A couple questions come to mind:

1. What does the owner mean when he says it needs a new supercharger? Did the drive gears disintegrate and make rattling noised? Did is seize up?

2. The Supercharger also drives the water pump gears - if they failed, did the car over heat? (this could lead to other serious issues).

The other issue is the supply of replacement superchargers - they are getting very difficult to find. If you choose to purchase this MINI, have a source for the replacement supercharger identified with inventory before you get the car!

I'd ask if the engine still idles. What is actually wrong with the supercharger? Even if it locked up, the car should still idle if the supercharger drive belt is removed. If it idles, then you make a compression and/or a leakdown test.

If it passes both those tests, it could be a good buy, since the supercharger can be readily replaced. If not, figure out what an engine rebuild costs and add it to the price tag.

Contact [email protected] re supercharger.

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.