Capt. Obvious

I don't believe the IMS hype. EVERY car has something that they're known for that could have been better thought out from the factory.

When I did my clutch at 100k miles I swapped out my bearing for the LNE version since I was in there anyway and my original bearing was good as new when it was opened up and inspected.

cmartin214

Original bearing replaced at 101k miles still like new...

LordVicious

You want a picture of my odometer readings? They're both way over 40k though, are you sure you can handle that? I don't want to shift your paradigm without a clutch!

KrazyK

Darrick, this may be true but its just pot luck. At 57K miles, my bearing looked and felt great but the seals had oviously failed. Had the seals not let in enough engine oil to lube the bearing, I would have been one of the unlucky ones with a destroyed engine.

Capt. Obvious

Actually driving the car will keep that bearing oiled up.

fanny bay r1

That's just crazy talk as you need to replace your IMSB before a 300 mile road trip just to be safe!! Well according to Krazy K anyway - I did 500 kms this weekend just for fun on an original single row bearing -- oh the horror!!

silotwo

Yep - I did about a 3400 mile round trip in the C2 about 5 years ago, it was a blast and I still have many pleasant memories about the drive. Took the C4S on about an 1100 mile round trip shortly after I got it, good trip but not as long as with the C2 and not as exciting. 14,000 miles after the C4S trip and I've got a new Porsche motor - breaking it in and trying to convince the wife to join me for a coast to coast jaunt by car later this summer.

tnuvo

+1 here! Recently replaced the clutch in my 2000 C2 Cab @65k, and did the LNE IMS upgrade while I was in there as a normal preventative maitenance item. ALL aspects of my original IMS looked/functioned great! Just as an FYI, mine is a daily driver and spiritedly driven regularly when conditions permit. KK, I appreciate/respect the fact that you do a lot of DIY work on your car, but you have to realize that these failures that you are so paranoid about often happen to people such as yourself who have said previously that you only take your car out for 15min drives...on occasion. These/any car needs to keep the moving parts moving, or you risk major failures...more so with our 996's! You don't have to drive it like you stole it as some would encourage here, but take her for a spirited drive on a regular basis! She will thank you for it and reward you with a great deal of pleasure in the process!

Flat6 Innovations

My latest failure email:
"I have had a engine failure from an IMS failure in my 2002 Porsche. I would like to schedule a time to speak with you regarding my problem. The car has 11,500 miles on it and looks like it just came out of the showroom. I bought the car, drove for 1500 Miles in 30 days and lost the engine. Please identify a time for me to call to discuss.

Thank you,

George"

As far as what Joel stated, well the way people react to things these days is why you'll never see me writing articles. Heck, seeing these types of comments makes me wonder why I should even finish my book.

Capt. Obvious

Jake, what would you say the ratio is of cars that have come into your shop with failed bearings over the years that have less than, say, 40k miles to those that are "high" mileage cars with 80k+ miles on them?

Flat6 Innovations

This is another of those questions that will just lead to other comments and I'd end up much like Joel Reiser has in this thread.

There was a time when you could say the sky was blue and people didn't hate you for it; the modern human hates to be told that the sky is anything other than a huge rainbow with glitter on top of it.

I have avoided the IMS failure topic completely in my book, just because of this. I go over how to perform an IMSB retrofit using the conventional components and how to install the IMS Solution, but I don't even state why the bearing should be replaced.

utkinpol

I see no reason to have any fight about it. it is very simple engineering issue - a life expectation of a bearing partially submerged into hot oil. depending of level of vibrations and imperfections of entire IMS assembly it is quite obvious that time to failure is difficult to predict but it is obvious that a probability of a failure for a bearing in such conditions is hundreds times higher than for a bearing that is working in normal expected conditions. what people may or may not think about it - who cares.

still if there is such a statistic it would be interesting to hear about it, in my case I would really want to know what happens to newest generation of 06-08 cars now with newer bearing, is a failure rate there really goes along with mileage or repeats pattern of early 996 cars?

golftime

I agree that every car has its Achilles heals, however not every car has a bearing that may grenade with little or no notice, taking with it the entire motor, at a replacement cost approaching $20k. Maybe the probability of failure is not high, but it has to weighed against the consequences, which certainly are. For the naysayers, I would argue that Porsche's response to the class action suit speaks for itself. Car companies don't just give away extended warranties without a reason. And while I realize there is a tremendous knowledge base on this forum, many of the "expert" opinions on the forum run contrary to other Porsche experts, including those repeatedly printed in the tech section of Panorama magazine. Just read the May 2013 issue for an eye opener.

KrazyK

The IMS bearing is now so cheap and easy to replace, there is NO reason not to replace it as a regular or preventative maintenance item. In other words, I would trust what Jake says over the BS rhetoric.

thirteeneast

Apparently, your nose and ears never stop growing.

Hope he didn't get paid for that quote.