jimmysanjuan

I found about 3-4 oz of a foul smelling oil on the ground and in the plastic shield under the engine earlier this week. I took off the supercharger belt and had it towed to a good independent today. I could not find an obvious source for the leak. The area around the supercharger is clean, the belt is clean and the pulley is clean. there is some light oil around the back of the cooling fan housing on the radiator but nothing else. I did searches and can't find any schematics of any cooling for the supercharger oil circuit.

Anyway, we'll find out more next week. Ideas?

blackbenzz

I think the SC oil is self contained. Doesn't use the engine oil

jimmysanjuan

Thanks. I agree that it looks like a self contained sealed unit, but didn't see any obvious signs of a seal failure or other leaks from the unit.

jimmysanjuan

Here's an update that might help others. It wasn't the supercharger after all. It was the Aux Fan (behind the radiator) It blew a seal and lost its oil. The oil smells just like supercharger oil. Parts were about $600, peace of mind...priceless. Thanks to all who contacted me.

AgSilver

Good to know

BBBSS

Is this an electric fan? Never seen a fan with an oil reservoir of any kind. Crazy German's overengineering things again. Lol

jimmysanjuan

Yep, it's electric.

drjsilver

This same oil blew out on my CL 55. I had the fan fail in Washington DC traffic. Temp went up to 120* and I pulled over and waited with the hood up. As I sat there on the phone some smoke stared coming out from under the hood. Not steam, smoke. Once the fan stopped, temps went up. It apparently popped a small plug out of the fan control unit and blew the dielectric fluid out of the control unit. I saw a small plug that had left it's original position. The smoke was from the hot oil hitting the hot engine and vaporizing. I waited, got to where I was going, and then when on the way home to Baltimore, I babied the car home and watched the temperature myself.

This fluid is used in electrical transformers as a liquid insulator to cool and provide insulation around electrical parts that run warm.

When I took the car to my indy for repair the combined fan and control unit for my CL was $1050 for the part alone. It was a tough install because my indy had a hard time getting a new connector for the wiring harness from MB. The original had melted from overheating. All has been well. It has been a year. Glad to hear that yours was less expensive.
Cheers

Jon