Disabling a Supercharger

[kague]

We have a 94 Bonneville SSEI. The supercharger has gone bad and the quoted price to replace is almost $2000.00.
We do not have the money, so the mechanic is disabling it, for the time being.
What can we expect from this car with the supercharger disabled?

[GTP Dad]

The only thing you will probably find is a lack of performance when you kick it into passing gear. I would search the local wrecking yards for a good used supercharger as they should be readily available and will cost you a whole lot less than a new one. I found this one on ebay that will fit your car and is not at less than $200 and it even includes the throttle body. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=33741

[LMP]

INdeed the supercharged model is built with a lower compression ratio and I think that the supercharger being a positive volume type, it means taking off the rotating parts or taking it out completely and installing a standard intake manifold...(GTPdad I'd like you to come with details on this)...and to me indeed this is no less a pain and probably costs not less than finding a used supercharger and putting it in place.
Other than that, ...it would be a shame....lol
BY the way, GTPDAD, in what way does a supercharger die? It is not subject to extreme heat.., nor extreme speed, so what? bearings? Dust inhalation? Gear busting?

[kague]

Originally Posted by LMP

INdeed the supercharged model is built with a lower compression ratio and I think that the supercharger being a positive volume type, it means taking off the rotating parts or taking it out completely and installing a standard intake manifold...(GTPdad I'd like you to come with details on this)...and to me indeed this is no less a pain and probably costs not less than finding a used supercharger and putting it in place.
Other than that, ...it would be a shame....lol
BY the way, GTPDAD, in what way does a supercharger die? It is not subject to extreme heat.., nor extreme speed, so what? bearings? Dust inhalation? Gear busting?

the engine started making a clacking sound and had a loss of power. The mechanic detirmined the noise was from inside the supercharger (said it was *missing*) and that the supercharger had gone bad and was at risk to start throwing parts (car has 160,000 miles on it).

It cost $350 for him to disable it, but it also disabled the air conditioning.

We have a different mechanic (the first one is the one we have happily used for 11 yrs) that is a family friend of our daughter in laws family who has said he will look for a better price on a rebuilt supercharger and let us know when he finds one and that will give us a break on the installation cost, so hopefully we wont have to go too long w/out the supercharger.

[GTP Dad]

Generally the supercharger dies due to mechanical wear such as bad gears, bad coupler or the seals in the supercharger go bad due to wear and will cause the supercharger to stop providing boost. Bearings and gear wear are the main cause of failure but doing normal maintenance and replacing the bearings when they start going bad will enable the supercharger to live a long and productive life. Because the supercharger is a precision machined piece of equipment the increase in tolerances inside the supercharger will cause loss of boost but usually will not cause the supercharger to totally stop working.

When Kague indicated that the mechanic disabled the supercharger I was under the assumption that he only removed the belt that would prevent it from operating. I would never suggest total removal of the supercharger and installation of the standard 3.8 manifold due to the performance issues and the fact that the PCM would not truly be compatable with changing the engine to a normally aspirated one. The cost of a reman or a used unit would be my suggestion as I indicated in my response. This would be the cheapest and the easiest way to restore the engine to an operating unit. In fact the cost of a used replacement engine would be cheaper in the long run than the $2K that the mechanic suggested to replace the supercharger.