Thanx Baz...... as was already noted, we 9A1 owners just want to know what we can do to lower risk. I have 132K miles now on my 2009 and have no plans in trading it in... I keep 'em until the wheels fall off... or given my 2000 Boxster S, until the 2nd engine blows! I am sure folks are sick of me constantly denoting my prior experience, but I have been scarred.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

 

Rubber, plastic and paint tends to deteriorate from age and exposure to the elements. Metal parts tend to deteriorate from wear and heat. If you don't drive it much you'll avoid some mechanical failures but still have to deal with problems caused by rubber and plastic parts failing. I made excellent use from my aftermarket warranty (to the tune of about triple what it cost). Now I look at it like this: I've got a new engine already, so it's highly improbable that future repairs will cost me more than a fraction of the $25K-$50K it would cost me to move up to a significantly newer model.
I recently put new tail lights in (old ones were faded and cracked from sun exposure). Cost me a couple C notes on eBay from a guy who upgraded his garage queen to LED's. Then my BOSE amp went nips up...refurb for under half what a new one would cost, and far less than replacing the head unit and adding a MOST-HUR adapter. Last week I had to put a new sunroof motor in it, as the original one was sluggish and tended to stop. I also recently re-redyed the driver's seatback outer bolster, which the previous owner had apparently beat up with a pants pocket button. I've also had some panels resprayed from sun-induced clearcoat failure. Most of this stuff I did myself, so the only cost is parts and materials. Like I said, I can't envision the upkeep on my car (14 years old, 75K miles) coming within a country mile of the cost of trading up, and I like the car, so not afraid to hang onto it. Basically I think aside from the M96-7 IMS and scoring issues, these cars are very long-term durable, and the looks are so iconic nobody but a car guy knows what year it is. Also I'v got nobody to impress anymore, so there's that

 

Quick Highjack.... Is LN Eng. the best / less expensive / or Only place to order the DI40 oil? I want to switch to this oil ASAP.

Or, does anyone have a discount code?

 

Baz, washing machine? hahaha... thank you for the laugh! That kinda sums up the whole IMS fiasco. And makes sense to me personally because the main bearing in my washing machine just went out. That thing was shaking uncontrollably. You could imagine the sight.

 

Do you mean Joe Gibbs D*T*40? I've seen it slightly cheaper once in a while on eBay, don't remember from whom, but I'll always buy it from LN. They're a great company, IMHO the main reason (along with Jake of course) why my 997.1 is still on the road and worth something.

 

DI40 is engineered for newer DFI engines.

 

 

If any German (or French, or British or any other European) 9A1 DFI owners on the board... do you use DI40 in your cars or some other oil? And are you concerned about engine failures and LSPI?

 

I rub it on my wife at night so she doesn't have any low speed pre-ignitions if you get my drift.

 

Nope. In New Zealand we don't have DI40. I'm using Mobil 1 5W50

 

Any 9A1 reported issues in New Zealand?

 

Can we agree that the larger bearing was a substantial improvement rather than a fix? Rare to be sure but there are documented failures of the larger bearing. I'll never understand why they waited until 2009 to do away with this problematic part. That's what finally fixed it.

 

Not that I know of. Problematic engines usually got sent to Jake or Baz anyway, perhaps they can answer that.

 

Sandwedge - you may have noticed that I said the larger bearing with the seal removed. This was the problem with the smaller bearing.

The outer was too thin not to distort on assembly and the interference fit could make some run tight and the worn metal particles mixed with the grease to make a grinding paste.

Eventually the seals got worn and allowed some particles to escape and some oil to get in so those that fitted OK and lasted long enough to wear the seal often lasted a long time afterwards. Basically the bearing was always too small and any replacements were too except a plain oil fed bearing which we always supported (LN and Jake).

Because we mainly rebuild engines we make new ends that hold the larger bearing and can fit them to both roller and Hivo shafts and with no seal that are big enough to last. The outer is much thicker and stiffer and can manage an interference fit without distorting the bearing outer ring.

The bearing runs in an oil bath and up to 40 mph that sprays oil everywhere and both flushes out the bearing, feeds it fresh oil and keeps it cooler.

This is a less expensive option when rebuilding an engine than a plain oil pressure fed bearing but cannot be fitted without a strip down - so a plain bearing is IMHO the best option if the engine remains in one pice and we would be happy to fit the LN option if the need arises.

Baz

 

An IMS shaft to transfer energy in an engine is not problematic. Porsche has been using an intermediate shaft successfully since the '60s. The problematic part was a "lifetime" sealed bearing at one end. The original, 30 year IMS design had a plain bearing at each end. A plain bearing is a pressurized oil fed bearing. Speculation is that Porsche did away with the oil feed on one end to cut costs (it is "correct" at the other end BTW). Baz notes that the "best" option is to install an oil feed system... what the engine should have had all along. The "repair" from Porsche should have been to redesign this bearing. Instead, they designed an entirely new block. Why they did this and not fix the M96/M97 block is a bit of a mystery to me. Maybe some new innovations came along such as eliminating the shaft among others but I just don;t know and have not read much about this decision.

Like you, I wonder why Porsche waited 10 years to truly fix the problem, especially when they were finally making so much darn money. This, I believe, was a strategic decision to "cash in" on the brand. The brand carried the ill will through this period. This is of course a risky business decision but they did the "right" thing from the investor's perspective. In other words, they delayed the true repair to save even more hard money at the possible expense of hurting the brand (which apparently did not happen). Heck, I had two failures and then what did I do? I rewarded them by buying another. If I felt there was another substitute, I would never have purchased another one but there are really no short wheel base, relatively light, multi-use, unique looking, luxury sport cars out there. (Actually Porsche isn't either, its become a GT car, but that is another flame-invoking subject.)

Peace
Bruce in Philly