Hey everyone-

I have an automatic, 2006 tC that I want to boost. I've wanted the supercharger since pretty much day one, and now my finances can merit such a purchase.

I've been doing a lot of reading up on it, and of course I have found the stories of people who have had problems with it. I'm aware of those that have had seal, bearing, and bracket/install issues. However, what I haven't found are a lot of (detailed) feedback from people that have not had issues with it- I know they have to be out there, it's just that most people won't say anything about a product unless they have problems with it. Either way though, I want to hear from people that have had the supercharger for a while! I'm hoping to hear feedback from those with good experiences, but I want to hear the bad too. I'm already fairly comfortable with the idea of buying one, but I want to be sure before I lay the money down.

Lastly, a few more details about my car. It currently has ~58,000 miles on it (my old job made me drive a lot.) I only put about 10-12k a year on it now. This means that I will be out of my powertrain warranty by the time I supercharge it, so I'll only have the 1 yr/12,000 mile part warranty from TRD. I was initially concerned about the amount of milage on my engine, but all of the opionions I've recieved basically stated that "it's a Toyota engine, that isn't a lot of miles at all." My engine has been filled with 5-30 Mobil 1 from the 1st oil change, changed every 3-5k, and is only lightly modded (CAI and cat-back.) I'm pretty confident that it is in good shape for F/I.

I know here is where a lot of people will say "dude, just get a turbo," because of the fact that I'm going to be out of my powertrain warranty. Believe me, I thought about it, but in the end I still decided to go the supercharged route for these reasons:

1) Price. For around $2500 installed, I can get a complete F/I kit, injectors, tune (the reflash,) the while nine yards. That is a killer deal compared to at least $3500 for a turbo kit alone (ie, the Dezod auto kit,) and then I still have to pay for installation and tuning.
2) Power goals. I'm not looking to make my car a rubber-shredding race car or dyno queen. This is my daily driver. Sure, it would be fun to have a crazy turbo car, but I'm mostly just looking for a little more fun and oomph in my daily driving. I think the supercharger should do that just fine. Also, I have to take my tranny into account- it won't do me much good to make a ton of power and then blow out my transmission! I think conservative is going to be the name of the game for me.
3) Maintenance. It just seems that a turbo is going to require more maintenance and tweaking than the supercharger will, so long as I keep the supercharger stock.

Speaking of that, that will be my plan- to keep the supercharger stock, at least until it's part warranty is expired. Only then do I think I'd consider a few basic mods to it, so long as it has held up well. The only thing I would probably consider as mods off the bat would be an updated BPV and a oil catch can (basically, things that would make it work better with stock boost.) A pulley update may happen later, but honestly I've heard of too many people having bearing/seal problems from using it. I would probably get it rebuilt with new, better bearings & seals before I'd want to mess with that.

Also, I plan on getting some gauges installed- probably boost, wideband, and oil pressure, so I can keep an eye on how everything is working, and hopefully notice if anything started to go wrong before major damage was done.

Lastly, the bracket- it is true that even the 06 kits have the redesigned brackets, right?

The bottom line is that I want to increase the performance of my car, and keep it as close to the reliability and low-maintenace of my car as it is now (N/A.) I also want to keep this car for several more years. I'm hoping that keeping the charger stock, and being really meticulous with my maintenance will let me achive this

Thoughts?

 

well i think you have your mind made up already im kinda in the same boat. u made good points and have factual information so just stick with the supercharger im gonna do the same. everyone wants crazy amounts of horsepower but in the end u gotta think is it really worth it.

 

im in the same boat as you. i know its easier to pull more power out of a turbo, but i still would rather get the supercharger. watching this thread.

 

so you wanna add a supercharger for more umph in daily driving? you wanna spend more money on gas and have to even upgrade to 91 just for more umph on daily driving? i say save that money you have for a year's supply of gas...err well with prices.. 3 months worth???. =)

 

If you were an 07 up...i would say sure, good idea. But the fact is, the 05-06 s/c is not well made...there were improvements after the initial one...but for the first 2 years...it is way too flawed. You will spend much more in maintenance on it than with a turbo...especially since you are not planning on driving it hard. turbo toyotas has a cheaper turbo kit i believe and yeah, it will still be more than your desired s/c setup...but it should be more reliable than that particular s/c.
http://www.whyindustries.com/store/p...roducts_id=124
$2500 for the kit and add another $850 for the engine management (AEM fic and injectors). $3350 is not bad really
http://www.dezod.com/pd_dezod_motors..._automatic.cfm
or this for $3650...good deals honestly
but if you really still want to do this...you're gonna need to replace the bearings in the shaft and the housing with higher speed, ceramic bearings...and even those won't last that long...but a lot longer than the stock ones, just because of how this s/c is built...not much R&D done on it before it was ready for sale. also, wideband, boost, and EGT gauges (all electric not mechanical) would be your best bets to monitor for boost problems/belt slippage and rich/lean conditions. But for all this kinda money too...you could just have your engine built and run some other N/A mods...since high power is not really that much of an issue. This is just coming from a previous owner of an 05-06 supercharger...it was great and mine was even rebuilt with better bearings...but the shaft bearings eventually went out again after 10 months. I am currently having even better bearings put into it and i am selling it...not because of the headache...but i want to go a different route soon. It could be great, or it could be a pain...either way bottom line is...

When you boost a car that is not meant to be boosted...you need extra cash because things WILL go wrong.
Hope this helps

 

I know this is a TC thread but can anyone help me with basically the same questions.

https://www.scionlife.com/forums/vie...056&highlight=

 

You are beyond wrong bro. It was problems due to poor installs because none of the dealerships knew what they were doing. Mine has been boosting 10lbs for over a year now and I haven't had a single SC related problem other than the dealer greasing the charge pipe with white lithium to get it on and me subsequently blowing it off when hitting full boost once the grease was warm.


I'd like to see your proof on that one. Its Vortech's most basic unit. It's not a mater of doing enough R&D. It's a matter of the dealerships installing things wrong which lead to premature fatigue and ultimate failure. If you're slightly off on a centrifugal SC with a shaft ____ fails quick. none of trd's other SC's have ever been configured like this and have all been pretty straight forward installs that even the most incompetent tune-up mechanic can handle.

I've installed enough power adders at my shop over the last 12 years to know Vortech among other companies pretty well.

The tC seems to be able to handle quite a bit of boost no matter how you go about it SC or TC.



Ultimately I think it comes down to poor installs and people beating the living hell out of it because they think peak boost at redline means they can now readline it every time they hit the gas pedal. You gotta take care of any type of boosted car.

 

I have had my S/C for over 10k and I love it sure its not a turbo, but I wanted the same things you wanting in going F/I. My first thing to you, IS GAS. Remember that because prices aren't coming down anytime soon, in fact it's quite the opposite. I would recommended the upgrade BPV because stock on is ____ty.

So in my experience I haven't one issue with my S/C. I truly believe the errors on other people had with the S/C have been install problem and I have talk to people at TRD @ scion united and they it was install's that proved to be issue.

 

https://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=146787

My s/c was installed in November 05. I told the dealership to leave the heat shield off, which they did. I ran like that for over 40k miles. I then had the Megan header put on, no heat shield or wrap for another 10k miles. I then had it wrapped, but decided to go back to stock manifold because the header made the exhaust sound horrible. I haven't had any problems "due to the heat from the exhaust manifold/header".

I didn't have any problems until Creative Compacts messed everything up. They installed the 9.5psi pulley, header, exhaust, hi-flow cat, and resonator, and didn't do that great of a job. After they did their work, one of the bearings went bad, needed to re-shim the s/c pulley because it was shredding the belt, and I had to replace the entire exhaust system , but anywho...

50k miles without any problems from the supercharger, not even a leak or broken bracket. I say it's done well.

I've always wondered about the people that say that they're on their 2nd or 3rd s/c. Who installed it? Did you go back to the same place to have a new one installed? Did the same person(s) install the subsequent ones? If it's the same dealership and same person installing all of them, and they all go bad... I know I wouldn't let that person touch my car again.

 

I have only has my s/c installed for about 3 months/ 3k miles so far. I run a DC Header, ZPI 9lb pulley, and modified K&N intake with no problems. A/F is good, power is good. I track it about 2 times a month and beat it pretty well on the daily drive to work. I get 280-300 miles per tank and enjoyed installing the s/c w/ a friend in his driveway. I say do it and enjoy.

 

Thanks for the feedback so far everyone! I'm sure that I'm not the only one who has been thinking of this same question (such as the first two posters who replied,) so I'm hoping that this thread can be as informative to others as it has been, and hopefully will be to me.

So four people so far have had it for a decent amount of time without problems- imsono___un, 50k miles on your charger? That's awesome man What do you think was the main culprit when you finally had problems- a shoddy install, or the 9psi pulley? (I'll have to read through that thread you linked as well, it does look familiar so I think I read through it before, a while ago.)

BuddhasTC, since you had problems with yours, I guess the same question goes for you, since I see that you were running a higher boost pulley. Also, what bearings had you upgraded to which were the ones that failed after 10 months, and which ones are did you install this time? Did you have your first failure on stock bearings, with the upgraded boost pulley?

So far I am still pretty comfortable with my plan, and as JNasty said, I guess I do sort of have my mind made up. Before any sort of significant purchase, I just like to be sure before I plunk the money down. I'm hoping by now that any sort of initial install issues should be sorted out, in fact I'll be sure to look around and find a dealer that has a lot of install experience once I have the kit in hand. Then I'll just have to take a little extra care with the car, and not beat on it tooooo much

 

I didn't have any problems until after all the work at Pro-Motion Tuning. I think the guy got a little too trigger-happy with the impact wrench when he swapped the s/c pulley to the 9.5psi one. It may have been just a coincidence, but something tells me otherwise.

It's good that you're doing some research before getting it, esp where to get it installed at. I didn't have the luxury as I was the first in my area to get one installed.

I suggest that if you get the s/c, don't modify it for at least 6 months, since if it's a bad install, it usually happens before then.

 

Good to know! I don't plan on modding it (well...except for the BPV maybe) until the part warranty is expired. I want to know for sure if I have a good one before I'd do anything like a boost pulley. If I even do that. The gauges will definitely go on shortly after the install, but I don't see how anyone could say that interfered with the workings of the supercharger...

Oh yeah, and I see that gas is a big concern for a lot of people. I did a little math, and with the average amount of miles I put on my car, and with premium costing about 30 cents more around here than regular, I'd spend about $100 a year on gas. I think I can afford that I tend to only fill up once every other week, so if my milage stays the same (which it seems like it does for most S/C users,) I don't think I have much to worry about there.

 

Good deal. You going to Scion VIP/BOTI at MIR? I'll be there with some friends.

 

i would say that most S/Ced problems are installer orientated, i had my S/C for 3 weeks but its used and had 7000+ miles on it from the previous owner and my auto had 50000+ miles befo the S/C was installed also have a ZPI lightweight pulley and dc headers on, but to make a run-on sentence short ive been problem-free so far.......

 

Blow up in 6 months, went to turbo.

 

Unfortunately not, I'll be with my dad that weekend at his Chevelle club's annual show up in North East Md. I'll be the incognito import guy surrounded by a bunch of muscle car guys (which is cool actually, I like American muscle too!)

Thanks for the replies midnight_blue and speedy. It's good to hear that one of you is problem free so far...speedy, did you have any other mods to the charger when it "blew up?"

 

i DD my s/c auto. had a one warranty done, and the replaced the s/c unit. that was after 3k miles. the replacement has been on for around 17k miles now and no issues. and i think i have one of the more modded s/c setups.

here's a warning though..you're probably going to get power hungry lol

 

I know Even a stock supercharger should be a nice increase over my CAI/cat-back setup though, so hopefully I'll be happy for a while

I've read some of your threads about your setup, nice one!

 

lol the only downside to S/C is you get bored of the power quick and want more

You will mostly hear horror stories as opposed to positive things, there are plenty of guys in my areas with no issues on their S/C, so like Bluemeanie said alot of the issues have been with lackluster installs.

I've been running mine stock since February now and have had no trouble with it *knock on wood*