Oppiefive

Hello to the board..


In the market for another toy. Came across a 2006 s with minimal options. Car has 26,000 miles through a dealer asking 29,500

My first question is the IMS issue?
At that price am i better off with a newer non S

Thanks
Peter

996AE

Risk is less than 5% maybe less than 2% depending on who you listen too.

Great driver. Buy it. Take the risk and have a blast.

WenigRot

From what I have read, the level of risk depends on if it is an early 06 (higher risk) or a late 06 (lower risk)? Also, the thought is that lower mileage cars have higher risk. I say "higher" risk but the overall risk seems to be less than 1%. No expert here, this is what I've gleaned from my research.

danschy

Some early 987 Boxsters used 986 engines which had the class-action-lawsuit IMS bearing, but don't think any Caymans were shipped with the 986 engine. Haven't heard that early Caymans are worse, but you could be right - I dunno. I do think the IMS bearing issue on 987's is way overstated, and probably would not even be talked about if it were not for the 986 issue. I would not argue with your 1% estimate. Not sure how many people post on the various Porsche forums, but in the 3 years I've been following them I've only seen one confirmed IMS bearing death, but probably thousands of posts on the "issue".

That price seems slightly high to me, but I've not been looking lately. Personally, I prefer the Base to the S, but I know I'm in the (tiny) minority. If it were me, I'd try to find a 987.2 Base for similar money, but they are hard to come by.

billwot

That was my decision also.

And yeah, it will may take some time to find one. There were only about 5200 987.2 imported to the US, including both base and S models.

Spokayman

This is (kind of) true of 987.1 Boxsters only. Not true for 987.1 Caymans.
The 987.1 Boxster was introduced in 2005 and as noted above some early 2005 cars were built with the old M96 motor with the more problematic bearing.
By 2006 model year the Boxster had the new M97 engine with the new bearing.
All US Caymans were 2006 models (or later) and were built with the M97 motor with the better IMS bearing.

altonj

That Cayman will have the larger IMS bearing which is very unlikely to suffer a failure. There are other issues to be concerned about.

danschy

Not sure if altonj plans to elaborate. The other big bucks item is bore scoring, but I believe that is also pretty rare and typically caused by inadequate oil flow, either by oil starvation on the track or high revs with cold oil. Much more likely are AOS and water pump failures, but although those may strand you, the are not huge expenses. Many recommend periodic replacement "just to be safe". I have 50k miles on my Cayman and have replaced neither. If you plan to track the car, going to a 987.2 is even more prudent.

altonj

^^^ Yes, Bore scoring. Seems to me more and more common. We are building quite a few engines that suffer from this.

matthew_brady

82k miles on mine and only had the water pump replaced as preventative maintenance. Original AOS, clutch, etc. (It even had the original brake pads until a couple thousand miles ago, but it also has ceramics, so that's not too unheard of...)