Serg_ZA
Member
Hi Fanatics,
It's been a while since I have uploaded content - so it's about time.
Recently purchased this JCW R53 from a friend who emigrated. The car has been well maintained with full history at the agents, but required a few big ticket items to be sorted and first on the cards was a supercharger replacement.
It suffered from gear wear on the PTO side which lead to a horrible grinding noise when running. First order of business is to disassemble the front end, which is relatively straight forward on these R53's (there is plenty of content by Mod Mini on YouTube).
As you can see, you get full access to the offending unit with the front bumper and radiator pack removed.
Here are the damaged PTO gears:
You can see the wear on one side of the larger gear and wear in the centre of the smaller gear. Over time the gear oil leaks from the PTO ("Power Take Off") side and results in the damage you see - according to BMW this is a lifetime unit. Definitely worth your time to service your supercharger after 100k km, which requires removal of the unit, but will save you from having to purchase a new supercharger / potential engine (similar to the S54 bearings debate). One of the biggest risks is losing drive to the water pump and therefore overheating your engine as the PTO side of the supercharger drives the water pump.
I didn't disassemble the PTO cover on the replacement unit, but here you can see what the gear should look like when in serviceable condition:
Here is the drive side of the supercharger after it was cleaned up and ready for new oil (I had to swap over the old supercharger's front cover to the replacement supercharger as the JCW reduced pulley needed to be swapped over). The supercharger service kit comes with the specific gear oil required, o-rings, seals and gaskets.
Last on the list, whilst in there, was to replace the water pump (which bolts onto the PTO side of the supercharger) plus the Supercharger Bypass Valve. You can see the new water pump in below photos which were taken after reinstallation of the newly serviced replacement unit and water pump.
I didn't get too many photos of the reinstall of the front end but here is the finished product. I made sure to clean as much as a I could - you can see the shiny intake horn.
Here's a video or her running after reinstall and bleeding the coolant - got to love the supercharger whine on these R53's:
And that's the job done! Quite in depth but definitely worth the peace of mind knowing your supercharger and water pump will last another 100k kms.
It's been a while since I have uploaded content - so it's about time.
Recently purchased this JCW R53 from a friend who emigrated. The car has been well maintained with full history at the agents, but required a few big ticket items to be sorted and first on the cards was a supercharger replacement.
It suffered from gear wear on the PTO side which lead to a horrible grinding noise when running. First order of business is to disassemble the front end, which is relatively straight forward on these R53's (there is plenty of content by Mod Mini on YouTube).
As you can see, you get full access to the offending unit with the front bumper and radiator pack removed.
Here are the damaged PTO gears:
You can see the wear on one side of the larger gear and wear in the centre of the smaller gear. Over time the gear oil leaks from the PTO ("Power Take Off") side and results in the damage you see - according to BMW this is a lifetime unit. Definitely worth your time to service your supercharger after 100k km, which requires removal of the unit, but will save you from having to purchase a new supercharger / potential engine (similar to the S54 bearings debate). One of the biggest risks is losing drive to the water pump and therefore overheating your engine as the PTO side of the supercharger drives the water pump.
I didn't disassemble the PTO cover on the replacement unit, but here you can see what the gear should look like when in serviceable condition:
Here is the drive side of the supercharger after it was cleaned up and ready for new oil (I had to swap over the old supercharger's front cover to the replacement supercharger as the JCW reduced pulley needed to be swapped over). The supercharger service kit comes with the specific gear oil required, o-rings, seals and gaskets.
Last on the list, whilst in there, was to replace the water pump (which bolts onto the PTO side of the supercharger) plus the Supercharger Bypass Valve. You can see the new water pump in below photos which were taken after reinstallation of the newly serviced replacement unit and water pump.
I didn't get too many photos of the reinstall of the front end but here is the finished product. I made sure to clean as much as a I could - you can see the shiny intake horn.
Here's a video or her running after reinstall and bleeding the coolant - got to love the supercharger whine on these R53's:
And that's the job done! Quite in depth but definitely worth the peace of mind knowing your supercharger and water pump will last another 100k kms.
