I just got back from Los Angeles, am now in Las Vegas. This was the first time I drove my car since I bought it and had Jakes shop install the IMSB and RMS and low temp thermostat, also a spin on oil filter and mag drain plug. I just want to let anyone who is interested know that the car ran perfect. No leaks after 830 miles. I drove mostly 80 to 90 mph until I got to LA but also once to 130 mph which seemed like nothing for the car but I was worried about police so I quit there and didn't do it again. I love the car, it now has only a couple of hundred miles over nineteen thousand on it so its still like new. I won't be using it as a daily driver as I have a 3 year old pick up truck that I use for that. It probably will always be a treat when I drive it. Thanks to Jake I don't stress about anything blowing up even though the likely hood of that was minimal. Now I don't even think about it and the car should last for than me. I like reading the stuff on this forum and have learned about lots of things by reading here. By the way m ths car was made in June of 2000 and had a double row IMB in it.

 

1999 , 105k miles, no IMS issues.

 

No IMS failure
2002 996 4S MK2
80,000 miles


James

 

Thanks for the info on the build date; JD. Congrats on getting a JR updated machine. Perfect decision given the car's low mileage potential.

 

2003 C4S 102000km
No IMS issues

 

So, has anyone done an analysis on the failure rate of the aftermarket IMSb solutions? I recall reading about a failed replacement bearing within 6 months of the launch of the first one. My suspicion is that the fear-marketed aftermarket bearings likely have a far higher failure rate than the factory part, but it would likely take the evidence discovery process of a lawsuit to uncover the real stats.

 

From what I could gather. The only failures were caused by improper installation or mainly because the bearing should not have been installed in the first place, it was to late. Metal was still present after a failure and other bearings and parts were already shedding metal and would continue to do so even after a new IMSB was installed and would wipe it out anyway. Many indies will just clean it out as best they can and pop in a new bearing, unfortunately there is more to it than that.

 

Correct. We have very specific procedures outlined to try to minimize failures as a result of improperly carried out retrofit installations. Most recently we make two big charges - to the Pro Toolkit we changed the bearing driver so that you could not fit the 12 pt nut to retain the bearing and center nut. We discovered some shops were using a zip gun to fit the bearing to the driver tool.

Another recent change to the classic single row retrofit was the omission of a snap ring, requiring users to retain the new bearing with the original clip. The only reason a shop wouldn't have a usable clip would be if the original bearing had failed.

No matter what we do to make this as fool-proof as possible, we still have shops call every week that botch installations and need to be bailed out. That said mechanical systems can't always be made perfect. There are humans involved. Mechanical things will fail.

I don't know about "fear-marketed aftermarket bearings", but our failure rate (excluding those bearings we could prove as having been collateral damage or due to improper installation) is below 0.05 percent (so one out of every 2000) across the 6 going on 7 years we have offered our IMS Retrofits publicly. This is compared to 1% on original dual rows and 8-10% on original single rows. We can probably attribute the very low incidence of defective bearings to the fact they are all hand-assembled and blueprinted by our supplier in CA before they come to us for final assembly.

 

1999 C2 Tip 65,500km
Nothing yet.

As my car has the double row bearing and the quoted failure rates in the resent law suit were below 1% I was not going to do the bearing upgrade.

I did an oil change and saw about 10 tiny metal particles in the used oil.
I fitted a magnetic drain plug and I will change the oil this weekend (installing the spin on oil filter adapter) and see if there is anything on the plug, if it is all aluminium I will not bother with a bearing upgrade. If there is metal on the magnet I will do the upgrade.

The car has done 17,000km in the last 5 years but most of that was in first two years with less than 1,000km per year for the last 2 years. The car is my daily driver and I have put on another 700kms.

I bought the car two weeks ago and I love it. So much car for the money. I will do most of the servicing myself but don't have the time to do an IMS bearing upgrade.
Does anyone have a recommended installer in Auckland, New Zealand? I don't want this mucked up?

 

2002 C2, no aftermarket modifications.

purchased as 2 owner car, in 2010, with 21,000 miles on the clock.
first 8 years average ~2625 miles/year

currently, 79,000 miles
years 9-12 average ~14,500 miles/year

not driven daily. many, long, multi-thousand mile road trips. ~1x per week 300mi highway road trip. many spirited shorter trips in between.

no failure or indication of failure of IMS.

throwout bearing failure, at 79,000 miles. currently at independent shop for clutch, flywheel, slave cylinder, aos, ims (LN), rms, and expansion tank replacement.

 

DrScientist;
How old is your AOS? Great opportunity to do this R&R as well while the trans is out if it is not too late.

 

2002 996 c4 cab 3.6 98k miles still on original bearing no issues. Just cut the filter open and still no signs of metallic particles. At the shop now having the oil changed and ims guardian installed so I can keep a closer eye on it though just in case.

 

Question for you guys. I have been looking at 996 C4S's and a couple of them have had the Porsche dealership upgrade their IMS. Lets assume it is Porsche's upgraded part. Is this close or as good as LN Engineering or would I need to factor in replacing that for piece of mind??

 

Ummn, there is no Porsche IMS Retrofit bearing... Most dealers trust LN retrofit components.

 

Interesting. Thanks for clarifying Jake. I did not think that was the case. So - the 2005 997s that have the upgraded Porsche bearing (I realize it is still not the fix and a weak point) is not a part they can use in the 996's? Sorry for my dumb questions. I have read all about splitting the engine case on the 997.1's unless it is an earlier build. Was just confused if the Porsche dealers had an upgrade for 996s that was their part and not LN's.