1st Gen R53 Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: Supercharger oil change R52, R53

My 2 cents...

Since you pretty much need to tear down the car to get to the S/C to add this bit and for the most part an R52/53 is going to have higher miles, then since you are in there why just add this item. Change the seals too. If you have a seal going bad and leaking the S/C oil won't putting a vacuum on the seal to remove and add oil with this tool just potentially make things work. Since this is something you would only do 80K+ miles anyway and you would not need to get in there again till say 160K+ miles why spend the money on this item. That is my thought.

 

I'd be concerned about getting a proper fill level as well. Both of the resivoirs are the 'fill until oil dribbles back out of the hole when the supercharger is flat on a bench' style, but the supercharger mounts at a slight angle when on the car, possibly over or under filling. With the fill tube going up to the top of the engine, I don't know how you would know for sure. I had an oil volume for each side from Eaton, but I only got all of the old oil out by tipping and rotating the supercharger.

Looks like an interesting idea, but Jango doesn't see the track often enough for me to think about this. I'll just do a tear-down every 5 years or so, which will give me a good chance to check everything else out at the same time.

A link to the how-to I did several months ago: http://www.motoringalliance.com/library/1st-generation-mini-cooper-how-to-3/supercharger-oil-service--oil-pan-gasket-100/#axzz1uUacfZry

 

For me it seems like a decent enough idea, but when you figure in the cost of that thing & what it takes to install it I'll just have my supercharger serviced every 100,000 miles or so.

 

I asked about this specifically. Shaun has thought it through. He has measured exactly how much oil is supposed to come out, how much is left below the fill hole when the supercharger is at the installed angle, what the volume is to fill with, how much the tube itself holds at that angle, etc. You do everything by the volume metrics. IIRC you're effectively doing about an 85-90% change at this angle. He knows exactly how much you *should* be able to draw out if there has been no oil depletion/leakage. So it's a viable way to see if you have leaky seals periodically without pulling the supercharger to check it.

I agree, it's not for everyone. But here are my options as I see them:
1) wait until my supercharger fails, then do something about it and wait until it fails again
2) pull the supercharger periodically and check the oil level. Since, when the seals fail, it seems that the oil depletion can happen rather quickly, you'd have to do this frequently to have high probability of "catching it".
3) periodically swap the supercharger for one with new seals and hope they hold until you do it again. Since I know people who have had failures on low mileage cars, that's not a guarantee for a trouble-free future.
4) install the kit the next time I'm in there (when I install my newish charger as PM) and have the ability to check oil level from time to time, and take action if I find the oil level to be low. Change oil at reasonable intervals.

If you value money over your time, pull the SC periodically and check.
If you value your time over money, install the kit and periodically check.
If you'd rather just take your chances, do neither.

Pretty simple decision matrix.

 

I was thinking the same thing. The one thing I worry about is there are a few connections in the kit that could also leak. Depending on it there are internals that can't take heat perhaps some silver solider to insure leak free joints? What do you think?

 

May take a little more work to get to than this but I was thinking more on the lines of couple holes drilled and tapped and then plugs like the transmission. But I have not studied it that closely yet.

 

I though it was a very good set up but not woth the money for a SC with with 75K on it.
I will wait to replace mine and add one at that time on a new SC.

My $.02

 

I am getting ready for an intensive PM program on my MINI. (New SC, water pump, belt, idler, tensioner, crank pulley, oil pan & valve cover gaskets, etc.). I'm thinking that this might just be the trick to keeping a SC well maintained with a minimum of muss and fuss. I saw a few comments that say this isn't worth the cost... Maybe I'm reading too fast, but I'm not seeing the cost for this kit. Can anyone set me straight?

Rawhyde

 

I believe it's like 300.00 check the website though for actual.

 

$290 IIRC

And Rawhyde, that exactly the kind of thing I'm going to do later this year. I have a SC on the shelf, oil pan and AT pan gaskets, etc. I've already replaced idler and tensioner and water pump in the past. I'll check all that stuff, replace all rubber sensor seals (except for a few new ones), etc.

How many miles are you at?

 

I have 97K miles on a 2005 JCW and thankfully I have no symptpms of any problems. Once all this work is done, I should be in pretty good shape considering that I've used full synthetic and changed it on 2500 mile intervals since Day 1. Does anyone know if it's possible to replace the timing chain guides/tensioner with the engine still in the car. Seems like a chain rubbing against a plastic guide would eat up the guide over 100K miles.

Right now, I'm trying to decide on all the tasks I want to accomplish and start gathering up parts. I'm also seriously considering adding a MaxJax to my shop. That'd make this (and all subsequent) jobs easier.

Rawhyde

 

Yes.

The bottom half of what needs to be removed.