Supercharger Bypass (SCB) System

WARNING: This page does not describe the selected car, but rather 32 other vehicles, including the 2005 Mercury Sable, 2005 Mercury Mountaineer, 2005 Mercury Monterey, 2005 Mercury Montego, and 2005 Mercury Mariner. However, it is still accessible from the selected car via links, so may be relevant.

The SCB system allows the high pressure air at the outlet of the supercharger to vent back into the inlet of the supercharger, equalizing the pressure. This eliminates the boost (increased pressure that a supercharger produces) for times when supercharger function is undesirable. The components in this system are the vacuum bypass actuator (which controls the bypass valve inside the supercharger), an SCB solenoid, and a vacuum reservoir. The system normally operates with engine vacuum applied to the upper port of the vacuum bypass actuator, while the lower port references the air pressure in the clean air tube to cancel out any pressure difference in the intake air system. The actuator is set to open (bypassing the supercharger) during high vacuum engine conditions. As the throttle is opened and engine vacuum decreases, the actuator closes to allow the supercharger to pressurize the air in the manifold. If an undesirable condition occurs in the engine, such as overheating or a critical electronic engine control (EEC) sensor failure, the powertrain control module (PCM) also has the ability to control the SCB solenoid and direct the vacuum bypass actuator to bypass the supercharger. Once the engine condition has been corrected, the PCM allows the engine vacuum to control the vacuum bypass actuator.