I had my s/c installed by my BEST tech at the Toyota dealer I work with when the car had about 3000 miles on it this February. I just turned 14,000 miles and now the supercharger has a bad whine and rattle noise, and they are going to replace it.
I know the tech did the shaft alignment and torqued everything properly. He is that kind of guy. He does everything right and does not cut corners. I can not blame the supercharger's failure on the installation at all.
I have not changed the s/c drive pulley to a higher PSI pulley, even though I was tempted to. I decided not to when I saw some of the posts from the guys that had changed their pulley and had problems. The only other mods on my car are the TRD Quickshifter and axle back exhaust. I was running the intake that came with the s/c kit, too.
TRD did require a warranty authorization form to be sent in and copies of the repair orders. So far, it doesn't sound like it will be a problem to get it replaced.
The day after the supercharger noise started, I got a check engine light. They scanned the car and found that the cat in the exhaust manifold needs to be replaced as well. Not sure if the two are related at all, but I found that interesting.
I am disappointed with the quality of the Vortech/TRD supercharger, especially for what it costs! Luckily I have warranty coverage, but I think I will get rid of the car before I have to pay for another supercharger. I really love the tC, and the fun of the supercharged power. I think Toyota, Vortech, and TRD really screwed up on this deal, though.

 

i'm sorry to hear about your misfortune. that must be pretty frustrating for you. it sounds like the only thing a TRD S/C has going for it (vs. going turbo) is the warranty coverage, other than that the gains don't seem to be too substantial for the cost of the part and installation. if i was going to pay what it cost for the S/C and installation i might as well have bitten the bullet and got the wrx that i was contemplating getting.

keep us posted throughout the warranty/repair process.

 

yup. My cat died right around when the bearing died. Then I got it fixed under warranty and bought a WRX. :D Even more fun now!!

 

I would love a WRX, if I had the money.
I could actually use no car payment or at least a lower car payment right now. Maybe the next one will be a Yaris hatch or a Scion xD. We will see..

 

TRD approved replacing my supercharger under warranty, and they also mentioned I needed to order a new updated mount bracket PN PTR25-21060. I am just waiting for the bracket to come from the parts center in CA, and will hopefully get things taken care of next week.
I looked at a Yaris hatchback...way, way too small for me. Plus, I would feel a little wierd driving it.

 

Id feel super weird also if i was driving a Yaris hatchback, Specialy if i had a turbo on it.

 

turbo yaris eh........

 

Is the temp there under 25F? Do you use an engine block heater or engine warmer blanket..? If not, then very quick and sudden death can happen to the sc unit. Also did you have the filter screen on the supercharger inlet nozzle cleaned every 3K miles..? If not, it could have been starved for oil as well.... little details TRD forgot to mention....

 

It hasn't been extremely cold here yet this winter, but there may have been some mornings under 25 degrees so far. I usually let my car idle for a few minutes while I am letting my dog back inside in the AM, but I don't have a block heater.
I didn't know about the filter screen. I will look at that, too.

 

Found it in vortechs manual... but not trds *LOL*

 

I looked at the Vortech site last night. Wow. Surprised TRD didn't even mention either of those items. I will do it now!

 

turbo yaris would kick ___... like the old school eg hatches... cheap and fast...

 

My new mount bracket FINALLY came in yesterday, and they are going to start working on the car on Monday.
I checked the oil while gassing up on Friday, and it was below the low mark on the dipstick. It's black as Hell, too. We topped it off at my shop. The tech was thinking that if the seal inside the supercharger is bad, oil has been going through the intake and I have been burning it off.
I'm concerned that maybe the rings are bad.
I will post updates when I know more.

 

That would explain why the cat went bad.

 

yea it would wound t it

 

Not to badmouth TRD, but shouldn't they advise of this information. Sounds VERY important to the proper running of the Supercharger.

 

The powers that be decided to put the new supercharger and converter on and let me drive the car.
We are going to keep our eye on the oil consumption and to see if the check engine light comes on again.

 

Well, the tC is going through about a quart of oil approx. every 500 miles. I think we are going to re-ring it.
The new supercharger has more of a clatter noise than the old one did, but just yesterday I started it up and it was whining worse than my first one. It sounds like a jet engine revving up. It has been very cold here, 0-5 degrees, but I do let my car warm up before driving it.
I am going to have the Toyota/Scion parts and service rep take a look/listen to it and hopefully get another supercharger.

 

hey bro,

sorry to hear about your troubles you are having with the S/C. You'd think a major purchase like this that is developed under the watchful eye of toyota would have all the kinks worked out. Hey man, I wetn to school at GVSU, i'll be back in GR next week. nice to see someone from Grand Rapids on here. Man I sure don't miss the cold! Good luck

 

I had my supercharger replaced about two months ago...I had a real bad rattling sound when the car was under a load at a low RPM. Also, there was a terrible squeak coming from the pulleys and belts. It took one month to get my new S/C because TRD and Toyota are separate in terms of servicing. Toyota has to get confirmation from TRD to get certain things done and can not work on the S/C w/o consent from TRD. That is complete crap because they never explain things like that before you but TRD products. Anyways, I got a new supercharger, brand new pulleys, and mounting bracket out of the deal and my old S/C is being inspected.