New paperweight - IMSB
 

Had my IMSBearing replaced on my '01 tiptronic. Turned out to be a double row. Work done by Porsche of North Houston, with the L&N Engineering bearing.

Here are a few photos. It doesn't look bad, but I feel like the preventive maintenance was worth it.

INTERESTING, indeed, the part is made in Japan! Wow, who would have thought that! The source of much consternation and trepidation was outsourced. Makes you wonder whether it was a nose thumbing by that tiny plant outside of Fukushima.

Does anyone have a method to clean this to remove the last vestiges of oil? I'd like to use it for a paperweight, worth it's weight in gold.

Your bearing looks to have been in good shape -- you should pry off the cover and check the bearings inside.

Still I prefer the piece of mind -- but its harder to make that call in a tip as the labor is not inconsequential. For Manuals -- its virtually free with clutch job.

Mike

I did the same on my '00 Tip (also double-row). The labor was a killer and the bearing looked fine, but I've never regretted my decision to replace it. Replaced the non-leaking RMS with the latest and greatest version at the same time.

I did the same and discovered the Japanese dual row bearing. Mine looked
like yours, perfect after 40,000 miles with Japan stamped on the top.

I did my 6-speed at about 110 miles along with clutch replacement. Mine was a single row item made in Germany. Mine also looked pretty darn good for its age. I don't regret having it done. I think the hype over the subject may be exaggerated but, on the other hand, the cost to replace one of these engines is probably not.

Just had mine replaced on the 04 C2 - we did remove the seals from the OEM bearing and it looked perfect at 75K miles.

So there we have 6 posters who had bearings replaced and all saying that 'the one taken out was NOT TOO BAD.. None of them saying the truth "Nothing wrong with the old bearing" but thats just justifying their move. A lot of money to pay for a paper weight IMHO. Hey peace of mind is money well spent in this case. OR IS IT? I keep checking my old oil filters to gain the same peace of mind.

If you're curious, these are pretty easy to take apart. Put the outer race in a vice and the bearings will just make it by. Then you can inspect the bearing and races.
ANY sign other than a mirror finish: fracture, pits, discoloration, then you can be glad you changed it out. Of course you can just clean it by pulling a seal and using acetone.
Here's some pics of my bearing. I caught it just in the nick of time by inspecting the oil on changes. I change pretty frequently as the car is tracked. And like most others, didn't hear or feel anything other than the engine was tip top.

All that glitters...
https://rennlist.com/forums/members/...-34-32-677.jpg

https://rennlist.com/forums/members/...5417-inner.jpg

https://rennlist.com/forums/members/...5418-ball2.jpg

I had to send my original back to LN for the warranty to be active on the new one, or so I am told.

saying that the bearing "looks great" with the seals still in means nothing.

As mentioned, any degradation in the ball bearings, any at all, is sign the bearing was on its way out.

In addition, if you pop the seal and find no grease of any kind with just a bit of oil leaking out, the bearing was in what LN likes to call "stage 1 failure".

My single row bearing "looked good" but there was no grease inside the bearing.

With those failed seals in place, oil had to "make its way" into the bearing to provide lubrication to a bearing that was supposed to remain packed with grease and live in an environment free of oil that would wash the grease away. We all know how that turned out.

Now, regardless of single or double row, you have a bearing without seals that were meant to operate in an environment with merely splash lubrication.

Money well spent.

You got lucky.. You could have had the unit made in Poland, or the one made in France.

Dnitake, did you see anything in your oil filter before changing your bearing ?

I mean all that glitter coming out of the bearing, did that make it to the oil filter ?

Wait, so do we know how many different origin of manufacturers exists for the IMS, and out of those which ones made the dual vs the single row?

It would be interesting to see if there is some correlation to IMS failures to a certain origin of manufacture.

Or it could be possible that the rubber seals themselves were made in various places but the bearings and related parts themselves were all made from the same manufacturer?

Hmmmmm......

>saying that the bearing "looks great" with the seals still in means nothing.
If you can visually see any defect, or feel any hangup in rotation, it's not far from from
failure.

I use mine as a $1200 paperweight/conversation piece as well :-).

Sealed bearings are NOT sealed.
So the need to submerge this bearing, as I read it somewhere, and not switch to a
proper bearing for this application must've been what we now know to be a MAJOR
business trade-off (like the engineers didn't know). They must've had a boxcar full of them.
Don't mean to get myself started, but you can bet the expected de-rated lifetime was
outside the warranty period.

Remove the seals. I've always used the crazed slasher technique and attacked the seal with something sharp. Be careful you don't stab a finger or a hand. Anyhow I pried/pulled (with pliers) the seals out then used a non-residue cleaner (brake cleaner or some electronics cleaner) to remove all the grease/oil. You might have to do this several times as sometimes the bearing cage/spacer might be porous and retain some lube.