[geraintthomas]

Here we go again. So sick of this IMS rubbish. It's not your fault, it's just been blown widely out of proportion over the years and people naturally end up scared.

Echoing what Mike has said, low miles makes the issue worse. When the car doesn't get driven, seals dry up, then they crack, leak, then fail. Cars which are daily drivers and have lots of miles on usually outlive those with few miles in the IMS area due to the bearing being lubricated often. So unfortunately, having so few miles is a lot worse. I'd be super worried about buying a 986 with little miles on the clock due to the above reasons. The problem is very rare, but because it happened it gets all of the attention. You don't see many threads of "My IMS is fine today". Like a plane crash, you only hear of the worst, disregarding the thousands of flights every day.

People also still seem to be in this mindset that low miles is better? Maybe 40 years ago, certainly not today. Mine has 104,000 miles, it's mechanically perfect and cosmetically stunning, and I will never replace the IMS bearing. I met up with another owner a few days ago who had 40,000 on his, he's had endless problems and it looks like crap. Mileage has very little to do with condition on modern cars. Also don't forget, on a car with higher miles, parts that eventually wear over time (suspension bushes, for example) would have already been replaced, resulting in a car that's better than a lower mile counterpart.

So don't get stuck in the 'low miles is better' mindset, it's a load of nonsense. Look at a car, if it's in good cosmetic condition, good service history and drives the way it should, then buy it. If I saw one with 200,000 on the clock that was in better condition than mine, I would have bought that instead.

As I've said time and time and time again, this IMS issue is always blown out of proportion over and over again. Original IMS bearings have failed on people due to little use, but then keep in mind, people have been so hell bent on worrying if their IMS will fail that they've replaced a perfectly good bearing, only for the new bearing to fail. I've seen one person who had a bearing fail at 30,000 miles, and another who had 300,000 on his car and didn't even know what an IMS bearing was - it was still on the original. See my point?

The only risk is when buying as it's hard to see if there's an issue, so don't go purposefully looking for a low mile one, get one with no leaks, and get one with good service history. But when you have a Boxster that drives well, that has no metal flakes in the oil filter, and has no oil leaks, then make sure you drive it and enjoy it.

Don't garage queen it, that's when things go wrong.