1999 PA - Not hearing the supercharger "Whine"

[rwalters_pctech]

I used be able to hear the Supercharger kick in...kind of a whine. I don't hear it anymore and of course the belt is connected. There are no noises at all coming from the engine to indicate anything is wrong. It just doesn't seem to boogity-boogity as good as it did. No warning lights, nothing,....is there a fuse maybe?

Any info would be appreciated.

[benEzra]

The supercharger spins all the time, but there is a boost solenoid that shuts off the bypass passage (thereby pressurizing the intake manifold) when the computer decides to. The whine on my '97 is very hard to hear, even under boost, unless you have the windows down and are driving next to a wall or something.

Performance issues could be related to the bypass solenoid not working (I think there may be a fuse, but I'm not sure--could also be a cracked vacuum line), but could also be the result of having used a tank of non-premium gas recently (the computer will retard spark timing to prevent knocking under boost, and using low-octane gas trains the computer to always retard timing when you step on it).

You could try filling your tank with premium, then disconnecting your negative battery cable for a few hours to clear the computer's memory, and see if that improves things. Could also be spark plugs, wires, etc. etc. A dealer might be able to get some fault codes from the car's computer also, if there's a sensor or something that's not working properly.

[rwalters_pctech]

I will try that...

Thank you very much!