omnipresent

Just talked with my P car tech and he informed me in all his years with Porsche and Ruf, he's only seen a few instances of IMS issues with the 996 - the Boxter was another story. He says RMS is far and away the most prevalent issue with the 996 FWIW

Reborn996

Well, last year the IM shaft failed on my 1999 996 with 73k miles... so it does happen!

Thank god for the merciful engine replacement program from Porsche. Ended up with all new stuff under the engine lid with a 2 year warranty on all of it for a pretty reasonable price. Can't complain.

David

dertub

That's BS. My IM failed at 11k miles and is quite common from what I hear.

redridge

what do you consider common... the coolant tank leaking is common., not IMS (knocking on wood)

omnipresent

What you hear and what I hear are different - that in itself makes it "BS" huh?

dertub

Dealer tells you this to smooth things over. So, I got a reman. and it's doing fine. Never a problem with the GT3 or RS, only the '02 Carrera.

omnipresent

If it were the dealer telling me that, I'd see your point.
It'd really be interesting to compile a list of who has had IMS failures and include variables such as: build date, maintenace frequency, drive style, climate car is most frequently driven in, etc.. One thing I'm really interested knowing of those who've had IMS failures, was it coupled with anything else (like RMS) and how diligent were those with failures at allowing their cars to warm to proper operating temps. before 3k+ revs.

Chuck Jones

Much of that information is buried in a policy Porsche had for engine replacements rather than repairs at the local dealership so that no mechanical "autopsies" were ever done. The most common failures seemed to be IMS failure, intermix failures, and the rear main seals...but as these cars exceed warranty coverage, the IMS and other failures are being exposed at a more frequent rate. I would imagine that a company like the Auto Farm in England would have some good information on those failures since they're a major rebuilder of the 96 engines. There was an effort sometime back to try to capture some of this sort of information in a poll....I don't know what ever happened to that poll, but in reality it would only show the folks who know about the forum where it was run.

charlesml3

That is simply not true. It is not "quite common." Quite common would mean that at least half of the 996 engines experienced a IMS failure. The truth is, it's a very small percentage.

-Charles

omnipresent

I agree - hence the request at starting a poll (one thing I didn't mention in OP was to inlude manual or tip)

This is one area confusing me - as dertub says in his post, his happened at 11k, was that recently or 5 years ago?


Maybe we can put a bit more effort into this poll?

BillJ

What is the point of a poll for this issue though? In no case will it hold any statistical merit as the use group is biased and will invariably represent a non-valid cross-section of owners. All of this is either personal experience or word of mouth. The only party that could really tell you is Porsche and they are not talking.

Tippy

Oh Dell. Someone wants a poll to use as statistical data..........................

omnipresent

Statistical merit is furthest from my mind - I'd really like to see if there's a constant variable to be found. If so, what can others do (if anything) to prevent?
I can see your point about a non-valid cross-section of owners, just really at the mercy of those who'd respond with just the facts!

BillJ

The only constant will be that near 100% of the owners here that have had their engine fail will reply to the poll. Can you see the skew already?

1999Porsche911

Then I guess that heart desease, cancer, diabetes and obesity are not quite common since they do not effect more than half the population?