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I agree it looks dirty, though this seems to be mostly dust as it has been gathering exactly that for the past few months outside of the engine. I agree that further dissection is required to fully understand the extent and cause of the damage, however I stand firm in my assessment that one of the ***** is different than the others and, from the last set of photos provided, shows clear signs of damage / cracking. I think it's impossible to refute this from the current state of evidence, and it is therefore mainly aimed at those who claimed to see absolutely nothing wrong with it.
The pictures are bad, but they're clear enough to spot something is wrong.
Originally Posted by Charles Navarro
I agree it's hard to take photos of these components, but that clearly does not look like the bearing posted with ball that looked like the surface of the moon.
I understand this causes skepticism, however this is unfortunately the effect of low-resolution pictures and our brains trying to fill in blanks. Funny that you say "the surface of the moon", as the actual surface of Mars was a good example of this:
The bearings are easy to disassemble. The ball separator (cage) will pop out, freeing the ceramic *****. Removing the seal from the other side will help further in bearing disassembly.
You're a service provider and a developer. People ship their cars to you to have a service provided that includes things you've developed. The fact that you've developed some things doesn't mean you have to be rude to everyone that doesn't agree with you.
Totally agree
I am an engineer also, but at the end of the day, I am providing a service too.
Well folks, the car is now on its way to Jake for a rebuild.
I will be picking up my 2003 996 from Jake in the next day or so. On my first oil change after purchasing the car, I dropped the sump cover and found parts of a timing chain roller (one of the 27 failure modes). After communicating with Jake on Flat 6's ticket system over a weekend and then talking to him on the phone, I decided sending the car to him and his team to fix was the right decision for me.
The primary reason I did is similar to your reasoning--I bought the car I plan on keeping forever, so why would I drive the car until the engine blows up? I looked at a *lot* of 996s before buying mine and passed on them because they had clearly been used and abused. The one I bought was optioned exactly the way I wanted and had mostly been taken care of during it's 44K miles.
I also had other stuff replaced while the engine was out--the labor is the same whether you put the old water pump back on or a new one. These items were replaced on mine:
clutch (they said it was down to the rivets)
Air Oil Separator
Starter (because I could tell it was starting to fail)
Water pump (it was leaking and I was planning on replacing it myself until I found part of the timing chain in the sump)
Coolant expansion tank
Timing chains
IMS Solution installed
I didn't have the alternator replaced because it was working fine and had been replaced in the last few years.
Yes, my bank account is lighter than I'd like after this, but I can now drive my 996 without wondering if the engine is going to blow up if I plant my right foot. And frankly, considering I had already planned on installing the IMS solution, only about 1/2 of the money I spent was because the of the timing chains and all of the other stuff, so I'm very happy with Flat 6's work.
Yes, there are detractors to ceramic hybrid bearings referring to old research and technical papers on ceramics that are out of date, but there are different quality *****, and we use the best of the best from Coors Tek:
What needs to happen is the bearing needs to be disassembled and cleaned for inspection. These photos are not definitive proof of anything other than an LN bearing shown full of debris laden oil.The original photo was cropped - where is the un-cropped version. I want to see the whole original photo posted. I still believe the original photo posted is one of a failing original bearing, not one of our bearings and the circumstances surrounding this post are also questionable. A fully documented disassembly will clear this issue up once and for all.
But for sake of transparency, I will be the first to admit, as I have in the past, that we have seen examples of our bearings fail, but again, what I can tell you is that we have never seen a dual row IMS Retrofit fail or even had a single report of one failing. Additional information would be beneficial we we can get a clear picture.
What is the serial number for this bearing? I would also like to see the flange and back side of the bearing.
Did you purchase the car with the bearing fitted or did you do the installation yourself?
What was the condition of the original bearing?
Was the installation registered?
What is the ticket number for when you contacted LN Engineering? I cannot find any record of you having attempted to contact LN.
If you don't want to post this publicly, I would suggest opening a support ticket at http://support.lnengineering.com so that we can get to the bottom of this.
Manufacturers should be contacted first and given the chance to review the facts. In some cases, customers don't like the outcome of our review, however, in most cases, I usually go out of my way to help individuals in situations like this. However, trolling an old thread isn't the best way to accomplish anything but show you have an ax to grind. Again, it's easier to be a victim than a failure and I refer you back to my original post of why was LN not contacted back when this first occurred and why am I reading this on a thread on Rennlist?
I’ve been waiting patiently for two days for CBR944 to answer simple questions and post video of the bearing being disassembled or at least better images of the supposedly damaged ceramic ball, but all we’ve received is just more images that aren’t clear enough to enlarge to see the area in question. I find it hard to believe in today’s iPhone world, that someone doesn’t have the capability to shoot a decent macro photo of a ceramic ball. All it would take in my book is a flashlight with the camera pointed close at the bearing. Since we don’t know the history on the car or when the LN bearing was installed in the boxster or miles on the bearing, we can’t be conclusive on anything, but we can conclude the poster had some kind of agenda for reopening a very old thread and avoiding very important questions and challenges. Since he provided very weak evidence, I would conclude he hypothesis has no merit. I’m someone that just had an LN bearing installed on my car, and so I was very interested in his position, but was very apprehensive to the basis of his argument.
I haven’t responded as this thread became derailed through escalating demands for a forensic dissection of my bearing blah blah blah. I’ve posted numerous photos now, and that’s where my interest ends.
I responded to this old thread as it was about “old IMS shavings now showing up”. I simply added my own experience, which had the same symptoms but a different cause, to offer the suggestion to the forum that with these symptoms it’s a good idea to check the bearing in the car as any bearing can fail for no good reason – and as unlikely as it may seem - even a new(ish) replacement.
This just turned into a rolling maul, rather than a sensible or reasonable discussion, demanding “proof” and questioning my motivations, capability and honesty. Any sensible assessment of what passed for debate in this thread would see that there was less genuine interest in understanding an alternative cause for steel debris than simply seeking to quickly dismiss my experience as fake. I never “raised a ticket” with LN as I wasn’t concerned with redress – the PO had bought it, not me, and it was just my bad luck the bearing failed. I was more than happy to replace it with a standard off-the-shelf dual row item at my cost. Not everyone “has an axe to grind”.
The people who insist on this “proof” aren’t the ones I was directing my first post to. If you’re reading this with an open mind and you have what you think might be “old IMS shavings showing up”, then it doesn’t matter if you believe my bearing failed due to an (apparently) rare defect or not. Your bearing might be failing on its own accord – check it first.
808Bill, I can’t speak for the OP, but in my personal experience, the LN units are distinct looking: they have unique machining and marking that is very different from original equipment castings (I think the original is cast, versus the LN unit being machined, but I couldn’t swear to it).
Kinda’ crappy photos, but I think you can see what I mean from the flanges alone on two engines I have in the garage:
11-19-2018, 02:07 PM
