I have a new desk ornament..
 

New Clutch, LNE IMS, RMS, Rear outer driver's CV boot, alignment, oil service. $2400.

My car has just under 60k miles. Had quite a few heat spots on the flywheel. Clutch was stiff but not dead. This will give me peace of mind and now I can enjoy my new car.

Is that a Rolex?

Omega Seamaster

Oh, yeah... you are right.

aka poor man's Rolex Submariner

All of that installed was $2400? Not bad at all. Did you do the AOS?

Yeah I think I got a really good deal. I believe the AOS was done recently by the previous owner. Although it was probably just the bellows.

Did the same....
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_O...0/IMG_0970.JPG


http://lh6.ggpht.com/_OB3UxaVI4n0/S9...0/CHRIS996.JPG

Those bearing both look fine!

New Clutch, LNE IMS, RMS, Rear outer driver's CV boot, alignment, oil service. $2400.

that seems like a cheap price,
never brought my car to the dealer but that some big jobs... ???

+1 That is a fantastic price. Almost too cheap in my opinion.

You know there are people that can cut these keys from pics right??

I love the fact that people are pulling out the bearing of death and displaying them as trophies !! :rockon:

If ANYONE wants magnified photos of the insides of their bearing, I offer that - the seal has to come off and I clean them thru a 4 step cleaning process... when dont they dont smell like oil anymore so are nice to have on the desk....done about 20+ at this point

And after 20+ cleanings and magnifications...how many were 'bad' enough to warrant replacement in your opinion Ed? Just curious.

its strange, they ALL had some level of degradation. The best one I saw saw on a low mile car which had me confused... then the owner told us "the rest of the story" - it was a replaced motor.....even it had some.

what I believe is going on is that the grease is being replaced with motor oil thru some sort of thermal pressure inside the IMS tube from heating and cooling. (remember sealed bearing = sealed tube full of air) - the grease is gone (and ALL of them have zero grease, only oil)

i theorize that the oil has contaminants like hydrocarbons and fuel,, maybe it is oil dependant... but something in the oil is causing a chemical etching on the balls and races - over time etching eats away the "hardness" and then the ball degrade much faster. I think sitting long periods leaves one ball (or a couple) sitting in whatever is causing the etching longer then the others so the process is sped up on that ball....once the ball begins to flake the flakes effect the other balls and then the hardend area is compromissed on all the balls... I have seen a lot of heavy scratching of the hard balls and the only thing I can figure is it is some other hard material... like from another ball.

We still think spinning the motor is the best way to keep down the degradation...though we have not figured out the reasons we think it is just due to the load on the balls against the race - they are "floating" more then running in the groove...

anyhow its all spectulation and I am no scientist, but the problem is simple, the reason might be complicated. The problem is none of the bearings have grease in them.... none of them, some last a LONG time this way, some dont.... so rather its oil change interval, oil brand, how its used or something else... I am still pretty much just guessing....