Supercharger is missing . . . wait what?

Looking for theories here. Trying to help out a young college kid who is just scraping by. He just got a $3400 repair bill on his 02 Mini S. He doesn't appear to really be a "car guy", so I took a look at the repair estimate for him. I'll type this out longhand for the full picture. Here's the text of the estimate (the lack of punctuation, all caps and barely intelligible English are original, not mine):

"ON INSPECTION OF VEHICLE NEEDS BELT IDLER PULLEY LOCKED UP AND CAUSED BELT TO COME OFF W/NEW BELT EST $277.70 (ON INSPECTION OF REPLACING IDLER PULLEY FOUND SUPER CHARGER MISSING COMPLETELY NOT AREPLACIBLE PART WILL NEED COMPLETE SUPER CHARGER ASSY W/WATER PUMP EST. ON NEW INSTALLED RECOMMENDED $2980.00) RETEST NEEDS OIL CHANGE AND RECOMMEND STEAM CLEAN COMPLETE ENGINE AND ADD DYE LEAKING OIL ALL OVER EST. $69.00. REAR BREAKE ROTORS RUSTY STILL HAVE GOOD PAD LIFE. BOTH SWAY BAR LINK BROKEN HIGHLY RECOMMEND BOTH EST. $165.00"

W.T.F. is going on here? I can't think of any possible way an entire supercharger (or SUPER CHARGER, as the case may be) assembly goes "missing". Also, how do you get all the way into replacing an idler pulley before you realize the SUPER CHARGER is gone? Methinks they are hosing the kid, but I don't want to toss around accusations if there's some reasonable explanation for all of this. If there is, I haven't thought of it. My thought is shop started a relatively simple job and left the car unsecured. Supercharger was stolen, and now they want this kid to pay for it. Thoughts?

How did the car end up in the shop in the first place? Was it driven there under its own power? I've never heard of anything so asinine.

seyhan3535 wrote: How did the car end up in the shop in the first place? Was it driven there under its own power? I've never heard of anything so asinine.

Not sure. Now that I've seen the estimate, I've got a call in to him to get more info on how this whole thing developed. But, honestly, I can't think of anything he's going to tell me that's going to make that estimate make sense.

Looking at it, I think it'd be immediately obvious if the supercharger was entirely missing.

Superchargers on the Minis are know for failure, but that's definitely not how that quote reads.

Wow. That's all sorts of cuckoo.

Unless the car got towed to the shop, I can't see how it made it there with the supercharger missing. As the shop helpfully pointed out, the supercharger also drives the water pump...

It also says the engine is covered I. Oil and that both rear sway bar links are broken. Sounds like your friend isn't telling you something. Was this car stolen and recovered?

Kid's being hosed. Without the supercharger there is no water pump drive at all. It would overheat, if it would even start. OR, find out why he went there in the first place. That estimate is about what it would cost if the PTO between the supercharger and water pump is bad, or still running but making grindy noises. Once it fails the engine will overheat and it'll be a much bigger bill than that estimate.

I have a feeling it is an English problem. Sounds like the supercharger was determined to be toast after they fixed the idler pully and put a belt on it.

One of the best foreign car mechanics I know can not wright in English at all.

It's old enough maybe someone swapped in a justa engine, or maybe it's really a justa with S trim on it?

What I'm getting out of this is Mini vehicles are really reliable, low cost of ownership vehicles. Like Mazerati biturbos.

There are like 5 2002 Cooper S's on my local craigslist right now for under $5k. Even if the bill was $1500, why even bother fixing it?

A Cooper S isn't exactly the car that someone who is "just scraping by" should be driving. An old Civic perhaps....

Alright, here's an update. Apparently some of weirdness is a function of the complete lack of punctuation in the quote. According to the kid, the supercharger/SUPER CHARGER pulley is what was completely missing. I'm still not sure I'm convinced the kid isn't getting hosed. I don't see how losing the pulley requires the replacement of the entire $3,000.00 assembly. Don't people routinely replace the pulleys to up the boost a little bit?

irish44j wrote: There are like 5 2002 Cooper S's on my local craigslist right now for under $5k. Even if the bill was $1500, why even bother fixing it? A Cooper S isn't exactly the car that someone who is "just scraping by" should be driving. An old Civic perhaps....

We'll have a talk about this once we get the bill straightened out. I agree completely.

irish44j wrote: There are like 5 2002 Cooper S's on my local craigslist right now for under $5k. Even if the bill was $1500, why even bother fixing it? A Cooper S isn't exactly the car that someone who is "just scraping by" should be driving. An old Civic perhaps....

I'd re-read the first post "Not really a car guy." I'm sure the kid bought the car simply because it was probably $5k and looked different than a Civic. That's going down a rabbit hole and completely irrelevant.

Maybe where the pulley mounts is broken/toast and the casting on the supercharger is fubar? Sounds like a hose job though. I've heard of the pulleys on these going bad, never missing though.

If say the gear set in the supercharger lunched and ate its self and then jammed and that in turn caused the pully to break or the shaft to the pully to brake. That would kill a supercharger.

If the missing pulley cracked the nose on the supercharger housing on its way out, I can see it needimg a new s/c. Not a serviceable unit sounds right by shop standards.

The horrible grammar and general lack of writing skillz, y0, make it difficult to decipher, however, I think the mechanic is trying to say that something was missing on the supercharger, maybe a pulley or other drive mechanism? And it was not a replaceable part, thus needing a new entire supercharger.

A nice Corolla would be a good suggestion. Or, hey, have you priced 90's-00's Celicas? They are practically giving them away.

Malibu or an impala are good appliances for some one like that. My daughter hated me for recommending her one. But five years and 75k miles with only normal maintenance and she now thanks me. At 170k I would drive ot anywhere.

dean1484 wrote: Malibu or an impala are good appliances for some one like that. My daughter hated me for recommending her one. But five years and 75k miles with only normal maintenance and she now thanks me. At 170k I would drive ot anywhere.

As much as I despise the car, I've been limping my wife's 98 cutlass along since about 120k and it's now over 200k and won't ever break down in such a way that I can justify replacing it over just spending a day fixing it.

Pressed on supercharger pulley that snapped off. Yeah that is a new supercharger.

The OE pulley on a MINI supercharger is made of steel and is pressed on. It doesn't just go missing. Now if it's been replaced with an aftermarket pulley, those do sort of bolt on and could conceivably come off, although I've never heard of it happening.

What exactly is wrong? Is the car still driveable? If so, the entire quote is B.S. As mentioned, a MINI S engine won't really run at all without the supercharger pulley. It would be hard to even bypass it with a non-S engine belt as the ancillary component locations (A/C, alternator and tensioner) are somewhat different. It's not as if they took a base engine and added the supercharger.

Are those the ones where the supercharger is "sealed for life" and they inevitably grenade themselves unless the owner takes it off the BMW maintenance schedule and drains and refills both oil reservoirs themselves?

A missing pulley makes more sense to me than a fully missing supercharger. Maybe what's left of the pulley is wobbling on totally grenaded rotors.

I read it as the pulley is missing. Our mechanic here is no Hemingway but is trying to say the part is not sold as a separate piece so he needs the whole unit according to unimaginative dealer types. In which case I'd be checking to see if the supercharger was otherwise operable, then buy an aftermarket pulley and make it fit, replace the idler and belt and get back to driving around. Possibly as far as the nearest used car lot with a healthy Corolla/Civic/Sonata/etc out front.

As a service tech myself I can decipher here. Basically this guy wants the kid to walk away. He doesn't know how to work on this "new fangled eurotrash", and now wants the kid to give up or take it to another "Mini-qualified tech"

Go with the kid and see how it's explained to you. You'll know. A car guy can sense BS a few blocks down the road. A common technique of ridding yourself of a nightmare job is to knit pick at everything and rack up a huge bill. "Rust on the brake pads"... yeah he's grabbing here...