new to 03 s boxster.ims replacement question
 

car has 36k,im worried about ims bearing,should i just replace with ceramic now,or wait till it needs clutch or continue to change oil every 5k and check for metal in filter.

You might try a search, as this has been covered many, many times.

Regardless of mileage or how often you change your oil (though many believe that it helps), IMS failure can occur at anytime . Whether or not it will happen to your vehicle, can be a roll of the dice . You could be one of the unlucky - who's vehicle falls into the percentage of M96 engines that fail .

There is no right or wrong in this matter and there's not enough data available to come to a logical decision. You'll have to do some research and then decide which path you feel most comfortabe with.

I have a 2001 Boxster base and have installed the ims guardian. Within the next year or so I plan on replacing ims, rms and clutch as the there is a minor rms leak. This subject has been beaten to death but I understand your concern. I will do much thinking before I sink significant $$$$ into it. It is the nature of the beast but it is worth it.:dance::dance:

there is a chance the bearing could go,i budgeted when buying car to replace bearing,i cannot afford to replace an engine,so for me it is the best choice.

here is an update to my ims bearing replacement. old bearing still ok,went ahead and put in new ln bearing,clutch was wearing out and replaced as they were in there,also cv boots one was cracked,it was fairly cheap to do it with trans out(400)includiong boots.so now a bit poorer but feeling secure,car has 36k and should be good for quite a while ,will post some pics,teal green-lblack interior

glad to hear everything went well for you and there was no impending doom on your car

What helped me decide against the LN bearing last year (38k mile 04 3.2) was simple odds. Namely, the cost for Raby to do it, all in, was about $3500. That is 25% of the cost of a $14,000 engine replacement. I don't think I've ever seen anything approaching a 25% failure rate estimate. So yes, it's rolling the dice, but smart money says "Don't do it unless you at least need to be in there anyway for a clutch." And, the upside of doing the LN bearing is only peace of mind. The upside of replacing the engine is a 3.6! :)

Of course, if the $3500 is something a person can afford but the $14,000 would cause a real hardship, then the part of wisdom would be to buy the insurance for a $3500 premium.

(There are other shops who will do this job for less, and of course you could not do the clutch while in there and save some money as well, but I would have used Raby and I would have done the clutch, so that's why I used those figures.)

Teal green? As in ocean jade mettalic or somethign other? There was a member here who had one of those and took lots of pictures.

random cool picture I saw of a lowered Boxster with GT3 aero

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6013/...e7d4a9ca_b.jpg