Yo'sDad, My thoughts exactly, Eddie it would be great if you had the pictures for us DIY people. Only a suggestion I have is that while it was at optimal fill on the bench to make up a dip stick so it could be checked occasionally after that.

 

I think you need to find another repair shop. A brand new charger can be purchases from Classic Auto Campus (see the vendor directory) for $1200 and a used one can be had off of ebay for less than $500 on most days. A water pump is less than $150 from Classic. I know because I had to do the exact same repair to my MINI.

If I were you, before I would let that shop touch my car again I would have then reconcile those differences or find someone I trust for a second opinion.

Sorry for your problems, hope you get it sorted out.

 

9 hours to do a head gasket? wowzer. only takes me about an hour to take these heads off. thats crazy

 

Oh man, my car just started to sound like a diesel couple of days ago

30,000 miles and 2 months out of warranty.

What are the chances of replacing it under warranty

 

as it depends on the discretion of the dealer you take it to, or Mini USA.

Also, you have to be sure what's causing the trouble. While most SC failures do make lots of noise, not all do. And there are many other failures that can make noise as well.

To localize your noise, the easiest way is to use some vacuum hose or the like, and use it as a stethescope to find EXACTLY where the noise is coming from. This will tell you where you need to do the work.

Matt

 

the leaking of the lube IS the failure, and it leads to more failures of the catastrophic veriety. While it is possible that topping up will stave off worse failures, it's also likely that the seals will get worse, as they are designed to last the life of the SC.

I'm not trying to say that tapping and adding access to the oil chambers is a waste of time, but if the fluid is going, just adding more may not get you much more than more time to get it fixed right, and may not even do that if the leakage accelerates.

Just something to think about.

Matt

ps, it may be that getting access to top the sections off really does increase life. But it may also be the case that getting a used SC, having Steigemeier re-work it, and just leave it on the shelf will serve your interests better. I honestly don't know.

 

I too have been a person lucky enough to run into this situation. My 2002 MCS had been making noise for a bit, but I had put off checking the oil level, as I did not identify this as the problem. Last Friday, the charger started to make significantly more noise, so I stopped driving it.

I bought a used charger off of here, and also managed to aquire a spare from a friend with a race team. Since the one I bought had a 5% larger pulley, and I really was trying to avoid losing performance, I put the stock one on.

After pulling my charger off, I pulled the fill plugs, to find no oil in the water pump drive end. I pulled the cover, and found that the needle bearing had totally disintegrated, but my gears were fairly well preserved.So, I now have a properly running car and charger again. Of course I checked and added a little oil to both ends of the charger before the new (to me) one went on.

I have to admit, I am a little surprised that the noise coming from the engine bay is not enough for most people to stop very quickly, but maybe my carjust made a LOT of noise, since the bearing took itself out, not the gear.

Regardless, I now have a perfectly good, used supercharger for sale, assuming I can find a bearing for my water pump drive. If anyone needs one, I still have all of the packing to ship.

 

I had the same problem with my GP. This does happen with some superchargers they will leak. It has nothing to do with how hard you drive the car but is a factory issue.

 

Oh, I forgot to say that the dealer installed a new supercharger and all is fine now.

 

I replaced my 2003 s/c with 53500 mi. Rotors were rattling. Danny at Minicorsa checked the replacement s/c (a 2006 from Gnatster on the board) to make sure both ends had oil before replacing it.

 

Can an oil fill location be installed by drilling and tapping the hole for a small threaded plug? The opening could then be used to check oil level and fill as needed.

Click the attachment to see where I am thinking.

This is purely being thrown out there as an idea, I have no idea how thick the material is in the locations I am suggesting.

 

You have to read around to find the info, but the short answer is yes. You can also read around to read the pros and cons of doing it, and there is no consensus, as it's all speculation anyway.

Matt

 

Thanks Doc, I appreciate the quick reply. I think it is worth a further look into. Is this still an issue with the later (05 and 06) MCS? I have only 27,000 miles on my 06 MCS.

 

doesn't matter the year.

Good luck with whatever you do!

Matt

 

when i found the problem on the one i did i contacted PUMA,which is the technical hotline for BMW. I actually email'd them this thread with all the pics and info, along with pics of the SC i took apart that was completely damaged. there were no responds and there has not been any bulletins covering this issue

 

I don't think it's a design issue, it seems to be a manufacturing issue, as there are lots of SCs that get the expected life without failure. That said, there's no reason for them to admit to anything, no matter the number of events that occure. There are other references to BMW (not just Mini) being very, very slow to admit to design or warranty issues. I'm not aware that there was ever a recall on the CVT trannies, yet the technology was pulled in favor of a standard auto.

Also, I don't know the stats on this one. If one estimated about 500 failures, while higher than one would like to see, there have been about 300k MCSs or so made. That's a bit over 0.1% While it would be much better to see this number down less than 1 in 10k, it's still a low amount.

Matt

 

i was not expecting bmw/mini to do a recall or buy any cars back. but just a simple bulletin to help other techs out there who may run into this problem would had been nice.

thats all

 

We've created a service in our shop here in Mass. to service the superchargers around 80,000 mi. and hopefully head off this problem for some folks.
http://massmotoringclub.com/index.php?topic=244.0
some of you other independents may want to do this for your clients as well. It's beneficial in more ways than one. Many of the rubber seals get replaced, and they tend to develop "undetectable" leaks when they get older causing check engine lights with lean codes, also your water pump and thermostat are replaced, which at 80k isn't really a bad idea. At the same time, hoses and other components that tend to make contact with each other can be checked heading off some serious issues later.
Pete. D.T. Automotive.

 

Great idea, but what will the charge be if we remove our own supercharger and send it to you for overhaul?

 

If you can R&R the SC, you can likely replace the gaskets and oil. The SC oil Eaton's use can be purchased at any GM dealership. Would want to get the correct quantities for the front and rear chambers though.

 

We're not rebuilding the S/C, we're removing it, checking for wear, replacing the oil in both chambers and re-installing it. Most of the failures we're seeing are due to lack of lubrication, not blade and/or bearing failure. If you're able to remove your own S/C, then you can certainly send it out for rebuild or drain and refill your own oil. If you want a complete overhaul on it, check this place out http://www.pse.us/?gclid=COWqjJ24lpACFQMZHgodEHhePQ
If the water pump drive is damaged, this company wont rebuild it. on a good unit though, a rebuild will be somewhere around 700 -800, takes about a week. A new unit from Mini is around 1400.00 I think.

 

Hey guys -

What are your thoughts on this;

I have no rattle during idle or light acceleration, no odd noises at all.

But if I say; cruise in 2nd, push in the clutch, let off the throttle, shift into 3rd, let out the clutch, and floor it, I hear a sound from the passenger side like loose change sliding around -- I'm wondering if it is the gears starting to grind when the supercharger is engaged.

If I drive normally the sound doesn't present itself. Boost also builds near-instantly as it always has, and peaks the same..

Think my oil is drying up?

(2003 with ~10,300 miles & -15% reduction pulley -- it's sat in a garage most of it's life.)

Edit; I should probably also mention that this is about 3,000 miles after the pulley, the 3-piece self-aligning pulley from MiniMania..

 

maybe loose change? The fact that it's from the passenger side means you should look elsewhere for your problems... See if you can isolate it more than just "passenger side"....

Check oil level.
Check coolant level.

How do you know your boost? Have a guage?

Do you have access to any OBD-II data logging stuff?

Matt

 

Look elsewhere? The passenger side is where the water pump/tensioner/SC pulley are..

Anyway, I spoke to a few of our Benz technicians here at work and went for a ride with one, they looked over a couple things, they think it's probably just the belt tensioner, which does make sense considering when the sound presents itself. That or the clutching mechanism..

Yes, I have an Autometer boost gauge -- oil & coolant levels are good. New coolant, 3,000 miles on the oil.

 

Minis don't. The sound failure that is the subject of this thread is the water pump gears in the back of the SC, at the center/front of the engine. Tensioners go bad, that's for sure, and there is increased belt tension when under boost as opposed to when the by-pass valve is open. But the pully on the SC is fixed to the shaft, and while the front shaft of the SC has gone south in a few cars, most of the failures is at the rear where the waterpump drive gears are, and that leads to overheating.

A good way to help isolate this is with a lenght of rubber hose to use as a steathescope. Have someone rev the motor while the hood is open and see if you can replicate the sound. Quick jabs to the gas pedal should get the bypass valve to close, increasing the load to the tensioner.

Matt