Supercharger coupler - Lately I’ve seen this topic brought up so many times. Leave it to JLR to not make it simple to know which coupler you have. While you could technically purchase an OEM spring version of the coupler, most who are going as far to remove the snout are going to replace it with a solid version to prevent future damage to the SC shaft and future issues with the spring itself rusting, stretching or breaking all together.

So which coupler do you get? That’s not such an easy answer. There are basically different snouts and different coupler sizes. Only way to know for sure which one you have is to remove it and measure.

There is one that is roughly 46mm in diameter and another roughly 49mm. The larger one is also slightly thicker and the alignment pins are slightly larger.

In my research and experience almost all V6 models have the larger diameter version.

The V8 models unfortunately are harder to determine. From what I can tell. Around 2016 they moved the V8 to the larger coupler as well. If you have a V8 model with the larger coupler and an electronic actuator, the OEM spout is PN: C2D55131. As long as you have an electronic actuator and not vacuum. This is the snout with the larger coupler inside. Earlier model V8 use PN: C2D52713 for their snout.

Now what aftermarket coupler do you go with? Eaton makes their own solid coupler. They make a larger diameter version and sells for around $70. Part number is EAT-361506. SCOL sells this one along the proper oil as well. Can even buy it as a kit.

There are a LOT of other companies that sell solid couplers as well. Some are cheaper 3D printed versions. I would not trust them.

There are however companies out there, similar to where I bought mine from, that sell a well made coupler and often provide a warranty.

The company I went with was ZZP Performance. I’ll provide their link below. They sell both the smaller and larger coupler for around $30. Offer a lifetime warranty and excellent customer service. For the less than the price of the one Eaton one you could buy both sizes if you wanted to, so you had the right one on hand when doing your swap. The reason being. There is no real way to know for sure which one you have. Until you open the snout up. There are reports of many owners thinking they have one and actually have the other. The one that is star shaped is what replaces the larger one. The round one replaces the smaller one.

Hopefully this is helpful to someone as there is a lot of conversation about these stupid things. I blame JLR for making it impossible to know by VIN what is what.

https://www.ebay.com/str/zzperformance




Larger solid coupler 49mm





Smaller coupler ~46mm

 

Great post!

 

I did know about the vacuum or electrical bypass setup differences but I did not know that the couplers came in different sizes too!
Thanks for filling in the details!
So far from what I have read I will install the slightly updated factory spring cushioned snout.
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Unless there is something wrong with your snout, I would not spend the $ on this. A new one is almost $700+. You could literally buy a rebuild kit and replace the bearings, shaft and coupler for under $200.

 

Yes you are correct! I should have filled in the details. My SC snout was clunking a bit and I was unaware of all the options to fix it at that time. I got the factory complete snout part number and found a brand new in the box factory snout on EBay for $200! I posted it and that turned into a big thread on counterfeit parts!

I got to looking at everything because DaveTibbs warned in that thread it was likely a counterfeit part since it was so cheap. The amazing thing I found was for some reason the snout packaging was marked made in USA?? It's hard to believe Jaguar would source any parts from the US?

In that thread the changes made to the factory spring coupler can also be seen. They added some metal so the spring acted on that instead of directly on the plastic hub plus they added some grease to the coupler from the factory, they were all assembled dry before that.
Here is the thread for more details and pictures;
Solid SC Coupler Recall

One thing someone mentioned in that thread and never talked about again was genuine Jaguar factory parts have a sticker that glows in Ultraviolet light? He did not say of it was the stickers on the box or on the part itself?
Don't know if it's true but interesting anyway. I do have a black light flashlight for checking AC systems for leaks using the same idea. Never checked as after posting all my pictures of the snout it was decided that it was a genuine factory part.
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Thank you for sharing. Unfortunately, there are now several Chinese knock off parts for the snout. You can always tell by the price. The OEM part is north of $700 new, $500 used in most cases. Even used ones often times need to be looked at carefully to ensure you have the right part as there are different versions. The grease they use is meant to serve two purposes. One to help ensure the coupler can slide over the guide pins easily, but in the case of the spring loaded version, to serve as a means to reduce friction as there is by design some "play" in the OEM coupler. That is where the solid coupler comes into play. It is meant to be installed dry, although I used some Liqui Moly grease to make it easier to slide on and provide some protection, but not needed.

 

Not surprising for an Eaton supercharger, made in the USA.



Maybe this will make you feel better...or at least, not alone.


A friend had an issue with his supercharged Lotus, under warranty. The dealer had to remove the SC, ship it to England, then the factory shipped it back across the pond to Eaton. THAT took a while...

 

With what you said should I keep my factory snout as a core for maybe future use? I guess it will depend on it's condition but when rebuilding it seems that the bearings and the shaft are both replaced along with the coupler so all I need is a good casting?

Now with your additional comments about counterfeit parts along with DaveTibbs warnings in that other thread it is a much bigger problem than I was aware of!

Glad Lotus was paying for all that! Yes good point about Eaton but they are a world wide company so I was unsure where the TVS was made.
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Judging by the parts system the change may be based on engine number and that also says the later part is C2D52713, not the earlier one. It also supersedes C2D38553 but presumably only if you are changing the whole snout.

The engine serial number is date based so changed at the beginning of 2014 although that is just the engine manufactured date, not fitted date.



The 3 litre cars also have a different part number for the replacement snout, C2D53104 (was C2D40425).

I also noticed that C2D55131 seems to generally get hits on the 2018/19 XJ, not F Type, although the earlier XJ's have the same part number as the F Type so I don't know what they would differ on the later cars.