2001 XKR Supercharger Oil Change

[davidr]

As some of you may know, I acquired a 2001 XKR a good number of years ago in need of some tlc. It was a one owner car that had suffered a light tap on the nose. I had stored the car for many years but finally got round to repairing and recommissioning the car last year. Now it's been repaired, resprayed and is up and running.
Whilst I think the car has a good service history (although I've no proof other than the service book) I'm taking what I think is the sensible approach of not assuming anything so I'll crack on with sensible preventative maintenance.
On the list is changing the oil in the supercharger. This might have been done before but the car has been in my possession for many years in storage so even if it had been changed before I got it what harm could it do? Even if I found clean new oil then at least I will have established a base line for the future.
I bought an excellent kit from XKZ via eBay. As you can see it's very comprehensive and includes well written instructions with pictures, the replacement oil, a syringe and the right size Allen key for the level plug. There was even a sheet of kitchen towel for mopping up the spills!

First job is to locate the filler plug. There is no drain plug. We must open the level plug and then suck the old oil out using the syringe provided.
Here's the level plug at the front left side of the supercharger with the Allen key inserted.

I was warned that the plug would be hard to undo but mine didn't fight too much making me think that maybe someone had been here before. My car has just gone over 100k miles so I'd hope I'm not the first to do this job.
Here is the plug partially removed

And here is the plug removed

The next job is to extract the old oil. Again I was warned that the used oil would smell awful but mine, whilst not pleasant, wasn't so bad so maybe it has been changed in the car's life.
I used the syringe and supplied extension pipe as below. It's important to make sure that the end of the pipe gets past the front of the rotor and down into the oil.

I filled the 100ml syringe once and then mostly filled it a second time before I felt I'd got all the old oil out I could.
And it looked like this

The instructions said there is 180mls in there so I thought I'd measure what I got out

So I got out just over 150mls
Next I used the syringe to put in the new oil. I got more back in than I got out but I'm told that's normal.
After renewing the o-ring on the plug I put it back in, cleaned up the spills and started her up.
I was wondering if the supercharger would be any quieter at tickover but I'm not sure it was.
I guess that's the thing about preventative maintenance!

[J44EAG]

As you know, David, scheduled oil changes on gearbox and supercharger are manufacturer suggested every 60K miles. 90K on the diff but that in my opinion is too late. Diff oil gets a hard life so I`d change that every 50-60K miles.

Looking at the used oil quality, it appears to still retain some viscosity. The colour although darkened is not outrageously blackended. Badly neglected oil don`t half pong. Akin to rotten carrots! As your oil wasn`t too smelly and the fact that the screw plug wasn`t too difficult to remove, might perhaps suggest the charger oil may well have been changed previously before hitting 100K miles. One would hope it was actioned at or around the 60K mile service schedule.

That all sounds good then. Now you can fit a 6% pulley, get one of Viezu Berkshires (Gerald Morten working from a broom cupboard at Tom Lenthalls establishment near Greenham Common) ECU re-flash mods, fit a K&N filter and port out the charger, Paul and I will then take you seriously!

Nice one, Pal.

Mike K