Our '03 R53 is in pieces at our mechanic's shop, with chewed up PTO gears in the supercharger/water pump. The mechanic's normal parts supplier has superchargers on backorder. Way has new, rebuilt and used superchargers that he can sell us, so we're trying to decide what to go with. We're leaning towards the rebuilt units as a good compromise: saves some money, and it has a 1 year warranty. The used option is attractive for lowering the price further, and would be from a wrecked car that has almost half the mileage that ours had when the failure occurred (~70K miles).

We're currently trying to decide if, after the numerous expensive repairs we've had whether we want to keep the car long term, or if we want to get rid of it. I know that our decision might affect which part we decide to go with...

Any opinions?

 

What ever supercharger you choose you can always cap off the water pump side and start running an electric water pump. That would keep you from having to worry about the gears going out again. If it were me i would either have my current supercharger rebuilt $700 or get the rebuilt ported and polished $1400 that way sells.

 

I picked up a low mile used sc off of ebay a while back....about 600$.
Some places can rebuild a sc, even with new gears and seals for under $1000....or like you said get one ready to go...depends on the amount of downtime.....convience = extra cost....
There is one ebay seller of very cheap rebult sc down in fl, imo, stay away, they seem to fail pretty regularly....but do come with a warrenty....you just get to replace the sc a few times...kinda like an autozone alternator.....
If you go with a used one, you can refil the oil...internal seals could be going, but might be fine...
A rebult/new one costs more, but has less chance of needing an early removal....
So no clear answers...kinda measure risk vs $$$ savings in your gut and go for it...
Downtime on a second or third car is not a big deal for some, but can be a major issue if it is a daily driver.

 

+1 on what Zippy said. Chargers are a hit/miss item. Some last, some prematurely crash. If cost difference is significant, I'd probably risk a used low mile 1, change the oil & pray a lot.

 

I bought a rebuilt one off this guy on ebay. I was leary at first, till I talked to him a few times over email. They have a shop in Tampa FL. I found the name a while back and his website. Good guy, I payed $750 shipped back in February for a rebuilt shipped to my door.

He recomends changing the oil on the passenger side compartment and will sell you a kit to drain and refill it for an extra 30 bucks(he must have changed this after I bought my replacement, he charged me an extra 30 for it later down the road, but the price did go up 50 before shipping). I changed out a bunch of other parts when I did mine. My PTO gear was toast. Car would over heat at idle and had a 2ndary wine too that a few people told me was the PTO gear. I replaced the Idler pulley(it actually seized up the week I was going to do work on it and backed out going to work. Wasn't fun), tensioner pulley as well as the water pump and both gaskets. Cost me around 1100 to do it in parts alone and 2 weekends(didn't realize I needed the idler pulley till I got the car apart) and about 20 hours of work all in all. Some more skilled mechanics can do it in half of that, but it was my first time.

 

:e ek2:

From the website of the ebay guy posted above.... do another 20 hrs work in just 500 miles to change the sc oil and maintain your lifetime warranty?
Seems kinda like their out on the "lifetime transferable unlimited mile warranty", or just change their e-bay name...
For a big $$, the warranty is only as good as the likely-hood the seller will be around to honor it....so paying extra for it....

Could just be a 500 rebuild with a healthy markup...to pay for the warranty. Just seems like a bit of hype...

 

I have one for sale. PM me.

 

Had this company do a rebuild and it turned out to be a mess. Also time they promised was 4x as long, and don't try to get them on the phone. You may have had better luck being local, but I won't use them again.

 

No no no, you don't do the waterpump side @ 500m, you ONLY do the passenger side compartment. I called him and asked him directly back in April I think. He said you only have to do the pully side, the PTO gear side you do NOT have to do anything other then normal maintenance intervals.

 

I went into it knowing he was behind on orders. His site says they get slammed with Mini rebuilds all the time. It took me about 3 weeks from order date till it arrived. I was able to get a hold of the guy on his cell(he emailed it to me). Thats just my experience with him. Wasn't bad for me, but seems other guys have had issues. I am NOT local to him either, I am in PA. I mean, i saved almost 200 bucks and I was fine with the wait. It was still really cold out anyways and I was going to be working in an unheated garage so I didnt mind.