coming off the intercooler or intake ducts? The supercharger makes horrible noise that you just do not hear with the intercooler installed. I was very surprised at how noisy the supercharger is if the car is started without the intercooler installed.

 

I will check! I guess my first step is getting at all the pulleys with the belt off and hand turning them and checking for play...I wish I had a garage!

 

The engine should rev like it does even w/o a crank pulley.

 

I agree with these guys.....crank pulley. How many miles? If the pulley I would replace with an ATI and not another OEM that will fail again.

 

Pry on the crank pulley to see if it moves, if it does it's time for the ATI Damper.

 

Thanks for all the replies guys! Ok so I don't have as garage and live in New England where it has been about 10 degrees all week so it has just sat. Well today it was 25 degress so I figured I would go out and start to poke around.

Jack upp pass side wheel with plan of removing and getting access via wheel well to check pulleys. Jack started pissed hydraulic fluid so that ended real quick. The old craftsman has finally died. I only had an hour to poke around so I fifured I would start the car and let it run and fully warm up and see if engine temp goes crazy high, coolant leak etc. It was quite uneventful. Car warmed up stayed right at normal operating temp and I revved the motor a few times to 3-4k and it revs pretty smooth, just the loud sound. I am HOPING its a pulley and it seems to be leading that way but I wont know until I get a new jack and get at the pulleys.

I had a Saab 900 before this and had two pulleys go bad and they were VERY loud leading up to there eventual explosion.

Would the crank pulley cause noise though? I though there were no bearings just rubber or something like that?

I will keep post updated.

 

That dang crank pulley can be easy to miss. Mine went out and my only warning was a strange smell one day. Something that was interesting in the garage after I had parked it, could have been warm brakes, but not so much that I was like OMG something's wrong. Then maybe 3 weeks later, all the while seemingly driving normally, my car suddenly starts shutting down bit by bit. Power steering goes, warning lights start coming on, then after a few more minutes, gauges stop working and lights start going off. Eventually it just died.

 

Sadly as I mentioned I have no garage and its been VERY cold so the MINI hasnt seen any repair/diagnostic time yet and now we are getting slammed with a blizzard so while I was moving cars in the driveway I decided to take a video with hood down. Engine seems to run smooth, I let it fully heat up and no overheating at all. So hard to pinpoint location of sound, I have tried a wooden dowel with no luck.

Plan is still to remove belt and start with pulleys, would the timing chain tensioner cause this much noise?

 

Ttt

 

My guess is between a crank pulley or supercharger internals.

 

Have a look down at the pulley perhaps, and see if it appears to be shimmering while spinning. It's an inner and outer pulley bonded by rubber which breaks away, yours may not have completely parted but almost, so have a look asap.


You can pull the outer pulley away from the centre when they separate, so might be able to pry it even gently, and you'll see. The only other thing that comes to mind is an extremely bad timing chain problem, but yours sounds pulley related.