Jake did IMS bearing (and clutch, flyweel, and RMS) on my daily driver '02S in Oct. '09 at 70k. He showed me that the factory bearing was in the early stages of failure, with some race looseness and evidence of oil leaking by. He believed the bearing, best case, would have lasted another 20k miles, which was well short of my projected ownership horizon. This reinforced my already strong feeling that this was money well spent - FOR ME.
Even if the bearing had been perfect, I'd still have felt that having this procedure done - particular by Flat6 - was well worth it. I'm not an overly conservative, "nervous Nellie" type who spends his life obsessing about everything bad that could happen. On the contrary, as a real estate developer I'm inherently a risk taker, but I know value and take
calculated risks. At about ~$1500 over what a clutch job alone here in NJ would have cost me, having Jake do the IMSR was solid value.
Sure, I could have gotten it done closer to home, probably for around the same price, saving myself a 5 day vacation to GA, but experience has a lot value in my book. The best guy did my car, the possibility of an "oops!" was minimized, and I got a loaner Box to tour the Antebellum Trail while the job was being done.
I'm now at 78k miles and enjoying my car more than ever partially because the retrofit gave me piece of mind.
It just amazes me that hundreds of people on this site with plenty of money in their cars won't think twice about blowing a couple thousand on a fancy stereo will in the next breath choke about spending less than that on an IMSR, or will instead spend a few thousand on a warranty of dubious value.
As they say, "You pays your money and you takes your chances."
Gary
FSI-0151