How long does a supercharger last?

[GLIS4]

I am wondering if I may have a failing supercharger- I have experienced a gradual loss in power over the past few weeks. The car is still making power, but it feels like I just went from dual pulley back down to single pulley or stage 1 power levels. I remember quite well the numbers I was putting down and now the car is not pulling nearly as hard. I have a supercharger with 160,000 miles on it. I have changed the oil but other than that have done nothing. I don’t know what if anything can fail this way in the supercharger, or if there may be a leak I’m not keen enough to observe. I may be looking at the wrong thing but I can’t think of another reason the car would act this way. It is driving fine and shifting fine, running the same dual pulley setup and a front heat exchanger, but feels very sluggish. If it isn’t the supercharger, I don’t know what it could be. Thank you.

[djn876]

Have you done any carbon cleaning? Any data logging you can share to see what the car is actually doing? Has been exceptionally hot out where you are?

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[Morritse]

Log.

The mechanical part of the supercharger itself is one of the last things I'd expect to fail.

[silverf0x]

Do you have an aftermarket heat exchanger?

[Jay@JXB]

A supercharger wouldn’t fail like that. If it was mechanical you’d likely hear it too. Do you still have your cats?


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[GLIS4]

Yes, I still have cats in place. I'm wondering if one of them is clogged.

[Morritse]

Yes, I still have cats in place. I'm wondering if one of them is clogged.

You will have misfires in all or usually at least 2 of the cylinders in the bank corresponding to the bad cat, especially at high load.

Change in exhaust tone is usually noticable, as is loss in power.

[Jay@JXB]

Yes, I still have cats in place. I'm wondering if one of them is clogged.

I would ditch the cats ASAP as it’s a must for DP. You will destroy your engine if you don’t.


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[EIAlfonso]

I would ditch the cats ASAP as it’s a must for DP. You will destroy your engine if you don’t.


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Let's find out first what it is before he drops 2-3K on a different setup, if it is the cats then you are correct

[GLIS4]

From what has been said I think it is cats. The drivers side one seems to be clogged. I checked everything else it could be, no issues with injectors, plugs, coils. The car seems down 70-100hp and misfires on two cylinders, always 5 and 6. I might pick up a borescope and pull the o2 to make sure, but it seems like it. Car seems fine up to around 5k but above there at WOT it misfires every single time. I don't think I can afford to do both cats . now, I wish there was a cheap way to unclog the cat just for the time being.

[Morritse]

From what has been said I think it is cats. The drivers side one seems to be clogged. I checked everything else it could be, no issues with injectors, plugs, coils. The car seems down 70-100hp and misfires on two cylinders, always 5 and 6. I might pick up a borescope and pull the o2 to make sure, but it seems like it. Car seems fine up to around 5k but above there at WOT it misfires every single time. I don't think I can afford to do both cats . now, I wish there was a cheap way to unclog the cat just for the time being.

I gutted/hollowed out my stock cats and put them back in. Sounds like you don't want to do that though. If you're under 80k miles, emissions equipment (including cats) are covered by a federal mandate, you just have to make the car look stock, tune wise

[GLIS4]

Following up. I have swapped around coils and plugs. Made absolutely no difference. Popped out the drivers side o2 - made no difference. I stuck a boroscope in the o2 hope and saw the center of the cat is sagging down about a quarter inch. I know this means it is on its way out, but I don't know if that means it is for sure the source of the issue. I do not want to embark on a 3,000 dollar job only to find out it is the fuel system (injectors, fuel sensor?). I have considered swapping the injectors around but since I would have to replace the gaskets, which are not very cheap, I'm not sure where to go. I could pay for VCDS and do logs for more information, or swap around the injectors and see if the problem follows them. I've heard both injectors and cats can lead to this type of symptoms and issues. It is also possible that the misfiring, if it was from the injectors, dumped gas into that cat and screwed it up, although every time it happened to misfire I pulled over and reset the car and limped it home. What do you think?