PhilD

I see it as an upgrade. It is designed to be better and less problematic than the original design. It addresses the weaknesses that are inherent in the Porsche design. Is it perfect, maybe not, but by all accounts it is better.

That said, just because you have an engine with the weak bearing design doesn't mean your motor will automatically implode. Mine was replaced at 54k miles and the original bearing was in good condition.

As a side note, I find it ironic that so many people claim that you should only use OEM parts on your p-car as Porsche engineers design the best parts and how could the aftermarket do anything better than Porsche, etc, etc, . Yet there are several Porsche designed components on the M96/97 engines that are clearly problematic and weaknesses.

wc11

There's that other cylinder type bearing that Vertex has.
http://www.vertexauto.com/ShowItem/2...nal%20Fix.aspx

Seems to make more sense that *****.I would think it's stronger.
I've not done mine and refuse to live in fear. If it goes, oh well, then sucks to be me.
But when time come to do the clutch, I'll do it then as part of the maintenance.
But at 120km 70k miles, I'm pretty comfortable right now.

shyamvenky

On my 996 I had the retrofit done when I bought the car (57k miles). And when I sold the car it had ~75k miles. I had absolutely no problems with it. Also, the old bearing was found to be in good condition - I just did the retrofit for peace of mind (no warranty)
As for my 997, it had the IMS failure during its time with the previous owner (who I know was quite meticulous in maintaining the car). Anyways, the engine was rebuilt with the ceramic bearing from LN and I've had ~4k miles on it now - haven't pushed the car at all so far. Might be worth to take a look at the bearing when its time to do the clutch as an exercise..

Fahrer

I guess you will know when your car hits 108K miles. Will the "upgrade" be in as good condition as the OEM bearing was? I understand there have been some failures for the LN units as well. I imagine that those did not have so many miles on them since they are a relatively new offering. Hopefully you have no problems at all.

PhilD

Yeah, that's a good point. At first the IMS issue never bothered me, but as I saw people having issues, the LN retrofit became more appealing. It gives me peace of mind if nothing else.

Bruce In Philly

Lotsa solutions out there now, if it were me, I would get a direct oil feed (DOF) solution and not just "a better bearing".

But beware, these engines have multiple failure modes and sometimes the IMS gets the blame when it shouldn't be. My very good mechanic declared my second engine failure on the IMS but the new owner pulled the bearing just to look at it and it was fine..... something else failed. He didn't bother to spend the time to learn as he had a replacement engine.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

spittingcobra

@myw I was not on CPO when I replaced the bearing. It was done during clutch replacement. The dealer even had the bearing in stock and mentioned that he had done this for quite a few cars.

spittingcobra

Thanks much for sharing the detail and glad to hear :-)

Ben Z

Approximately 20,000 miles on LNE bearing. OEM bearing was perfect @ 31K.

Hella-Buggin'

Ln considers the bearing a service item correct. Every 20k I believe.

Lvt19672

Yikes, replace the ims every 20k, I'm glad I'm not paranoid about this non issue.

myw

I'm positive there was a one time "permanent" ims fix released by LN this year

PhilD

Every 50k miles was their recommendation.

PhilD

The new IMS Single Row Pro (Gen II) is a dual row bearing, but I don't any info on service life.

tbrom

Correct - 50k is what I've read as well.