Buyting '99 with supercharfer problems

I found an ad for a '99 that appears nice, but the seller states that the car runs but his mechanic says it has supercharger problems and the check-engine light is flashing! I have not seen the car yet because of the distance. It has less than 50K on it. Could I disable the supercharger by removing the belt and drive it home, about 800 miles?

What would be a reasonable offering price?

While I am generally familiar with the 3800 series I and II, I have no experience with a supercharger and its problems.

Thanks in advance for your comments.

JCC3INC

If the check engine light is flashing, I would say that it is not going to make it the 800 mile trip back home. I believe that means the issue is pretty bad when the light is flashing and not just on. I would doubt that the supercharger would cause a flashing check engine light.

Yes, you can run without the supercharger. It is a pain to get the belt off because of the motor mount. You can cut it off but I wouldn't if all the supercharger is doing is making some coupler noise. Like I said on the other board, the flashing CEL means there is impending catalytic converter damage. Usual cause is misfiring that puts unburned fuel into the exhaust and overheats the converter.

I'm no expert but it's just not a good idea to run the car with out the supercharger.Look it up.

http://tinyurl.com/o45gu5l

The engine runs without the supercharger most of the time. If you look at that link, one guy ran his car for 2 months without the supercharger. It would just make the engine a dog, that's all.

My brother ran my '98 without the supercharger hooked up for months. No problem whatsoever, just slower.

If you can keep the engine under light load the bypass will be open and you'll never even notice the supercharger isn't spinning because it will pull air naturally before the rotors.  If you do load it enough that the bypass closes it will try and pull air through the rotors that aren't spinning, someone described that as breathing with you fingers over your mouth, and it will be pretty weak like Larry said earlier.  At least that's how I understand the valve to work.

Lets go back to the basics, 90% of the time when these engines are missfiring it's plugs/wires. If you have a scantool you can scan and see which cylinder(s) is missing.

matt270avian wrote:

Lets go back to the basics, 90% of the time when these engines are missfiring it's plugs/wires. If you have a scantool you can scan and see which cylinder(s) is missing.

How's he gonna "go back to basics" and scan when he hasn't bought the car yet, and it's hundreds of miles away?

Yes, you can run the car without the S/C belt (as others have stated). I highly doubt the S/C is the root cause of the flashing SES light. The reason the SES light is flashing is because the engine is misfiring horribly, and could blow up the Catalytic Converter. So no, a long trip with a flashing SES light is not a good idea.
The actual cause of the misfire is probably something stupid. If the car is cheap, buy it. You could probably find the problem quite quickly.

Abaddon wrote:

How's he gonna "go back to basics" and scan when he hasn't bought the car yet, and it's hundreds of miles away?

Whoops, I completely glossed over that part.. Hurrdurr

matt270avian wrote:

Abaddon wrote:

How's he gonna "go back to basics" and scan when he hasn't bought the car yet, and it's hundreds of miles away?

Whoops, I completely glossed over that part.. Hurrdurr

All the same Matt has a point, it MIGHT be possible to field-diagnose and fix such a misfire. Wonder if the plug wires got mixed up?Wonder if there's a couple bad wires that killed a coil? As you know, blinking CEL normally means a misfire that would dump the unburned fuel into the intake manifold--and would be detectable by the ECM. Pull the plug wires at the coil and plug ends, one by one. I bet you find at least one bad coil connector.

Albertj

To all of you that offered suggestions:

Thank for all your good ideas. Another buyer purchased the car; the distance was an impediment to my getting a crack at it.

When I owned a '91 Reatta, there was a good, active support group to help with problems. You guys are an EXCELLENT aid and I do thank you for your comments. There are other Rivieras that I am considering and most likely will be back with more questions.

JCC

jcc3inc wrote:

To all of you that offered suggestions:

Thank for all your good ideas. Another buyer purchased the car; the distance was an impediment to my getting a crack at it.

When I owned a '91 Reatta, there was a good, active support group to help with problems. You guys are an EXCELLENT aid and I do thank you for your comments. There are other Rivieras that I am considering and most likely will be back with more questions.

JCC  

Well, It's too bad you couldn't have picked up that 99 with low miles. I'll bet the repairs were not going to cost much at all.

Anyway, there's always another one, just have to be patient. Although LOW Mileage vehicles can be hard to find for the right money.