Clean oil filter! Yea!

[san rensho]

Originally Posted by NoGaBiker

Just changed oil yesterday. 2004 Boxster 550SE, with 41,000 miles. Change oil every 5000 (about once a year.) Cut that sucker open and you could have eaten off of it. Well, you could have eaten something that is good with an oily sauce!

I know that the bearing seal could begin to let go today, so I'm not gloating; just wanted to give a little psychological boost to those who are not rushing to change to the LN bearing; at least for now, mine seems to be just fine.

I plan on keeping the car a long while (owned it since new) and I will do the bearing when it's time for a clutch. And if it goes before then, it's 3.6 time for me.

Thats my plan of attack too, wait for the clutch to go before I do the IMSB.

I also inspect the filter halfway through the oil change period just to make sure there is no metal in it. Some say to put in a new filter after inspecting but I just put the old one back in.

[Perfectlap]

I'll just chime in with the total opposite view. There's really no reason not to upgrade a known weakspot. Checking the filter only tells you if you are in imminent danger (as in do not fire up the car even once more). You could change the oil, see no fragments of the IMS in the filter, think all is well with the world, put the top down on a beautiful day, fire up the car and within 50 miles the car is a roller.

Now ask yourself why did you put off addressing a known problem? Let's examine...


1- don't trust messing with something that isn't broken. (fine... some will neve be sold).

2- If you don't fall in #1 then you're putting it off so you can get some more miles out of the clutch. (frugal or natural procrastinator)

3- You just don't have the cash now. (understandable, tough times).


So basically if you fall into #2 you're taking a risk. And the reason for that is that you think you can squeeze another couple of years out a $600 clutch? Okay... so let's ball park the clutch at "still half good" or $300 in unused value. Do you really think that saving yourself $300 is an even trade in the event of an catastrophic egnine failure? Personally I don't think that's an even trade even if you don't ever have an engine problem. Like waiting until TV remote batteries die before you go to the store to buy batteries for your smoke detectors in your house. Chances are you'll never have a fire your in your house.... why rush it?

The real beauty of the IMS upgrade is that you actually get a new clutch, most of the cost is usable and not like some other piece of mind preventative expense that just sits there.