ArneeA

You have to understand the difference between the RMS and IMS.

Most cars have their RMS' leak, not just Porsches.

It's the IMS that causes catastrophic motor failure.

GNR996

Sorry this happened, what a feeling been there done that.

Went out gave mine a hug then took her for a nice drive and wipped her good.

best of luck with your repairs.

peavynation

Best of luck, my brutha. Keep us all posted.

Pac996

I imagine if the initial rattle sound isn't doing damage then it would be the lossened chain hitting stuff and or chain chatter when the links are nearly jumping the gear. The bad part is when vavles and piston cycling isn't right. Yah best to shut it down right a way before any extra actions up and down in rpm causes the chain to jump teeth if it hasn't already. Yuck.

Here's a couple of pages to digest. Like you will find in the pages and on this site it isn't all the cars that do it AND it appears the pampered and hardly driven cars are more prone to the failure by what one of the pages says. Soooo drive it like you stole it I didn't actually say that did I?

http://www.flat6innovations.com/savi...e-ims-retrofit

http://www.lnengineering.com/ims.html

fpena944

If the car you were looking at checks out, I still wouldn't base your decision on this thread. Yes it's something that *can* happen but it doesn't mean it will. These cars are great fun and I'm really happy with mine.

If this were to happen to me I would also be devastated but even putting money back into it, if you plan on keeping it for a while I'd say it's worth it.

So my advice, if a 996 is what you wanted then do your due dilligence and give it a shot!

jferrer1

Sorry to hear of the failed engine after only a few months of ownership. What oil were you using? The previous owner used 10W/30 did you go with the Porche approved oil or the 15W/50? You mentioned your RPM's were low when purchased did you ever find out what was causing the low RPM's? Did you have a bone dry engine prior to the failure? How was the car driven daily? Did the Porche dealer go over the car with you after the sale to make sure things checked out? If you took the car to the Collection they are sound and will go to bat for you. (see Mike)

Torontoworker

"The previous owner used 10W/30 did you go with the Porche approved oil or the 15W/50?"

If it is true that the previous owner used 10/30 - then this may be the heart of the problem. There are a huge number of oil threads around here but the use of 0/40 in 996's appears to be universally accepted as THE oil to use unless you are driving outside of the avg condition/use. If someone is using 10/30 in a 996 then I also question the oil change rate as well.

Jake Raby

Best case is the same cost as a standard IMSR procedure, plus a few dollars for cleaning the oil system and sump. I saved 4 engines in 2009 that had suffered IMS failure of minimal proportions.
I could have saved at least 10 more if they had been shut down just a few seconds earlier. When the bearings starts going south and makes noise everything goes to Hell VERY fast!

Shark Attack

and it scares the **** out of my you have seen that many in a year. 14 just in YOUR shop alone... Ouch

Pac996

I think he's in a shop that specializes in IMS fixing so da man gets a major portion. Some are possibly preventive measures. I know it sounds better to do preventive. Preventive helps resale and feels better when reading this sort of thread. '

I guess we are all still waiting for the final word from the repair shop.

Jim Griffin

This is really getting old. ALmost every day on any of the 996 blogs you hear of an IMS or RMS failure. And what do we do? We take it, go begging to the "stealer" with the great hope that they will replace the engine as a good will gesture out of the kindness of their heart! Let's face it, there is something wrong when an expensive sportscar, for no reason whatsoever fails at such a rate. This is a mechanical flaw in the engine construction and Porsche (now Volkswagen) should be responsible to replace or repair each and everyone of these failures under the letter of the law. I haven't personally had the this unfortunate problem with my car.....yet. But if I do, I will find a very good lawyer and make sure that Porsche/Volkswagen will replace it for free, plus rental car!!!

rxjohn

I was in Denver last week and was messing around with buddies 01 996TT. I actually ended up fixing his rear spoiler which the dealer quoted $1,800 to repair. I took the pump out and refilled the reservoir with pentocin hydraulic fluid and voila his rear spoiler now works. Ok.. that's not the point.

I asked one of the Porsche service managers about the IMS failure and total engine loss. He said he saw 4 at his dealer. I left it at that. I could assume he personally took care of 4 failures... and there were more than 4 at the dealer or he could have meant he saw 4 total since he's been there.

He did mention aftermarket upgrade..

I plan on getting it done.. if not Jake...then I'll use RUF in Dallas. Hans from RUF gave me a quote of $960 for the labor. And I think the replacement bearing is around $500 to $600 from LN Engineering. I will ask Hans for the total cost.

rxjohn

Buddy and I were doing a rough math.. I believe Porsche sold approximately 25,000 to 30,000 units of 996 per year since 1999. And I believe Porsche finally redesigned the engine to remove IMS bearing in 2009. So, in 10 years, Porsche sold 300,000+ units of vehicles with IMS bearing..including Boxster, Cayman.. but excluding the TT units..

Rough math here.

So, if they recall every unit and repair or upgrade with LN Enginerring type of bearing at a conservative $1,500 per recall, they're looking at a cool $450 million dollars..

So if I'm an advisor to Porsche, I would recommend they look the other way then settle out of court with individual lawsuits and/or minor lawsuits, repair blown engines under warranty, and say you're SOL to owners with no warranty.

Responsible action by Porsche to have recalled and repaired would have driven them to bankruptcy.

Again.... I'm just using rough math.

Charlie C

Which is pretty much what happened anyway. The IMS is a ticking time bomb.

Dharn55

The amazing thing on the IMS failures is that there does not seem to be a correlation with miles or maintenence history. You see cars with less than 10K miles and perfect history with IMS bearings goen bad, and you see cars with 150K miles and so so maintenence that are still going strong. The bottom line on this was defective design.

Porsche has known about, and tried to hide the problem for years. Yes they have now designed a new engine with the IMS, but they could have solved the problem with the M96M97 engines long ago. They did redesign the IMS shaft and bearing several times, and yet a small company like LN Engineering working with Flat 6 came up with a solution that the Porsche engineers failed to do.

If it would have cost $450 million for Porsche to solve the problem that is what they should pay, even if it meant/means bankruptcy. Had they addressed the problem correctly it would not approach that amout. And it would not need to be that much, they don't have to do it for every M96/M97 made. Porsche should just step up to the table and fix the ones that fail! Probably less than 25%, although even this is a ridiculous percentage of failures.

By the way Porsche almost bankruptcy had no relation to the poor design, It was just greediness and stupidity in trying to acquire VW. I have heard some defend what they tried to do as tryng to maximize sharelholder value (in the typical Wall Street mentality), but it hardly did that.