Whoever believes you can't buy peace of mind has never owned a Porsche. I just bought peace of mind by doing some preventive maintenance. I've owned my '01 base model for two years. It has accumulated 56,000 miles and was an exceptionally clean car when I purchased it. But the records that came with it indicated no maintenance other than periodic oil changes. What I have learned about IMS issues on this forum had made me apprehensive about what could happen. So I had Joe at Series 9 in Deland, Florida, replace the IMS bearing, AOS, water pump and serpentine belt.
Here's what I found out about my car. First, everything on the car was original. Secondly, the car has a double-row IMSB. The prevailing consensus was that I should expect a single row bearing. It was replaced with a LN Engineering ceramic double-row bearing. The old bearing still had miles to go, probably, but it was beginning to become "notchy" in places. Replacement may not have been necessary but I know that the new one is good for at least another 50,000 miles.
The water pump was "weeping" and the shaft was beginning to drag. The impeller fins were all there - no cracking. Clearly replacement was imminent sometime in the future.
Hard to tell about the AOS. It is mostly plastic and showed no evidence of failure. Joe commented that the RMS was the driest he had ever seen on a boxster this age. So yes, I dropped some dollars in maintenance but I've also purchased some peace of mind.
Linear Mode
