Woodman71

I did this "test" as well and was certain the clutch was in pristine condition. My Indy test drove it, however, and was of the opinion I was in need of a new clutch. So I elected to do the IMS at the same time. If my clutch had been good, I would have kept driving it until I needed to replace, then done the bearing. It's a 99, so that factored in to my thought process as well.

jaetee

My C2 Cab's clutch pulled perfectly when I bought it at 93k, but lack of service history and clean looking tranny bolts led my mechanic and I to the conclusion that the car was on it's original clutch. That, plus variocam chain rattle that would also occur at warm start led to decision for engine-out, full alpahbet soup of parts engine-refresh.

When the clutch came out it showed wear well into the rivets on the pressure plate side, but still just enough meat on the flywheel side where there was not yet any scarring damage to the flywheel.

My point being... these clutch discs can work really well for a very long time berefore showing signs of needing replacement. In my case, we got in there just early enough to reuse the flywheel, which saved me roughly $1k in additional expense vs. had I waited a month or two.

Luke Reid

Ok - that gives me great confidence to move ahead with this - a bit of early maintenance could well pay off in the future. I'm going to ask the mechanics to keep a reord of what they find as it may be helpful to others in the future. Thanks!

docmirror

Interesting info. Thanks for the data point, since I'm coming up on 90k miles. I guess the pull test in 3-4th gear isn't as qualified for the 996. Almost any other car will slip pretty good at that point.

jaetee

Ask them to hold onto the parts they swap out, like the clutch plate, IMSB, water pump, AOS, thermostat and such...

AOS can be taken apart and new diaphrams put in. I haven't tried it myself yet, but I have my old AOS here and bought diaphrams for it for $14 and will probably give that shot at some point... And if you ever sell the car and tell someone in-the-know that you had IMSB swapped as preventative maintenance, the first question out of their mouth should be "had it already failed?" It really helps to show them the old bearing along with the receipt so they can see it was not failing.

If the engine is coming out to do all of this, consider having your mechanic work up a leakdown & compression test for you. And be sure to keep the print outs or photos of the results.

I sold my black cab w/99k miles on it via Bring a Trailer a few weeks ago for, quite frankly, $3-4k more than I expected to get for it... The buyer told me on the phone afterwards that he was sold on the presentation of the car and the lack of question marks the mechanical condition of the car posed. Me keeping the old IMSB and original leather seat covers and including them in the sale made a difference. He also mentioned the used oil analysis and leakdown test as confidence builders.

You may have no intention now of selling the car anytime soon, but having those data points and evidence thereof will give a buyer of a used, former super car considerable peace of mind and will either 1) make your car easier to sell; 2) sell for higher price, or both.

Start a 3-ring binder and hole punch and file all of that stuff into a book. It all makes a difference.

KoB

Interesting point regarding slippage and the pull test ... I test drove my car -- prior to purchase -- with the bad clutch. It pulled well and I couldn't feel any slip even at wide open throttle. The only clue, of sorts, was fairly high effort. From this, the shop thought that the clutch needed replacing. When the shop went to replace the clutch, the pressure plate was worn down to the rivets and had damaged the flywheel pretty badly. They had expected the worn clutch but were actually surprised that the flywheel was trashed.

dan_189

Always a good idea to hang onto original parts.

Also a good idea, I started a ring binder when I got my car, went from small to medium to extra large and its now thick with pages!

Luke Reid

So I bit the bullet with my local Indy and had everything recommended to bring the car up to good drive able standard. I don't expect to have to go back until the next full service. I was doubting that I needed a clutch replacement but that has by far been the most noticeable from the driver's seat. Now the car is easy to drive, smooth, changes gear without any jerkiness etc. and I'm not getting a full leg workout on each journey. The IMS retrofit from LN was installed at the same time - not sure what I should be looking for on the original but it seems ok to me. Apparently I need to return this to LN in order to validate my warranty. Does anyone know if they send them back after?As all the discs and pads have been changed I'm going easy on the brakes at the moment but expect more bite to become evident, certainly it's less stressful driving knowing my stoppers are in perfect condition. Having AC is a bonus!

808Bill

Can't hurt to ask them to return it...

5CHN3LL

(For future reference: This thread's title is the correct way to explain this scenario. Less effective ways of conveying information include gems like "HAVE MILSHAKE!")

Schnell Gelb

Remember folks Luke is in the English Rust Belt so brakes.suspension,exhaust work may be difficult.Encouraging him to get back into heavy diy car mechanics after a 30 year 'retirement' from it may be a little over enthusiastic? If it were an old MGB ,different story.

dporto

"Luke...Use the Force..." evrything else will take care of itself

Luke Reid

Indeed - horrible corrosion, seized nuts etc. I'll start with the little jobs thanks.

Luke Reid

Haha - that's what I should have done before starting this! On the positive side - sun's out and we are out to play today. Already added 2k to the clock.

jaetee

If no visible issues or loose parts on your bearing, then it's probably just fine... I forgot about LN wanting bearings shipped to them. Pretty sure they want to inspect the old bearing to look for evidence of failure, so they don't end up honoring their warranty on a car that has already experienced a full bearing failure. In cases where the original bearing leaked debris into the oil, it's virtually impossible to get out all of the bearing shrapnel hiding in nooks and crannies in the engine. Those engines are destined to eventually fail and present a bad warranty risk to LN.

For the sake of putting potential future buyers at ease over outgoing bearing condition, I would think documentation/proof of proper LN warranty would also be sufficient. In your case, I'd either shoot some pics of the bearing and mail it in as asked to complete your warranty registration, or forego the warranty and hold onto the bearing.

From my readings in this forum, I think the LN warranty is more to pacify the need for consumers to have a warranty and serves as much less of a safety net than the word implies. I had the EPS Eternal cylinder bearing installed in my black cab during my engine refresh project, so I am not 100% on this as I did not research the LN warranty at all, but doesn't the LN only cover the cost of the bearing in the unlikely event that it should be proven one of their bearings failed? If so, the bulk of cost associated with such failure would be for labor and the host of other internal parts anyway, so the eventual value of said warranty is really only a negligible amount compared to the big picture should that happen...

I think member Gnat has an LN bearing in his car and instead of sending his in to complete the warranty process, he chose to have his old IMSB plated in gold and now uses it as his avatar photo, paperweight, conversation piece and decor item... Clever, still getting some "mileage" out of his old bearing.