Park Avenue supercharger

[Guest]

I think the supercharger on my 1998 Park Ave may be going out. There is a rattling noise coming from that general area. I went to a mechanic today and he used his stephiscope (proabably not spelled correct)to let me listen to the noise. I thought it might of been the water pump, but that sounds nice and smooth. He thinks it could be the supercharger or an idler arm. Has anyone else had a supercharger go south? The noise is very pronounced in gear, but in park it can hardly be heard. Also, what's up the supercharger oil? Where do you check/add the oil and what type? I never had to worry about this on my 1997 Riv, as I only kept it to 56,000 miles. My Park has just under 80,000. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[86 2dr.ltd]

I was told the bearing can go bad in the cone. They just remove the whole cone and replace it. Maybe this is your problem.

[NTX5467]

Supercharager Oil is available from GM Parts. It's a small bottle like the PosiTraction additive comes in. The provisions for changing it should be in the owner's manual and certainly in the GM Service Manual. I believe it's a synthetic type of oil and the change/service interval might be 50,000 miles. Check your owner's manual. I understand that the oil can have a strong smell when it hasn't been changed often enough.

I would suspect that if the noise was indeed from the supercharger, it should not be affected by whether the car is in gear or not. I would espect it to be constant and louder at higher rpms (and under boost conditions).

Otherwise, check the spring loaded belt tensioners as they can sometimes rattle when they are getting ready to "have a problem". Also check the lower crank pulley/damper as they have been known to have some age related problems too.

When the load on the engine is changed (i.e., as when going from Park/Neutral into a "Drive" position), the crankshaft will move slightly plus change the harmonics of the belt as it does. If the noise is louder in gear, does it go away or change when you load the engine against the foot brake to the equivalent rpm it would be in Park/Neutral?

Considering there are probably more GTP Grand Prixs and SSEi Bonnevilles running around than supercharged Buicks, you might seek a Pontiac dealer's service people for a second opinion. Considering that in the long while we had Buicks at the dealership I work at, that I had no inquiries from customers on the cost to replace a supercharger, I got the impression that they are pretty trouble free and we didn't have enough calls for the Supercharger Oil to keep it in stock. All of that considered, I really suspect the trouble is probably not in the supercharger.

What about the other belt driven accessories? A/C compressor? Etc.?

Just some thoughts . . .

NTX5467

[GMPARTSMAN]

Rebuilt superchargers are available from Magnuson They have both complete superchargers and drive ends, but they do not reccomend drive ends if the supercharger has above a certain mileage (I think 60K, not sure) I will get the address and phone number and post it in the next couple of days. I have used their units at the dealership and have not had any problems with them.