986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners - View Single Post - Clutch

ryanwise · 01-09-2012, 07:24 PM

I guess we will have to agree to disagree. I have never subscribed to the "don't fix it till its broke" philosophy. Every Porsche I have owned and sold have been sold to Porsche Club members at the upper end of the price graph because of the maintenance that had been done to the car. We all know that every Porsche comes with a unique set of issues, when those issues are addressed, my personal experience is that people will pay you for that. Of the 5 "stickies" on this forum 2 are about the IMS bearing and RMS failure. Every article in Excellence or Panarama on the 986 is never complete without a caution about the RMS or IMS bearing issue. To infer that the people out there buying used Porsches are buying them blind with no research when we live in the information age of the internet is just not realistic. On the clutch, if you wait until it "slips" you will have worn the clutch disk down thru the rivets and destroyed the Dual Mass Flywheel..............add another $800-$1000 to the clutch job. Just happened to a fellow PCA member with a 2002 S with 57K miles. He developed a small oil leak and thought it was just the RMS....which it was......but when they got in there they found the clutch disc had destroyed the fluwheel and ....get this.....they took out the IMS bearing which wasn't leaking......but there were 2 bearing balls that were oval shaped and causing the earing to ratchet. Just a matter of time before the bearing would have failed. Every time I get in this car, I think about the IMS bearing and the rear main seal. I know I will need a clutch at some point of time , so why not address the issue now and if I have caught it before the rivets hit the flywheel, the $1600 that I will spend will give me the new bearing, a new cluth, a new RMS and most important......piece of mind. I will also assure you I will recover that cost when I sell this car one day because there are plenty of folks out there like me who will pay for maintenance and piece of mind.
Sorry for the length of the answer......but again we will agree to disagree.

01-09-2012, 07:24 PM	#5
ryanwise Registered User Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Tampa Posts: 50	I guess we will have to agree to disagree. I have never subscribed to the "don't fix it till its broke" philosophy. Every Porsche I have owned and sold have been sold to Porsche Club members at the upper end of the price graph because of the maintenance that had been done to the car. We all know that every Porsche comes with a unique set of issues, when those issues are addressed, my personal experience is that people will pay you for that. Of the 5 "stickies" on this forum 2 are about the IMS bearing and RMS failure. Every article in Excellence or Panarama on the 986 is never complete without a caution about the RMS or IMS bearing issue. To infer that the people out there buying used Porsches are buying them blind with no research when we live in the information age of the internet is just not realistic. On the clutch, if you wait until it "slips" you will have worn the clutch disk down thru the rivets and destroyed the Dual Mass Flywheel..............add another $800-$1000 to the clutch job. Just happened to a fellow PCA member with a 2002 S with 57K miles. He developed a small oil leak and thought it was just the RMS....which it was......but when they got in there they found the clutch disc had destroyed the fluwheel and ....get this.....they took out the IMS bearing which wasn't leaking......but there were 2 bearing balls that were oval shaped and causing the earing to ratchet. Just a matter of time before the bearing would have failed. Every time I get in this car, I think about the IMS bearing and the rear main seal. I know I will need a clutch at some point of time , so why not address the issue now and if I have caught it before the rivets hit the flywheel, the $1600 that I will spend will give me the new bearing, a new cluth, a new RMS and most important......piece of mind. I will also assure you I will recover that cost when I sell this car one day because there are plenty of folks out there like me who will pay for maintenance and piece of mind. Sorry for the length of the answer......but again we will agree to disagree.