These are some observations drawn from changing the supercharger oil.

1. Jaguar may not give any guidance, but General Motors gives guidance in their scheduled maintenance - check supercharger oil level every 25k miles or 3 years, whichever comes first.

2. The Eaton M112 oil capacity is 7.3 ounces as listed on the Eaton site beside the Jaguar application. It also stipulates that motor oil, not even synthetic oil is unsuitable. Those people wandering around suggesting Mobil 1 are just being irresponsible.

3. There is no stated requirement in JTIS that the supercharger be removed for refilling. In fact, it is completely silent on that point. It is not in the engine assembly manual either. So, anyone claiming otherwise must be doing so due to their own preference as opposed to fact, no matter how vocal their insistence.

4. It is possible to extract all except at most, 0.8 ounces of the old oil. This is implied having extracted 6.5 ounces out of a possible 7.3 ounces, some of which may have been missing. The engine was warm but not hot, having been last driven 6 hours prior to the start of the job.

5. The equipment that worked best was inserting the needle of a syringe from an inkjet refill kit into a lubricating straw such as is found on a can of WD-40 or Liquid Wrench and taping the joint with electricians' tape.

6. A paper towel dam completely filling the void below the fill plug would be a good idea. Removing the plug requires a certain amount of blind finger work. Drop that plug at 4AM and you'll wish you had done it. It also catches the overflow.

7. The old oil was the color of the darkest coffee imaginable. Water will float on top of it in a distinct layer. The water will also mix with it when shaken. So again, this is not motor oil.

8. The new oil is clear. 7.5 ounces was introduced before overflow. So, the reservoir had been down by an ounce or so.

Given #7, it was worth doing.

And no, the oil does not smell as bad as some people would like you to believe.

++

 

Good job! I shall put this on my to do list.

 

Very nice, thanks for the info.

 

Thank you plums for the supercharger oil change advice. It's another proactive tool to promote the longevity of my jaguar. I have a tendency to want to complete maintenance when I feel like I'm not going to tear up more than I fix.

 

I believe the full supercharger information was listed in the 98 info -- Jaguar is strange that way. Everything in first year - then updates.

I'm sure someone has the information.

 

Full information as to what?

The base information for 1998, and the supplements up to and including 2003 in JTIS do not mention filling the supercharger at all. On or off the engine. Until someone actually quotes chapter and verse a reference to a official Jaguar stated requirement that the supercharger must be filled off the engine and at a specific angle it remains an imaginary requirement.

Eaton's written and verbal guidance is pop the fill plug, suction out the oil, refill to bottom of fill hole, refit fill plug. They list the service fill as 7.3 ounces for a M112 when used in a Jaguar application.

 

I had the blower out due to a cooling hose failure and drained the supercharger oil. I replaced it with the GM supercharger oil because Jaguar quit carrying the part. It was interesting to note the jaguar part price was 61 buck for four ounces, while the gm price was 10 for four ounces. They stock it at all gm dealers and claim they sell quite a bit of it. The drained oil was as described above, and I am glad I changed it.

 

I was in my local tool shop today picking up some fasteners, and found this,

http://www.laco.com/pdfs/product_bul.../ZoomSpout.pdf

Bought 2 bottles and I'm going to give it a try, what made me decide was the fact it has a little spout that extends enough to remove oil and install oil into the S/C - and it's turbine oil! Magic!

 

Looks like the bottle is worth keeping after the job

Some of the Mercedes crowd uses aircraft turbine oil in their Eaton S/C's. Specifically Mobil Turbine Oil III.(from a very foggy memory ...)

But, the GM oil is dirt cheap.

 

That's because the Ford crowd, the Jaguar crowd and the Mercedes crowd have all figured out it's the same oil. Even Ford charges double the price of GM.

But ... what's the lubricated for life crowd going to say about your heretic act of changing the oil?

 

I think people are referring to the X300 TSB for the M90.

bob gauff

 

As always, your stash of TSB's makes for interesting reading

The fill plug is certainly in a better location.

It's interesting to note that the M90(X300) has recommended check intervals of 30K miles, about the same as the GM guidance. But, the M112(X308) graduates to never. The basic design changed not one bit between the two.

 

For tracking purposes, I changed my SC oil today @71k miles. Got 6.8oz of oil out.
Color was honey colored and did not smell bad. I hope it is good for another 71k miles.

Thanks for guide and prompts on changing.

 

Ah... but how was the old oil? Blackish and cloudy?

 

So the drain/fill plug is different on the older SC? If so is the drain/fill plug location on the x308 obvious? I have not searched it out yet.

 

picture means a thousand words,can some one upload photos here. I am not so good at mechanic stuff here,but still trying to DIY

 

Too true, under the Ford logo you'll see a hex head countersunk bolt, this is an Eaton M112, Just Ford branded and the same unit as our R's - on a level bench the charger can be filled until the oil runs out, then it's topped up and level. You can get it 'near enough' on the car, sucking out the old oil, and filling up, just put plenty of paper towels down. Don't want slipping belts. (On the bench is better in my opinion, but who's got a day to remove and install? Just find a level floor to do it)
Hope this helps

 

Sean, where is the drain hole?

 

"under the Ford logo you'll see a hex head countersunk bolt", This is the drain hole.

 

It would be interesting if someone would place a level on the supercharger top and report if this is level when the supercharger is sitting on a bench.

If so one could use the top of the supercharger to position the car tires in order to level it.


I can only assume that the supercharger is not level when the car is sitting on level ground -- as Jaguar has you remove the SC to fill it properly.


That way you could drive the front or rear tires over a suitable lift to level the SC.