I think those IMS failure rates will be going higher very soon. The more the older Boxsters are driven the more miles they rack up under 2nd and 3rd owners and problematic IMS bearings start to "shake out".
In other words they didn't fail earlier simply because some owner just didn't drive the car much. They sell it to another guy for $15K or whatever and an IMS bearing that was NOT properly lubricated/maintained is now doing a lot more work then when it just sat in the garage 6 1/2 days a week. Add 20K miles of daily use and little by little that bearing strats to wither. Kabooms left and right.
You have to be crazy not to change the bearing if you don't know how often the car was driven, when the oil was changed or at least have the last few oil filters to examine for cracked pepper size seal fragments.
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Originally Posted by nefarious986
Common wisdom on this board for new owners is do the IMS .. its cheap insurance.
I had a IMS scare about a month ago when my water pump went and I thought it was IMS, but after fixing the water pump, it made me really think about getting the fix done.
Here's my take on that ... this is mostly personal opinion with some math .. so make your own conclusion.
First, some estimated cost.
Cost of the IMS upgrade ( parts + labor ) ~= $1500 if done at my local shop.
Cost of a newly used engine installed ( parts + labor ) ~= $9000 based on ebay prices.
Cost of a new reman 3.6 engine installed with warranty ( parts + labor ) = $16500 ( from Roock )
Second, I assume that IMS fail in 1 out of 10 cars ( correct me if I'm wrong but I remember reading somewhere that this was Flat6's ratio ). This gives you a 10% chance of failure.
Third, I assume that there are no fortune tellers among us and no one knows exactly when their IMS will give out. If you just know for sure you're one of the unlucky ones, then by all mean, get your IMS done.
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To make 'insurance' worth buying .. it has to give me better odds of saving $ than if I didn't buy it. In another word, a $1500 insurance for a part that has a 10% failure rate only starts to make sense if the cost to fix when the part fails is over $15000. In this case, it is not. If your IMS goes, restoring your car to "as good as before" with a used engine cost $9000. That's gives you about a 1 / 6 ratio of IMS upgrade cost to potential saving in case of engine failure .. about 16%.
In another word, you're pre-paying 16% of the repair cost to guard against a 10% chance of failure.
So for me .. mathematically .. it only makes sense to do IMS upgrade when you can reduce the labor cost. Such as when you're already doing something in that area already so you can save on labor .. like changing clutch.
Doing IMS upgrade for the sake of IMS upgrade is not the best way to spend your money.
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