actually i was poking around ebay and found a used 05 SC for 400 bucks...you have to do some digging but you do find diamonds in the rough...im gonna take the time and see if its in as good of shape as the auction says

 

Well I guess it's time to see how hard it'd be to modify an Eaton M90 to fit on the MINI!!!

 

Exactly! Has anyone done a "How to..." on the SC ? It would be VERY beneficial for everyone if there was one since it is one of the more expensive items to have replaced and that every Mini owner will have to have it serviced at one point.

 

Yes, they have...

 

Was gonna be a total smarta$$ and post the link - to the search function, buuuuuut I won't. Of course, those of us that read the thread saw it at post #71 ...

 

But this is not a thread. It's a bad English novel.

 

Nebula, Reading your story is exactly what happened to my 03 MCS last Thursday (1/14/2010). The car has 53,000 miles on it. I'm not sure if it was the thermostat, the SC or the water pump but I am in the process of replacing all 3. The car is in my garage torn down but I'm waiting for my belt tension tool to arrive so I can finish removing the SC. Once I get it completely out of the car I'll also take some pics and post them for all of you to see what you may have in store in the future.

update: Spoke with Brian @ Canadian Supercharger and he informed me that they are in a partnership with Supercharger Tech in Old Town, FL. These guys do rebuilds at a reasonable price and are one of few companies that replace the gears in the back of the Supercharger with an upgraded set.

 

I have that post to my NAM favorites. Maybe it should be added to https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...8-how-tos.html

 

I can affirm this. I just got my supercharger and water pump replaced in 2010 (w/ 2 year additional warranty) and on my service sheet besides a bunch of seals and belts being replaced, I was given a RMFD supercharger and water pump.

Had the same deal happen. Rattle got worse over time, one day it was like a bunch of marbles being tossed around in a tin box, sound went away, engine temp skyrocketed.. had to sit on the side of the road for about 10 minutes for every mile I drove home.. lol Thankfully I was close to home.

Car sat at dealer from before Xmas to past new years.. sucked but my dealer went above and beyond so I am a happy customer.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...prcharger.html

 

Finally got the S/C out of the car and this is what I found. The front of the unit was in great shape and the Alta Pulley I installed 6 years ago still looked like new. The back where the water pup hooks up is another story. Missing teeth and gear dust from worn down gears. I can't believe BMW would let their product fall apart like this. This car has 53,000 miles on it and Nebula's had even less. What a travisty!

 

This is the second one I have seen like this in a week.

The other one also showed similar damage, and signs of the SC oil leaking frm where the cover attaches. It would seem that the machine marks left by the CNC grinder could be attributed to the oil loss. Some machine marks are pretty deep in the SC which fail.

In your last pic I see similar brownish stain ( circled area).

 

So who is a good rebuilder? I've seen some references to http://www.stiegemeier.com/pricing.html
and http://www.thehighspeedlab.com

 

Those aren' really machine marks as much as the crud and shavings that fell out when the two pieces were separated. I apologize for the quality of the photos, they were taken in my garage last night with an iphone. Not the best quality. In talking with Brian @ http://canadiansupercharger.com he made mention of the fact that most of the gears installed OEM were rather inferior, that's why he and his partner in Florida have developed new rear gears that are lapped for quietness and, from what I understand, much stronger. The good news is that you can buy just the rear gear set up. They seem to know what they are doing and also seem to be reasonable. I would not wish this experience on my worst enemy! I hope none of you ever have to go through it, it is a real PITA.

 

Clean the edge of the SC off...you will find the tool marks.....I can see the gunk/debris. That is not to what I refer. I refer to the "tea staining" on the machined part of the SC where the plate attaches.

 

 

looks to me like that is where the oil leaked out. It looks like the gasket materal was compermised, the oil leaked out, then it ate the gears. If you read the thread, this means the seal between the sc and the waterpump gears is most likely good, so a cheaper rebuild, like the ones from the guys in FL, with new gears might be fine. $500 bucks for a rebuild is cheaper than $1600 for the dealer rebuild, 2000+ for new, or even the $1000 bucks for others guys. Granted, it is not a high performance rebuild, and might have a shortcut taken (see the above posts from dustin), but with a 2 year warrenty, and the fact the oil loss was external, I'd rebuild it, and even if it was already replaced, keep it for nexttime.

Unfortunately, the more I read, the more I am thinking that these superchargers are good for about 5 years....or maybe 110,000 miles if you drive a lot....all the more reason to do a pulley, as the supercharger is gonna fail anyway!!

EDIT----after reading on another board...I would stay away from the FL place....one of our vendors used them at one point....and had several fail in the first two months.....said they are junk...and I really respect his opinion

 

I'm curious if the gears alone would be available - have someone locally who would like to help w/ a rebuild (haven't had mine off yet, but "plan for the worst, hope for the best", right?)...

OR - (for the experienced readers) Excluding water pump operation, do the gears on the backside have anything to do w/ the operation of the supercharger itself (i.e. rotor synchronizing / alignment)? I'm mulling an electric water pump and trying to think-out where a "block-off" plate could be installed...

 

The guys in FL, superchargertech, a former vendor did sell the gears seperatelt....said you would need a press or someting else to install. I do caution you... The mini supercharger is different than other eatons...a bit harder to work on, and they are more labor intensive to overhaul, so you might not want to be a guina pig for a shops first rebuild attempt...then again if the price is right, and they pollish it, etc for a good price....
Electric waterpumps are avalable....a quick search will bring up at least 2 threads. I did question if an electric motor running continously in a hot spot would live long, but one user said he had good experances from the company in a different car. So it might be a viable option for some.... But I don't think a money saver in general if you can get a ok price on a rebuild. The sc is a wear item, and will need a rebuild at some point....but the electric pump might free up some hp....

 

When I spoke with Brian yesterday, the principle in Canadiansuperchargers.com, he said Supercharger Tech and he were affiliated and that they ship the US orders out of the Old Town, Fl., that is by Gainesville. He also went on to give me a lesson on the back end gearing for the water pump in the M45 S/C. I have NOT used him as of yet for anything but my gut feeling after talking with him for half an hour is that he really knows his stuff and has been doing this for quite some time. Personally, I would not hesitate to do business with him. But those are my personal feelings and what you guys do is entirely up to you.

 

I have never heard any complaints, just raves, and they do have a great warranty, and awesome price. Dustin just made it sound like they take a bit of a shortcut to meet their price point. That being said, it seems to work.

EDIT:After seeing a post on another board by one of our vendors that I GREATLY respect, I would recommend staying away from the FL place.....he replaced "several superchargers" that failed from this company in the first 2 months, and said they are "JUNK".

 

Well, while awaiting an answer on if those "back" gears do something other than drive the WP (bump), let me say this: first, I realize your response is tailored to the typical owner - I'm not new to hi-performance vehicles or modifications (like since 8 y.o. when my Dad's best friend owned a dragstrip), just these special little cars ; same could be said for my co-conspirator (who recently retired after 25 years of industrial machine shop experience). That said, I'm the type who would rather do it myself at four times as long if it saves me 100's of dollars - maybe I will go that route, and I'm sure those shops mentioned, plus others, do quality work, but $500/600/800+ (+ shipping and down time) is still a good chunk of money out of my pocket, especially at this time. Again, I don't know if I need it yet, just planning some different options for when I do - plan for the worst, hope for the best, eh?...

I'm thinking that if these back gears don't do anything other than drive the WP, eliminating same plus the mech. WP would (1) ease maintenance of the SC oil (a blocker plate of an appropriate thickness could incorporate drain and fill plugs), (2) reduce parasitic losses (minor, I know, but always an issue w/ SC as compared to turbos), (3) allow a cool-down function after coming off the track (not unlike a turbo timer for the cooling system), and (4) remove the PTO from future repair. I've even given thought to plumbing a transfer line or two, front-to-back of the SC, and installing some type of fill port / dipstick on the front side to allow for "scheduled" maintenence w/out having to disassemble the front end of the car (to check for 2-1/2 oz. of oil)...

I've already done some www-searching for pumps, including some "left field" applications, narrowing down what I think could work better - if you think past fitting one in place of the current mechanical one (including, as you noted, a "cooler" spot) it opens up a lot of possibilities. I could justify to myself a little more $$$ for a better (read: less failure-prone and maintenence-intensive) set-up (i.e.: a more appropriate (IMHO) use of my budget). On the other hand, based on postings here and elsewhere, I, myself, would be hard-pressed to justify the $$$ involved to rebuild this set-up when I could, for almost the same money, covert to turbo - maybe a even little more, but w/ the bonus of never having to put up w/ every issue posted in this thread, you know? What a wonderful world that would be ...

As to the cost, I can't ignore that some "while-you're-at-it" here and "might-as-well" there and it's $1500-2000 - and still have the same 'sub-standard' set-up (like the old joke about about when you know it's time to rebuild a rotary engine: when you finish the last one)...
- - - - -
To quote a service tech I once worked w/: you just gotta remember to be smarter than what you're working on ...

 

Here is better photo of one at the shop. If you look closely where the arrow points, you will see the "tea" stain from where the oil had been seeping out for some time until it was almost empty. There is no gasket, these parts are fitted together, and from what I have seen, ( former machinist ) the tool marks left by the CNC suface grinder are part of the reason for a poor fit.

IMO, the CNC wheels are not being dressed off properly with the diamond and thus the wheels are dressed too rough for the type of finish needed for a decent seal.

Which is probably why some SC last longer than others.....

Supercharger2-1.jpg?t=1264117750

 

Here are a few shots of a unit I found on ebay. Paid $200 for it. Figured it would need some help. I'm shipping it off to Florida sometime next week.

super4.jpg?t=1264133583

super1.jpg?t=1264133615

super2.jpg?t=1264133658

super3.jpg?t=1264133688

Jim

 

nice...what did they quote you, about $580.00 ?

 

Hey Jim ... sorry to hear your SC went out.
When mine went out (~40k miles ago) I picked up a used one through another member of NAM ... with a reduced pulley installed.
I had ER Performance check it out before installing and everything looked good. I haven't had a problem with it.
Good Luck!
See you at Santana Row soon -

Tim