Supercharger is missing . . . wait what?

moparman76_69 wrote:

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.

My 02 Malibu covered 413,000 boring but reliable miles before rust and a minor collision ended it. I cried a bit since she still ran perfectly right in to the junkyard.

moparman76_69 wrote:

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.

Impressive. Haven't seen it in two years and it was tired back then!

ssswitch wrote: 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 was also going to say i though the mini's were known for the supercharger's failing and nothing you can really do to prevent it, i think it was related to the gear oil?

In reply to edizzle89:
The gear train between the supercharger and water pump is "permanently" lubricated, until it leaks out through the seals. Then the gears run dry and eventually no water pump drive and the engine overheats.We caught mine just before it actually failed. No lubricant, just a pile of black dust.You changed the whole unit, even though the supercharger itself is still good. There are aftermarket suppliers who manufacture the gears now.

I have a supercharged mini.

The supercharger pulley is a press fit. I believe the book says that if it is gone, the repair is to replace the supercharger. You need to figure out if the frozen idler pulley broke the shaft for the supercharger pulley. A broken shaft means a new supercharger. Otherwise, an aftermarket pulley is the way to go.

I may have a source that has MINI parts if you need them.

That would have to be a very nice 02 Mini to be worth putting a new SC in. It likely has even more issues. The oil leaking all over is typical of MINIs and would take $100s more to fix. There are likely a bunch of other failed suspension bits. Scrap time . Spending $3k on a Malibu or Buick would be better value.