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I am going to say 09/04 most likely has the smaller bearing.
That would be my guess too but the -05's have been notoriously difficult in terms of pinning down which bearing they have going by build date or VIN #. I think there's some consensus though that the later the build date the greater the chance that it has the larger bearing.
Two schools of thought on this though. Some actually prefer the smaller more fragile bearing since it's much easier to upgrade to whatever you want. My understanding is that to upgrade the larger bearing you have to take the engine apart. This may seem like a non issue since the failure rate of the larger bearing is minuscule but not unheard of.
Lets just kick the bore scoring conversation to the curb for now, but would not almost everyone agree that you are playing Russian Roulette with the smaller bearing, the smaller bearing has a fairly significant rate of failure and the question of failure with the smaller bearing could be not if, but when? If it was me, I would replace that sucker first thing and perhaps an older 911 is not in your budget if one cannot afford the relatively small costs to upgrade the small IMS bearing in early 2005 9971.s. Too many great running, clean or even pristine, low mileage cars have suddenly grenaded themselves without warning with that smaller IMS bearing.
Lets just kick the bore scoring conversation to the curb for now, but would not almost everyone agree that you are playing Russian Roulette with the smaller bearing, the smaller bearing has a fairly significant rate of failure and the question of failure with the smaller bearing could be not if, but when? If it was me, I would replace that sucker first thing and perhaps an older 911 is not in your budget if one cannot afford the relatively small costs to upgrade the small IMS bearing in early 2005 9971.s. Too many great running, clean or even pristine, low mileage cars have suddenly grenaded themselves without warning with that smaller IMS bearing.
Being an owner of a “small bearing” 05 I would say that the IMS thing is way overhyped. Now that said the likelihood of failure is meaningless IMO when the market value of a car with the IMS addressed vs not addressed basically covers the cost of addressing it. It is really like buying free insurance and in many cases I think people are more comfortable with an 05 that has the upgraded bearing vs an 06-08 with the larger bearing (not intended to say one is better than the other and full disclosure I think the larger bearing is really a non-issue, just my observation of buyer perception).
With that I came to the conclusion of why wouldn’t I do it, so I did. I would recommend other 05 owners to do the same.
Today I was in Portland to see and drive my new car. Coming from a 1983 air cooled 911 car this 997 is night and day. I really love it. Silky smooth shifter. So much more power. I don't have any regrets going from air cooled to 997.
Welcome and yes you will enjoy the 997S - Much more advanced than the earlier 911's.
I have a 2007 997S and recently purchased a Silver 1982 911sc to replace the sc I sold years ago. Really missed the 911sc and wanted one bad.
I kept the 911sc for a couple of weeks and decided to sell - Garage room was tight and the 911sc just didn't do it for me anymore since driving 996/997 for the past 7 years.
Enjoy your new toy!!
01-01-2020, 06:42 PM
