jkycia

Hello
I think I am going to get my IMS bearing replaced. Please give advice or your
opinion.
I initially felt that I should have tough nerves and not succumb to
the paranoia of this IMS bearing. Only 5% have problems.
I just bought the car. It has 44k miles on it. In perfect condition.
The previous owner owned it for 5 years and put 3.75k miles per year on it,
just driving to work. I am now thinking that puts it in a very high risk catagory.

I get the impression that not driving it much raises the risk of IMS failure.
On the other hand he did drive it to work every day, even in the winter.
So would that regular driving even though short distances lubricate the bearing.
Would having it sit for many months on end be the real risky thing. He changed the oil twice a year (every time he swapped his summer/winter tires.

The local mechanic says he can replace it with a ceramic bearing for $3k. He
seems to be pushing for it...

how are all of you dealing with this IMS bearing ticking time bomb?

Hella-Buggin'

What year?
Have you checked to make sure you have the single row serviceable bearing?

What did your DME report say? I ask because, it's my understanding that cars that are babied are more at risk because the oil doesn't get slushed around often enough to keep the seal lubricated.

My car is an 06 and has the revised bearing. If I had the serviceable bearing I would have swapped it.
I would talk to LNE and get an installer recommendation. Also, keep in mind that they consider they're bearing to be a service item to be replaced periodically.

Have you done any oil analysis? The next time you get an oil change have a sample saved to send to Backstone Labs. Contact them for a container and info. You should also have the tech cut open the filter.
These two steps will give you a clue if something is already amiss or weather this is something you could just tackle in the future. I have my oil sent in a few times a year just to have a baseline and judge it against the labs statistics.

Change the oil often. I track my car occasionally so I dod a fresh change before every event or 3k miles.
Also, use good oil. That topic has varied opinions around here but Motul Xcess 8100 is regarded as a better option than Mobile1.

johnireland

If I am correct, the 997s (even those with the accessable IMS bearing) have a larger different bearing than the 996.2 engines. These larger bearings have a very low failure rate, 1%...same as the early 3.4 engines with the dual row bearings. The second generation 996 had the highest rate of failure...between 6% and 8%. Confirm this with your local dealer and if just drive the car and enjoy it.

The replacement of the bearing is not a guarantee you won't have issues. Everybody can say they can replace it, and they all say the new ceramic bearing is better than the original...but these are supposed to be changed every 50k...and we have several instances of early failure. Being a good wrench has a fair amount of art as well as skill.

Also you may be replacing a factory bearing this is working just fine and like over 92% (in the worst case scenarios) are not failing...and can continue to do the job they were designed to do for over a hundred and fifty thousand miles...or more.

Nothing against your indie but I wouldn't be in a rush to spend $3000 to just have anyone replace the bearing.

Petza914

Punch your VIN into the IMS lawsuit website and it should tell you whether your car is included (smaller serviceable bearing) or excluded (newer, larger, very few failures, non-serviceable bearing) in the class. If it's included and it were mine, I'd change it. If it's excluded you can't change it and just hope you're not in the under 1% that may have seen failures.

Enjoy the car.

jkycia

Thanks for the advice. I missed giving important information.
1. It is a later 2005, so it has the IMS bearing that is larger and harder to replace.
2. It is a canadian car, in Ontario, so my understanding is there is no lawsuit or recall agreement that
may exist in the US.

I am a bit annoyed at this mechanic for pushing for this replacement. If it is a 1% problem and the new one is not indestructible, it does not make sense to replace. He tells me it is getting difficult to find replacement engines and would cost $30K canadian to replace. That seems high.

I will not be driving it on a track or even daily. ...I walk to work. This is my 3rd car and mainly for fun
driving on weekends or around town. So I expect I will only put 4000 miles per year on it. So that puts
me into a higher risk category.

...I am going to go for a drive now...

My other cars:
2009 Toyota RAV4 (the workhorse),
1980 BMW 528i (I have had this car for a long time).
2005 Porsche 911 Grey, Chrono package.

Bruce In Philly

Oh boy, here we are descending into ..... that abyss again....

IMHO: What to do is an emotional choice. Can you afford a new engine? Is this your daily driver and therefore you depend on the car? How comfortable are you with a low risk, high cost bogey? I blew two engines in my 2000 Boxster S with one failure NOT the IMS and the other not sure of the cause. Driving around this car for 13 years while these things were blowing up left and right.... yes, I saw the service bay at Ellis in Atlanta circa 2004 with a blown engine on a dolly in all the service bays within sight..... I never felt comfortable but I did not replace the IMS... this turned out to be a good decision as the 2nd failure was the one NOT the IMS.

My emotional response was to replace the IMS when I needed a clutch. However, I got 197K out of my original clutch when the 2nd blew and killed the car. After doing a ton of reading on the 'net about this, I had decided to get a direct oil feed solution (DOF) if I were to do it.

Am I correct in all of this? Who the F knows...... again, this is an emotional decision with a backdrop of a rare but expensive downside.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

Petza914

I was recommending to enter your VIN into the lawsuit website as a tool, not to enter the class, since you likely wouldn't receive any value from it. Unfortunately, just because your car is a late '05 build and an S does not necessarily guarantee it received the larger bearing. A few late '05s and even a couple early '06s received the smaller bearing. The only way to be 100% sure what bearing is in your car is to pay the $1,000 and have someone pull the transmission and actually look at the bearing. As an alternative check, you would think Porsche knows what bearing went into what car and furnished an accurate VIN list to the lawyers, but who knows. If your VIN excludes your car, maybe that provides a bit more piece of mind.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Giller

A 'ticking time bomb' implies that it will blow up. Whereas the IMS is much more likely to be just fine and last the life of the vehicle. If you have lots of money laying around, sure, get it replaced for some piece of mind. But really odds are way better nothing bad will ever happen to the IMS.
Watch the filter for metal, drive the car lots and do an oil change every 5-6000 kms or so.

Hella-Buggin'

since you have a late 05 and most likely the larger bearing, you have to split the case in order to replace the bearing. That's expensive and complicated.
A replacement engine is crazy expensive. I think they're going for around $20k USD for a short block.
I have run the numbers regarding replacing an engine vs. getting into a 997.2 and the cost isn't worth it for me at this point. If my engine blows, it will suck but I'll survive. My wife will be pissed but I can get a new engine.

awrryan

Bigger bearings started with '06 model years.

jkycia

Awrryann

No, my understanding is that the bigger bearing were put in on the later part of 2005 models.
Mine should have the bigger ones that are a big deal to replace...but then are hopefully more robust.
I will just drive it, change the oil regularly and have the oil tested.

Hella-Buggin'

The switch was made I believe in spring of 05. There's details on a few threads regarding the times but it's assumed that 06 are safe and later 05 cars. The only way to know for sure is to run the vin.

mgordon18

Wow. This is a pretty crazy thread.

Have you priced out the cost of splitting the engine and replacing the bearings? What is that cost? The bearings with which they will be replaced are not indestructible either, you know. So you're still running a risk there.

If you look around the interwebs you will not find many instances of the larger bearings failing. I believe there's only been one or two reports on this forum.

Cracking the engine open (at great expense) to replace bearings with new yet also fallible bearings, when the original bearings have an almost zero failure rate, seems completely ludicrous to me.

Check to see if your bearings are larger or smaller if that will help put your mind at ease. If they are larger (which the probably are - the new bearings went into production in February/March/April of 2005) then I wouldn't touch them.

jkycia

mgordon8, Thanks, Yes they are the larger bearings. I checked the dates. I am not happy that is mechanic
is pushing this on me. I guess when you are a new owner, you want to make sure nothing
goes wrong (like rust proofing the car) , but I don't feel like spending $3000 for replacing something that has a 1% chance of failing, and even then, that is probably caused by not changing oil for long periods of time or having the car sit for a year without driving it.

Lvt19672

Why do these threads keep resurfacing, there are thousands of them lol just ridiculous