Mister Quickie

I'm taking a serious look at a 2006 Cayman S in pristine condition but have the following questions:

1. Does the IMS failure apply to Caymans of that year as well as the Boxsters and 911s? If so, in what model year was this solved?
2. What is the overall reliability of the first generation Cayman?
3. Are there any differences in answering questions 1 and 2 for the base Cayman vs the S?
4. Which has the throatier exhaust, the base or the S?

Did some searching online but haven't found specific answers to these, apologies if this has been discussed ad nauseum, thanks for input

Bill Lehman

IMS doesn't seem to be a problem with Caymans. Changes were made on the M97 motor. I have 33,000 miles and 100 track days on a Gen 1 Cayman S with no reliability issues that are not track related. The base Cayman and Cayman S are basically the same except the base has a 2.7 l engine. The base has a smaller bore diameter and seems to hold up better then the 3.4 when tracked due to smaller and lighter pistons being easier on the rod bearings. With OEM exhaust they sound the same to me. I had a base before moving to a S.

Spokayman

All Caymans sold in the US had M97 engines which were fitted with a larger Intermediate Shaft Bearing than the bearings used in the prior M96 engines. This newer larger bearing seems to be much more trouble free than the prior one.
Note however that the very early 987 Boxsters and 997 Carreras which first came out as 2005 models did not have the newer bearing. It was around 2006 before the new bearing showed up.

shifterkartracer

I just hit 84,xxx miles on my 06. So far the only major issues (knock on wood) I had was the AOS going out - which I replaced myself, and a replacement of one catalytic converter- federal warranty covered. As previously mentioned, the 06 CS should have the updated bearings.

The website planet9.com has tons of info on the Caymans and Boxsters.

HoBoJoe

There have been gen 1 caymans with IMS bearing failures, the 09+ do not have an IMS bearing. The bearing was updated in each model year so the consensus is the newer the better in that aspect. The common issues with the 987.1 from what i recall are water pumps and AOS failures.

Overall I would consider any cayman a reliable car and would not hesitate to buy one. Also, I don't believe there is a reliability difference between the S and base. My S had a better stock exhaust sound than the base I drove, but both are too quiet for a my taste.

ottobon100

Please translate "AOS" for a newbie.

HoBoJoe

AOS = Air/Oil Seperator

trendy996

And the 2.7l only came in a 5spd which greatly influenced my decision to go with the s for the 6 spd. Also RMS: rear main seal. Had my clutch flywheel and rms changed at the same time. I have 70k with no issues thus far. Btw if you have to change your ims the case has to be cracked open unless you find a shop that knows how to get around that. I believe vertex came out with a bearing upgrade that requires you to mill out the housing to insert theirs.
If you go with pasm suspension and you want to lower it you have to get specific suspension so it doesn't throw a pasm code. I just have a sport and sport plus and putting on the h&r springs made me throw a pms and steering angle code which deactivates the sport modes. I have yet to get an alignment to see if that fixes it.

Good luck with your purchase

trendy996

Btw there's some oem upgrades to do to the car as well. For cooling you can add a center radiator, 996 oil cooler (the 996 is larger) and a motor sports AOS (a bit pricey but if you track a nice investment).