About a month ago my Paxton 1500 seized up. No clue why but it was bad enough that it couldn't be rebuilt and I had to replace it and the bracket. I had this thing on my car for 10 years with no problems so my guess is bad bearings. I was under full boost when this happened. I saw smoke out the rearview and thought the worse. As I pulled over I realized there is no check engine lights, the car is shifting gears no problem (M7). I decided to limp it home as I had 2 miles to go, made it home but the car died and would not turn over. Maybe running off battery would be guess why it died. Had it towed off, looked into and they said it started right up after removing the s/c belt. No codes when they looked at it so replaced the s/c and bracket and was on my way.

Few questions I wanted to bounce off here. The smoked out the exhaust had me concerned, was the smoke just fuel that didn't burn off form the boost not continuing once locked up? It was just a quick puff of smoke not continuous. Is there anything else that could have gone wrong that wouldn't show up on just a typical diagnostics that I should have looked into? I now hear what sounds like a high pitched whine while cruising. Yes, I know I have a s/c but I never once heard this before on my first s/c and this is the exact same model. I only hear this whine while cruising, not off throttle and not hard into the throttle, just steady eddy down the high way and I hear it. I was thinking vacuum but not sure how to determine if that might be it. The car seems to run perfectly fine but I have not yet got into the boost too hard yet due to weather. Any feedback is appreciated.

 

My guess about the puff of smoke is the supercharger oil getting pushed into the intake when the bearings blew out. But this is also concerning since metal shavings could easily have made it into the intake as well. Did your shop examine the intake piping and intercooler for metal bits and give them a good cleaning?

As for the whine, it could be the SC / belt being new and a little noisier than the previous one. Maybe you're now just keeping the music low and listening more closely than before.

 

I'm not sure if they did that, my guess is they did not. I will change the oil this weekend and will have a look around. You are right, music has been off this whole time as I just wanted to listen to the car for the first few drives.

 

What oil are you changing? Assume you mean engine oil? Definitely inspect that for metal bits but I was talking about the supercharger oil. They are self contained units with their own little oil bath of a few ounces. So your old one probably blew the seals and that oil got ingested by the engine, causing a big puff of smoke.

If you still have the old charger you could look for signs of this, the oil would probably be low too.

But yeah most Importantly make sure you intake, manifold, and piping is all clear now. If any engine damage was done from the charger failure you'll find out soon enough.