Found a guy selling a 2005 Mini Cooper s manual and he’s only asking 900 or obo for it because he says it needs a new supercharger. The car has about 100,000 miles and says it was garage kept and you can definitely tell it was. What I wanted to ask was am I taking a risk here? Is there anything from the SC breaking that would cause problems else where? I really want to grab this car and do the work myself. Any advice would help thanks. BTW this would be my first Mini so I’m not too familiar with these cars.

 

If you can turn your own wrenches, JCW superchargers on sale right now.
https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...w/11657556981/

 

Totally depends on what happened to the supercharger. If it ran out of oil and seized, that's problematic and could have caused other issues. Does the car start?

 

I’m waiting on getting a response from the guy. But should the car still run if the supercharger has gone bad?

 

Problem is that 95% of the time the supercharger 'fails' or 'breaks' it means that the PTO that drives the water pump has gone bad, which then causes overheating, which if ignored too long can ruin a head gasket or even the head.

 

Unless the supercharger is locked up, yes it should run, at least well enough to check other things.

But honestly, for $900 even if you had to put $1500 more into it, you'd still be well ahead of the game.
A well taken care of, an '05 should get you 250k miles.

If it was near me, it would be gone in a heartbeat...

 

If you can wrench, and have the space, this is a no brainer. If the damage isn't significant, fix it and you got a bargain. If it's significant, part it out, and you will still make money.