I found this rebuild kit:

http://www.kwikphyx.com/products/Min...build-Kit.html

But I'm guessing that it does NOT have the rear rotor needle bearings, or the water pump gears. If after pulling apart the supercharger I found the gears are damaged, this kit will be practically useless. Can someone confirm my guess?

 

Their website makes me nervous; can't tell where they are physically located.

 

When I started researching and posting about a supercharger oil service, I thought about using this kit proactively. I got a very nice PM from a person who works on several MINIs a week suggesting that even the superchargers rebuilt by professionals are not holding up very well and that I'd be better off spending that same cash in the used supercharger market to keep a spare on the shelf. He didn't give me numbers, names or facts, but I've grown to value his opinion highly.

 

That means you don't recommend using this $140 rebuild kit, correct?

How about a ported rebuilt unit from WayMotorWorks or Stiegemeier? Can you PM this person if it will hold up well? Thanks!

 

My source recommended against the professionally rebuilt kits... like the ones from Way or Steigemeier. I don't have facts or evidence or anything like that, just a PM recommendation from someone that I've come to trust. If the professionals can't seem to get it right for a long-term, stable solution, it might make sense that the home user might have less of a chance of doing so. He suggested that he would spend his money on a used/take-off supercharger first, rather than buy a rebuilt unit.

I was surprised to hear this as I have always gotten good stuff from Way, so a more fair thing to say might be to validate with suppliers about the durability of rebuilds and ask about a warranty on the work.

I'm a bit of a 'in for a penny, in for a pound' kind of guy, so if I come to the point where my SC goes and I'm in need of replacement, I might look at one of the Sprintex superchargers with a very mild pulley.... yeah... $3000 for the Sprintex vs $2000 for a factory rebuilt SC from the MINI dealership, but it's so shiny! :D

 

My rebuild from Stiegemeier is still holding out after 2 years. I went for the full port, polish and gear rebuild.

 

That's very encouraging! Do you think that the ported unit is more cost effective than the $1500 new unit that WayMotorWorks is selling?

 

I did quite a bit of research on this subject before sending out my supercharger. I went with Stiegemeier as well. They get glowing reports from the Mustang crowd.
Only been on the car for a couple of months, but so far, so good. They have great Customer Service and communication,too.

Jim

 

Yes. I think the full port and polish was $800 2 years ago.

 

I started to pulling the supercharger and found a new issue.

I saw coolant leaks from the passenger side of the front bumper. It was just topped up a day ago and I did not even drive the car but only started it for a few minutes. The coolant reservoir is close to empty again. After pulling the skid plate and front the bumper, I saw that the radiator was wet on the passenger side. I'm not sure if it is the water pump that has lost its seal, or the radiator has developed a crack. It was still dripping, even during the time when I was working around the car.

I've attached two pictures that I took, looking up from the front passenger wheel. Is it the radiator or the water pump? The thermostat with housing was replaced a year ago and I did not notice coolant leak from the driver side.

 

Get your radiator pressure tested while it is removed. Check the bleed nipple on upper rad hose and those hose connections too.

Jeremy

 

Okay, I've pulled the supercharger and water pump.

There was no coolant leak from the water pump side. There was no visible oil leak from the supercharger, and when I opened the drain plugs, the oil immediately overflew.

I think that's a relief as my supercharger did not run try. Most likely it is the bearing on the front pulley end that needs to be replaced. I think my next step is to buy that rebuild kit from http://www.kwikphyx.com/products/Min...build-Kit.html. Is that enough?

As for the radiator leak, I'm not sure how to pressure test it. Given that a new OEM radiator costs only $160 from the states ($300 above here), and car has close to 130k on the meter, should I just buy a new radiator and two new hoses?

Also, do I have to inspect or replace anything related to the radiator low-speed fan?

I'll also replace oil dipstick seal, supercharger seals, water pump and engine knock sensor.

Is there anything I missed from above?

 

OMG I just read this entire thread and I am woozy.
Help me understand the SC water pump thing. The rattley noise is caused by the gears in between the water pump and the SC? But since you cant buy the gears, you have to buy a whole new or reman Super Charger??!! But the internals of the SC and water pump might still be ok? And some said that it would make sense to replace the water pump at the same time but in that entire 2 plus years worth of posts, I didn't hear anyone say they had a bad water pump. And when buying a remanufactured SC you have to buy one that has the gears that mate with the water pump...right?

You see, Im an ignorant chump who just bough a 2003 S today and thought I was getting a good car. After getting the car home and listening to it a little more critically I noticed a rather metallic sound coming from the SC. 4 hours of looking over the internet later I now know I bought a pig in a poke.

If anyone can clear up my question about the SC and water pump I would appreciate it.

 

Have the same year and almost the same miles (126k) with a 15% pulley right around the same time... just got the front end torn off and the rear gear case of the SC died. It's funny, because you would swear this noise is coming from the belt tensioner area when you listen to it.

The rattle noise sounds like marbles in a coffee can as many explain it.

Now that I am in there, I wonder how many replace the water pump? I think I am going to pass - now that I've taken the entire front end off once, I think I could do it again in half the time.

 

I know I just posted - but this was a sick in the stomach moment for me as well.

The design of the SC has a PTO in the rear which drives the water pump. Since the front and rear are sealed units, they will last forever (pretty much) if the lubricant does not leak out... but, there is a seal back there that does go bad and then the oil goes away. This causes the rear gears to run dry and then shortly after you start hearing this semi-random rattle which is quite apparent.

Unless you are a machine shop, you will not be able to rebuild the SC. I searched high and low for rebuilds, and found a place in Old Town, FL that does it with new gears for $550 ($580 w/ shipping). I will be receiving my unit from them on Monday (2/6/12)... and will post shortly after to say how it went.

If you are going to do this job yourself, you should be reasonably handy and experienced... taking the entire front end off the car isn't horrible, but it's probably not for the novice weekend oil-changer either.

While I am there, I will put a new belt on which I got from DetroitTuned for $30. I also was able to rebuild my hydraulic tensioner (the bearing) for $13... and since they want around $130 for them, I thought this was a good deal. I will try and post a DIY on that at some time in the future.

One more thing I thought of... if you have an aftermarket pulley, chances are you can get it off without a fancy puller, but if you are running the factory pulley, you might want to buy an aftermarket pulley [Alta] (and matching belt) now and then order you rebuilt SC with the pulley off - this will keep you from having to go to a dealer or rent the special pulley puller.

You can find the Eaton M45 supercharger map here...
http://www.eaton.com/ecm/groups/publ.../ct_128483.gif
Which shows a mapped max speed around 15,500 rpm... but I talked to a performance guy at Eaton and said that drag racers take this to 25,000 rpm. What you trade-off is seal and bearing life, and you can get it hot enough that the rotors will expand into the housing.

Taking the belt off is also difficult unless you have the factory tool... but I was able to grab the belt between the alternator and air conditioner compressor and pull hard enough to fully compress the tensioner, and which point I was able to roll it off the AC compressor. You will have to be moderately strong to do it this way.

Since I've had anxiety about the SC since I got the car, I figured I'd try and be a help now that I've gone through the ordeal.

Hope this helps some and puts your mind at ease regarding this potentially big repair.

Matt

 

The seals in the water pump don't last forever....so the consensus is if you pull the sc and replace it, do the waterpump....if the pump fails, or the weap hole shows a seal failure, you will have to redo 90% of the work to get at it....just like using a new belt...cheap, and ensures realibility, and saves labour at a later time cause it will fail soon...
and if it fails it can cause $$ dammage.
Do it once, do it right. Do it cheap...then do it twice...or the old saying pennywise, pound foolish.....american version , trip over a dollar to pick a penny.
This issue is not super common, but a sc is a mechanical part, with seals...
Over time, even perfect seals let oil slowly leak out....
So non mini eatons REQUIRE a lube job....the mini eaton does not, only due to tge labour involved....mini thought it was more costeffectivre for an pwner to run a sc till failure than remove it, lube it, reinstall....that way a new sc has new seals, and will be gpod for many years....

 

Its always nice to find out I'm not the only one with a nervous stomach and a bad supercharger. Misery loves company Its a shame that a part thats supposed to last a life time does not and that a simple lubrication point could have solved so many expensive repairs. The simple act of being able to lubricate the thing could have truly made the SC a lifetime part.

My brother in law has a neighbor who dabbles with superchargers on toyota trucks and he has said he will help me do the swap. I think we will give it a go to save the $$$ labor cost. Thanks to all the folks who have shared their experiences since 2009.

Anyone have a detailed disassembly procedure to go from bumper removal to bumper replacement??

 

Here ya go....

This looks like it might be helpful too....

HTH!

C ya,
Dutch

 

I didn't change my water pump because the weep hole was clean - with your line of thinking, you could replace everything... I'll let you know how long it lasts.

 

Thanks for the link to the girls guide...good stuff, even for guys.

 

My SC just failed at 43,000k. It's gonna cost me $3000.00 for Mini Dealer to fix it. I think Mini should step up to the plate and address this issue.
2007 Cooper S
Pepper White/ Black top

 

Now I get an occasional rattle at start up. When I say start up I mean right after starting the car. The rattle noise lasts at most two minutes then goes away.

Does anyone have any idea if it is my s/c. Btw its an 06 MCS with about 78k km.

 

Rattle could be a pully belt tensioner. Mine sheered clean off tuesday this week(Same day my reman'd SC was arriving from UPS). Mine would rattle under load/boost. Eventually it rattled and started to make a squeeking sound. Then my PTO bearing started to make noise. If you havent touched the tensioner yet I would do that first. When the PTO bearing goes it makes a whine through the RPMS thats different from the normal SC whine

EDIT* It wasnt my belt tensioner, it was my idler pully that backed out completely. Im guessing it didnt have any grease left in it and siezed up then backed out. LUCKLY nothing broke in the block. Of coarse my car is in a 1000 peices right now since I didnt know that was what I needed this weekend.

 

Err... there seems to be a bit of a question regarding the kwikphyx site. The question is, do they ever ship anything? Or do they just take money.

Just a word to the wise...

Cheers,

Charlie

 

Well, I would like to tell you all a triumphant story about how I did this myself...and I could have done it...but my wife insisted that...for the sake of my sanity...I pay someone else to do it. So I found a reputable shop in town and they got it done in a day and a half. I'm back on the road with a much quieter car that has much pep

I didn't want to send my own off to get rebuilt and most of the places mentioned throughout this web site were out of units for sale. I found an outfit in California called Superchargers and Accessories Inc.™ Rebuilding for GM since 1992. They specialize in Eaton Superchargers. I am hopeful that they are good at what they do. I will try and update everyone as to how my remanufactured supercharger holds up.