986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners - View Single Post - Fixing the IMS Bearing

mikefocke · 03-22-2017, 02:38 PM

Every person is different in their emotional makeup, finances, risk tolerance, attachment to the car, etc.

I often tell people to ask yourself these questions:

1. How would you feel if you didn't do the IMS and you had a failure and the car was suddenly worth $3k and/or you had to try and find a replacement engine?

2. How would you feel if, the day after you did the IMS, you had a crash and totaled the car? And by the way, there are several dozen known modes of failure.

3. How would you budget for the IMS replacement? Or for the double the expense engine replacement? (There are no such things as remanufactured engines at $1.5k for Porsches like for some cars. Used engine with the uncertainties that brings are $3-4k plus removal and replace labor. Porsche sourced engines maybe $12k plus labor. Remanufactured engines with known problems addressed with better parts maybe $20k+ plus labor.

The probability of failure for your car is a bit over 1% per car year. What transmission it has has relatively little to do with the probability. The fact that it has been driven gently may, in some experts opinion, slightly increase the risk. The frequency of oil changes and their quality can reduce the risk somewhat.

03-22-2017, 02:38 PM	#26
mikefocke Registered User Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Sanford NC Posts: 2,567	Every person is different in their emotional makeup, finances, risk tolerance, attachment to the car, etc. I often tell people to ask yourself these questions: 1. How would you feel if you didn't do the IMS and you had a failure and the car was suddenly worth $3k and/or you had to try and find a replacement engine? 2. How would you feel if, the day after you did the IMS, you had a crash and totaled the car? And by the way, there are several dozen known modes of failure. 3. How would you budget for the IMS replacement? Or for the double the expense engine replacement? (There are no such things as remanufactured engines at $1.5k for Porsches like for some cars. Used engine with the uncertainties that brings are $3-4k plus removal and replace labor. Porsche sourced engines maybe $12k plus labor. Remanufactured engines with known problems addressed with better parts maybe $20k+ plus labor. The probability of failure for your car is a bit over 1% per car year. What transmission it has has relatively little to do with the probability. The fact that it has been driven gently may, in some experts opinion, slightly increase the risk. The frequency of oil changes and their quality can reduce the risk somewhat. Last edited by mikefocke; 03-23-2017 at 12:46 PM.