I have a TRD supercharger on my 1997 3.4L 5VZFE engine. I'm not sure which generation it is. It's black, so I know it's not first gen. It has an external 'waste gate' relief valve... whatever you call it.

Before I took the truck in for a head gasket, timing belt, & water pump job the supercharger made a little bit of noise. But it was more of a rolling light grinding kind of noise at idle and went away when revved. Now it is making a loud tapping rattling knocking kind of noise at all rpms.

Listen to the linked video to hear the noise.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tWVk2dRB1U
I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this type of noise and how much longer I can expect the supercharger to last before something fails.

I've read that the bearings in the nose can wear out. I've also read that there is a plastic coupler that can wear out. I believe the supercharger has about 60-70K miles on it. It has never been serviced.

Any opinions on what exactly is the source of this noise?

 

that sounds horrible. did the mechanic adjust ur vavles or is that play in ur supercharger.check ur valve lash

 

Get your supercharger rebuilt!! Supercharger Technologies down in FL did mine (I shipped it to them) and they were done in about 4 days, cost me $400.

 

did it make that nosie before ur mechanic replaced the headgaskegts???

 

No it didn't make that noise before. It was a loose rolling light grinding sound, which I think is normal. That rattling tapping sound is definitely wrong!

 

Are you sure it's the Sc? Try pulling the bel of and run it without the belt

 

listen for the nosie and try to figure out where its coming from

 

The mechanic said that he took the sc belt off and the noise stopped. Definitely coming from the supercharger.

 

I have an Eaton SC on my 65 Mustang (4.6L). I bought it used and it was damaged in shipping (though I didn't realize it). The snout had been hit pushing one of the rotors back about .005". Since the rotors are twised it was slapping the other rotor and making just about that same noise. It wore the coating off the rotors and scarred the back of the housing too. It could have been fixed by resetting the rotor clearances and smoothing out the housing but I replaced it since Cobra Eatons are cheap (like $200 cheap).

It also could be the bearings or the coupler. You can remove the belt and turn the pulley and see how much slack is in it (should none or very little). If it has a lot of slack it's probably the coupler. If it has a grinding feel, it's probably the bearings. If you can move it and feel it hitting something, it's probably the rotors slapping each other.

My guess is that while your mechanic had it off to change the head gaskets he probably dropped it or banged something on the snout and the rotors are slapping each other.