I’ve just got my car home after being in storage since the Exiges track day in March! As most of you will know my car didn’t last long on track before developing a nasty noise from the engine bay!
John pointed me in the direction of the supercharger as a possible coupling failure but after removing the supercharger yesterday it is much worse! When removing the nose I found no oil just a lot of metal, which looks like a collapsed bearing!! Looking like a complete new supercharger is need!!
So please, all S2 owners get the oil checked in your superchargers as my car as only 14k on the clock and was completely dry!!
Oh no Graham, what a nightmare. Sorry to hear that buddy, have you had any quotes to do the work yet?
Around 2k just to supply a new unit mate!! Unless we know anyone who can get a bit of discount from Lotus?!
Oh crap that is bad luck 
I didn’t even know you could check it, thought they were not service items?
Oh no Graham.
Is it a total write-off, I’m sure I read somewhere else about a place in the US that refurbished/rebuilt them. Alternatively is there anyone breaking a car…
I hope you get it sorted and we get to see you out to play this year…
Yes Ade, there’s a level plug on the nose of the charger and holds approx 120ml of magnuson supercharger oil. Worth checking as mine looks like it never had any gasket sealer on the face between the charger body and the nose from new and has leaked out over time!!
Looking at options at the moment mate! Getting mixed reports about rebuilds so looks like a new one or off a low mileage breaker.
Ohhh no…
I had a similar dilemma a few months ago. Found a small metallic residue in the lh boost pipe pre intercooler. After stripping it down I found that there was a tiny part of the Graphite coating on 1 vein that had flaked off… Having spoken to a company in Chesterfield they assured me this can happen and as long as there was no signs of scratching on mating faces or the outer bore it’s OK.
The problem comes from when the bearings fail at the gear end as the metal is formed around the bearings so the supercharger is scrap.
A friend on mloc just had the far end bearings done by them and so far everything is fine although in this case it definatly sounds terminal.
If you need a new unit speak to somebody in the states as when I contacted magnusun direct they told me to go to lotus. People in the states can buy direct from magnusun with massive savings compared to the lotus price from what I remember.
When reading up on the oil changes over winter the concensus was most that did a change found the old oil to be like treacle. It is however a pain to change with a 2-3mm pipe and syringe.
time for a TVS1320?
Some good info there mate, thanks! Mine is also showing signs of the coating missing and the bearing in the right side vein is shot!!
Do you have a contact with anyone in the states? The only one I can find is monkeywrenchracing.
Tell me more?! 
Do not trust MWR Graham, especially when buying abroad. It’s just my experience.
Have a chat on the lotustalk forums.
There’s usually folks on there who can help… Of not my MD lives in pittsburgh so there may be something there… Magnusun absolutely wouldn’t deal with me when I enquired. Unless I lived in the states that is.
Point taken mate! Pm me mate if you like I’ve never shipped parts from the US.
Why would they not want to deal outside of the US?! Some sort of distributer restrictions maybe?
I bought some gears from MWR and it was what it said on the tin.
simply sports cars in Australia do a conversion kit, I have enquired about them in the past, they do look good.
I guess a lot more expensive than a oem charger?!
Is yours a standard unit Ade? Has it caused you any problems?
yeah few places do em now, basically it’s a 1.32L blower (ours are 1.05L) that is way more efficient (ie heats air less) and can be used to make bigger power. It’s the same blower the V6 exige uses from factory.
lemons and lemonade and all that