Gooddog

I realize that typically the only info that hits the web is the bad experience. What is the real world fail rate of IMS bearings for M96's?

Marc Gelefsky

Good question, however there is no real data to provide a real answer so anything you are told is pure speculation or just BS.

Macster

For my 02 Boxster with 266K miles? 0%.

For others who's engine has failed from this: 100%.

For a few very unfortunate souls who's replacement engine failed from this: 200%.

And IIRC one owner had a 2nd replacement engine fail: 300%.

perfectlap

those documents were put back into the undeground bunker at the Porsche mothership when they settled the recent IMS class action. But if you take one of the plaintiffs lawyers out for a some tequila shots maybe he'll give you the real story. In their lawyer papers filed with the court they claimed that Porsche reached into their pockets to make good on a certain number of in-warranty and some out of warranty cars. The dollar number the plaintiffs lawyer claimed was pretty specific, even down to their own state, so I presume they were going off some manner of documentation available to them when they Porsche was forced to fork over their emails and files. But that's not including all of the failures that Porsche had no involvement with either because they told the car owner to pound sand or because the owner never reached out to them. In other words the full extent will probably never be know because Porsche only monitored a fraction of the failures.

Byprodriver

Despite the fact that a different person asks this at least once a week there are still no definative answers. Since the IMSB is unable to heal itself & they get older everyday, I guess it's impossible to know future failure rate.

Gooddog

Has the class action suit passed the judge's acceptance? Is it time to submit claims via the law office?

Zookie

that is what i have been sayin. my 2004 C4S is a DD with 182k orginal IMSB... Knock On Wood

anywho

The Court has preliminarily approved the settlement, so I believe the class notices should be sent out in the next 60-90 days or so.

You'll probably want to wait at least 30 days before you bug the attorneys. If you don't get a claim notice, it looks like there will be a website set up for the lawsuit, or you can call the Plaintiffs' class attorneys' office (Knapp, Petersen & Clarke). Unfortunately, the FINAL approval of the settlement isn't scheduled until December 2, 2013.

Here is the info from the court docket as of April 24:
The Court now GRANTS Plaintiffs' Motion for Preliminary Approval of the Settlement and ORDERS: The Court preliminarily certifies, for settlement purposes only, the Settlement Class (the "Class") pursuant to Rule 23(b)(3) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The Court appoints plaintiffs Bruce Eisen, Kymmberli R. Ureda, Lee Smith and Frederick Nelson-Bonebrake to serve as Class Representatives. The Court appoints Stephen M. Harris of Knapp, Petersen & Clarke, to serve as Class Counsel. The Court preliminarily approves the parties' proposed Settlement. A hearing on entry of Final Judgment and Order of Dismissal, the award of fees and expenses to Class Counsel, and incentive payments to the Class Representatives (the "Fairness Hearing") shall be held on 12/2/2013 10:00 AM before Judge Christina A. Snyder. Class Counsel shall file an application for an award of attorneys' fees and costs no later than 14 days prior to the Final Approval hearing (i.e., by 11/18/2013). The last day for counsel to file correspondence and any other documents received from opt-outs and objectors shall be 10 days prior to the Final Approval hearing (i.e., by 11/22/2013).

Bruce In Philly

I had two engines fail in my 2000S. The first covered under warranty at 47K miles, the second at 197K chassis miles and that killed the car. Interestingly, neither failure was the IMS, both were unknown causes. There are more failure modes than just IMS and I think the IMS gets blaimed most of the time. My second failure was "for sure the IMS" until the guy I sold the chassis to to took it apart and pulled the bearing.

No one knows the frequency but it is real and no engine is safe. Folks who have not experienced this first hand or doesn't know anyone who had an engine failure hate to hear this stuff and like to blame the hysteria of the 'net. or maybe I "abused" the car.

What I find really sad, is that younger folks are now buying these older, low mileage cars excited to get their first Porsche and then pow! Anyway, I loved the brand so I purchased a new to me 2009 C2S.. with the new motor. No way was I, with two failures going to buy another one with the same engine design.

Why am I more confident with the new design? Well, to understand that, you have to understand why Porsche developed a poor engine design in the M96. Porsche was failing. They were not doing well and Wiedeking brought in Toyota who revamped their manufacturing. Porsche moved to a single engine design, the M96 to cut costs. Unfortunately, they never raced or, apparently, never tested thoroughly. Whatever the fundamental reason, the failing company did what it thought it had to do to protect the investors money.

So, now on strong footing, I am hoping the new design was tested and put together properly like Porsche of old. Time will tell.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

PelicanParts.com

Gooddog - those stats would be hard to come by however we've put together an informative article regarding the M96 engine and potential issues. It's a great read and covers many areas with pictures - check it out!

Common Engine Problems and Failures - M96

tuner1984

If I am correct though wasn't the IMS failue caused by oil starvation?

Zookie

no its more like Lack of "Beating" On The Car and Not Keeping High Revs... Low RPMs and Idling (Warming Up the Car) is the Worst Thing for the IMS Life Span

Thats why i would never consider a Low Milage M96/M97

gfl

The number from the court filed docs, whcih is still only an approximation, was around 7% for the years in range

From there, guess.

Grant

Bruce In Philly

There are many many suppositions to why this fails. I have been reading about this for 13 years and I concluded that there is no answer. My personal rational is that it seems really dopey to me to put a sealed, unserviceable bearing as a critical engine component. (Porsche always said this is unserviceable.) To me, this is the act of a failing company trying to save itself. Again, this is my opinion.

To read all about engine failures, suppositions, and solutions, read here:

All gore and information you can handle here.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

curt_928

There are MANY do's and dont's out there. I drove mine slow, at low RPMs, mellow, etc. etc. But I changed the oil every 6 months/5k miles. 74k miles and no IMS failure.

Problem is the car is not up to Porsche standards, rather, what Porsche standards used to be for quality. Owned my 928 for 15 years and replaced an alternator, water pump, timing belt and steering rack. Owned the Boxster for 5 1/2 years and replaced a water pump, AOS, oil seal on the top of the engine, both window regulators, both door locks, turn signals, etc.

The 996 and 986 are 50k miles cars. At 50k miles, they start breaking down.. rather the components break down. They're designed to make Porsche money. That's why I traded it in for a Mini Cooper 2 two weeks ago. Now I don't have to worry about the IMS imploding every time I turn the key.

I'll keep my Ferrari for the weekends. It's bult the way Porsches USED to be. I might be back in a 997 or later one day.. but for now I'm tired of the shoddy build quality. Ferry and Dr. Porsche wouldn't not have been impressed.
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