What is a Supercharger Assembly?
internal combustion engines (ICEs) function by sucking air and fuel into a cylinder, compressing it with a piston, and ignition the mixture with a spark. This forces the piston back down and that piston causes the crankshaft to spin with great force. Once basic concept of creating more power is to force more air and fuel into the same sized cylinder, so when the fuel and air burns, the piston is pushed down with much greater force. This means the crankshaft will spin with much greater force, and provide more power to drive the vehicle. To accomplish this feat, a supercharger is used to push air into the cylinder instead of depending on the air to be sucked into the cylinder.
How do Supercharger Assemblies work?
Superchargers are driven components, just like an alternator or power steering pump. They use a crankshaft driven belt to spin an internal air pump that sucks in air from the air filter. When the air is sucked in from the air filter, the supercharger will compress that air and pump it into the intake manifold. This means there is now much more air being pushed into the engine, so the engine control system is now able to introduce much more fuel as well. With all of the added fuel and compressed air, the engine will have a much more powerful burn inside the combustion chamber, and the piston will turn the crankshaft with much greater force.
What are the symptoms of a bad Supercharger Assembly?
Since superchargers main function is to increase power output, a failing supercharger will cause the engine to lose power. This is because the amount of air being pumped into the engine is no longer substantial, and the engine can no longer create those more powerful combustion events. Also, many superchargers will rattle when they are failing, but this may not be accompanied by reduced engine power. Finally, if the supercharger is not pumping sufficient air, or air pressure is being lost before it arrives in the combustion chamber, the check engine light will also illuminate, and the on-board diagnostic (OBD) codes will reference manifold absolute pressure, mass air flow, and a rich running condition. Finally, while not as common, the exhaust may have a black tint due to incomplete combustion of fuel inside the combustion chambers.