When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
My general feeling is that if you want a garage queen to be a garage queen, buy low miles. If you want a car that can be driven and enjoyed for what it is, get something in the 70-100k range.
They're beautiful cars but I prefer to drive the hell out of a car than look at it. I was looking for more in the 50k range because I don't plan on keeping it more than 3 years. My viewpoint is that it'll be easier to sell a 70k mile 911 than a 100k mile car.
Drew, for years there has appeared to be a correlation between low milage and problems. The IMSB failure, for example, has plagued more garage queens than DDs.
There are two underlying principles to this. The first is that fluids are not regularly circulated which allows things to dry out and age prematurely. The second is that such cars are less likely to get properly driven (fully warmed up, good revs throughout the range, etc..) which can have negative impacts to wear patterns.
That's not to say low milage is bad, but it's far from "well preserved" idea that most people have.
A third principle that I'll add to gnat's list, is that it can take upwards of 25k miles for the bearing to even reveal the issue...
I'll try to explain... Since single and dual row bearings are affected by the issue, there is a belief around this problem out there that roll-out in the actual IMS shaft itself is what ultimately causes the bearings to fail. The thought being the varying amounts of roll out in the shaft will slowly beat up the weakest point at the end points, being the IMS bearing, until it meets its untimely demise.
Only Porsche seems to know for sure EXACTLY what causes the IMSB to ultimately fail... and they aint talkin'. However, there have been engine builders who contribute to this site on a regular basis who have confirmed dissecting M96 and M97 engines and finding IMS shafts with rollout. Logic dictates that a dual row bearing (less than 1% failure rate) should hold up better versus such stress than a single row bearing (8-9% failure rate). And since both types of bearings have failed, one should look to what other parts they have in common and might be a contributing factor.
On the flip side of that, there have also been many M96 and M97 engine failures that have occurred where the IMSB got chewed up due to some other failure, but IMSB was the easiest explanation.
The general rule of thumb that seems to be holding true is that if you have a high-miles car still using it's original IMSB, you are generally safe. As to what that high miles number actually is, that's debatable. But, at 25k, you're right in that danger zone of when many of the 996 mkII and 997 IMSB failures started to rear their ugly head....
I don't care for black, but that looks like a screamin' deal. Sport seats, and lots of leather inside. The arena red is my choice, but if you like black might grab that up.
I don't care for black, but that looks like a screamin' deal. Sport seats, and lots of leather inside. The arena red is my choice, but if you like black might grab that up.
Thanks Doc. I am arranging a PPI for next week at Schneider Autohaus, who have seen the car for maintenance previously. No documentation but the PPI sounds comprehensive (Durametric, etc.).
03-30-2017, 01:37 PM
