Quote:
Originally Posted by Parker986
I just spoke with a third mechanic today who said he has replaced four dozen IMS bearings, and not a single bearing he replaced was bad..
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Here's the problem with this sort of logic, every 996/986 owner drives and maintains their car differently. So his 48 bearings may be comprised mostly of people who drive and maintain their cars properly with low to moderate mileage. The next 48 may be totally different, that group could only have 1/3 who follow proper maintenance/driving with most in that group having close to 100K miles on the clock.
So basically sample sizes these small tell you nothing since your car may only have usage and maintenance similar to only part of that sample, which of course makes the sample size even smaller/more inconclusive.
The lawsuit was interesting because Porsche's IMS numbers for their flawed bearing design came from all of those engines that they actually addressed in their engine replacement program. They didn't include all the engines that may have failed but the owner simply didn't bother to let the dealer know about. Since then mileage has gone up pushing the original bearing closer to its sell by date. So the 8-10% figure you quote is as reliale as a Congressional Budget. It could be much lower or it could way higher.
But again the ironic beauty of this engine is that you can easily swap the bearing when you do your clutch, and a new clutch has utility no matter when you decide to toss the old clutch. Basically you get a two-for.