pcolapacker

2003 C2 Cabrio I just purchased with 48,000 miles had a catastrophic failure at 39,000 mile. Spoke to the mechanic who tore down engine and replaced both shaft and bearing. Used EPS bearing.

bamaboy473

The quote above was made in Feb 2013. In the past 7 years, failure rate reported in the poll has become almost 10%.

Most....almost all...comments come from those that either had no failure, or had replaced the bearing. Wish that those that suffered the failure would post about the symptoms before they found out.

Cityfisher

i think failure is considered as a leak or mild play once removed as maintenance.
i thought my rms was leaking.
Nope, ims bearing flange was leaking .. bearing was still fine. 120000km.

exthree

[QUOTE=bamaboy473;17025128]The quote above was made in Feb 2013. In the past 7 years, failure rate reported in the poll has become almost 10%.

Most....almost all...comments come from those that either had no failure, or had replaced the bearing. Wish that those that suffered the failure would post about the symptoms before they found out.[/QUOTE

Yes, but 10% of what? /X3

bamaboy473

[QUOTE=exthree;17028943]I'm not the greatest numbers guy, but if the poll shows 10%, that has to be the bare minimum. How many people lost their engines and just junked their cars/parted them out, and went on to another brand that wouldn't give them opportunity to ever vote in a poll? How many got new engines and went on with life, but they aren't forum types, so they wouldn't vote, either?
What if the number is a good bit higher? Sobering thought.

808Bill

[QUOTE=bamaboy473;17028978]The number is much higher and that's a fact....I've seen/read reports of at least one a month (some on other forums and social media sites) since I joined Rennlist. Take that for what it worth.

dporto

^^^It's a sealed bearing (if original). That means if oil is leaking past it, the "permanent" grease in the bearing has already been washed out and replaced by enginge/crankcase oil - which also means you're already well on your way to stage one of bearing failure... you should have replaced the bearing while you had the flange off.

Esfoad

My understanding is that the more we drive our cars the better the chance to avoid failure. Seems to be a combination of design and the storing the cars for the winter. So when. Bought my car I had the bearing replaced with an LN 6 year warranty bearing. And I drive the cat 12 months and only driving in winter when the streets are dry. I did not go with “The Solution “ because the LN was half the price and at 6 years give or take I could do another LN bearing for another 6 years. Also I thought I’d need a clutch somewhere down the line and I could do another LN bearing then. Meantime I’ve put 20K miles on and the original clutch still feels good so I think my decisions were good or lucky.

CapeCoral944

2000 C2 78K miles original ISMB. Replaced when I purchased but still in good shape.

RSQ911

1999 C2 with 130k on the odometer and the original IMSB

hoofdpijn

2004 C2 with 48K on the clock. Just got the car back from the shop this morning after preemptively having the LN Solution installed. Original IMSB in perfect condition.

James88

That's great to hear.
How is the car driven, hard or easy?

hoofdpijn

No idea unfortunately. I just bought it a few weeks ago and wasn't taking any chances so I took it to the only LN certified shop in Texas to have it all inspected and replaced. The tech who worked on the car said the cylinders were some of the best he's ever seen after having done "many many" IMS solution pre-qualifications and installs. It was expensive but the peace of mind is worth it for me. So again, no idea how it's been driven in the past but I can tell you, it's going to be driven the way it was designed to be driven from here on out!

frederik

I had my IMS bearing replaced with an LN retrofit bearing in November 2019, about 10.000 km ago. Last week I heard a strange whoop-whoop type of noise from the engine, stopped to hear what's going on, and then the sound of metal on metal. I had the car towed to my indy (who didn't do the bearing replacement) and just got the message that most likely, the bearing has failed. The oil filter is full of debris. I am quite disappointed to see this happening after having done a preventative replacement! The old bearing was in good shape and the engine was running just fine up to last week. Mileage is 106.000 km, around 60.000 miles.

I'm going to have the engine taken apart to make sure any damage is repaired properly.

Edit: it turns out the replacement bearing was not an LN retrofit bearing -- the shop that installed it lied to me.

hoofdpijn

Sorry hear this. Let us know what they find.