Land Rover Range Rover Sport: 5.0 V8 Supercharger Nose Cone Oil Seal Failure

The 5.0 litre AJ133 supercharged V8 fitted to Range Rover Sport L494 SVR and Supercharged variants uses a Roots-type Eaton TVS supercharger with a dedicated oil reservoir and internal lubrication circuit. The front nose cone of the supercharger houses an oil seal that separates the supercharger lubrication oil from the intake charge air path. This seal degrades with heat cycling and age, allowing supercharger oil to be ingested into the inlet manifold and intercooler. Oil mist and deposits build up on the intercooler core faces and inside intake pipework. Symptoms include blue smoke on startup or overrun, oil residue visible on intercooler fins, and in advanced cases oil-fouled spark plugs and reduced power. If untreated the intercooler becomes progressively oil-saturated, reducing charge air cooling efficiency. The fix involves supercharger removal, nose cone seal replacement, and intercooler decontamination or replacement.

• Blue or grey smoke from exhaust on cold start or on the overrun after sustained highway driving
• Oily film or brown residue visible on intercooler faces when viewed through the grille
• Oil mist coating inside intake ducting between supercharger and throttle body
• Oil deposits on spark plugs found during service
• Slight burning oil smell from engine bay at operating temperature
• Supercharger oil reservoir requiring top-up between services

Shine a torch through the grille to inspect the intercooler fin faces for oil contamination — a clean intercooler should show bare aluminium. Check the supercharger oil filler cap for frothy or emulsified oil. Check exhaust pipe internals for sooty oil deposits. If possible view the vehicle startup from behind after a cold soak. Scan for misfires or injector trim codes that may indicate oil-fouled cylinders. If a workshop inspection is possible: With the vehicle cold, remove the intake duct between the supercharger outlet and throttle body and inspect internally for oily residue or brown coating.

Parts involved: Intake manifold.

$2,800 to $6,500 at New Zealand independent workshop rates. That is for this job on its own, not for the car.

An estimate, in NZD, for the repair as normally carried out. What a specific car costs depends on which part has failed and what it damaged on the way — treat this as the floor for a negotiation, not a quote.

• “Has the supercharger nose cone seal or supercharger unit itself ever been replaced?”
• “Has the vehicle ever produced blue smoke or shown oil contamination in the intake system?”
• “When was the supercharger oil last changed, and what level is it currently?”
• “Has the intercooler ever been removed and cleaned or replaced?”

The failure described above is documented in published sources — owner forums, technical service bulletins, recall notices and workshop write-ups — held in our fault database. The inspection instructions and the cost estimate are KickTyres’ own interpretation of them, and it is a starting point for an inspection rather than a manufacturer statement.