jimbo3

I've been looking around for an S2 or 951 and several ads I've seen indicate new rod bearings. Is this a common maintenance item at 125K to 150K miles?

Any other tips on purchasing would be greatly appreciated.

-Jim

M758

They last a long time in street driven cars. For cars that will see track use it is good idea to replace them. Some street guys replace them for prevetion. If you need to pull the oil pan due to an oil plan gasket leak you might as well change rod bearings as you are right there.

luckett

i just replaced mine in a 160K 968 with quite a few track miles and they were in great condition. like joe says, it's cheap insurance to change them even if not totally necessary.

KLR

In a sense. The oil pan gasket frequently needs to be changed at this mileage or after 12-25 years due to leaks. This is a very time consuming job, particularly on the turbo (removing the crossover adds about 4 hours). The additional cost of doing the rod bearings preventatively once you're in that far is very low (perhaps $200), so many people spring for it. Generally they will come out looking pretty much like new if the car has never had an oil/coolant mixing episode, been run hard with the oil low, or not received reasonably frequent changes.

As an example of this phenomenon, my 951 has fresh rod bearings because I did the pan gasket last winter. It was only leaking a bit, but since I had to have the crossover off anyway to replace the headers, I went ahead and did the oil pan gasket and rod bearings because it wasn't much more work. This is the first time the pan had been off in the car's 20 years. If the new pan gasket is going to last another 20 years, I figured, "why not do the rod bearings too and not have to go in again until 2027?" (Knock wood). The old bearings came out looking pretty much like new.

chrisc

88 924 S with 81000 miles. Just replaced rod bearings. Car has been tracked and AX'd a bunch. Shop said the bearings and crank were in great shape. Mobil 1 always since new.

xsboost90

im wondering about changing mine. Car has 57k on it approx and i'll have the engine out- pan off redoing seals and such. I know it makes sense to do the bearings "while im in there" but im thinking it may not be necessary. I hate to pull them and put new ones in with so few miles...

AlpharettaRK

When I did mine in my 87 race car (75k or so) the #2 had 2 spots with noticeable wear or heat discoloration. I was glad I did it.
Cheers
Randy

KuHL 951

It depends if the owner says new rod bearings were installed as preventative maintenance or the result of a spun #2. Personally I would avoid any car that spun a bearing and repairs were done in place. Replacing them in place before a failure is fine. Even a new set of bearings is only 2 quarts low of oil, balance shaft error, or a bad motor mount away from another failure. So getting a good feeling of the maintenance history and pride of ownership is your best indicator IMO.