IMS Question

[peterbrown77]

What members here have had THEIR own LN bearing fail? I've read plenty of threads where the OE failed but not one where the ceramic bearing did.

[tomc88]

Originally Posted by peterbrown77

What members here have had THEIR own LN bearing fail? I've read plenty of threads where the OE failed but not one where the ceramic bearing did.

naturally. how many 986/996 cars were sold? 100K+
how many LN bearings have been fitted? a few thousand? and those would also all be new and less likely to have failed
So of course there would be statistically more reports of the original bearing failures vs and after market replacement.

But both combined all still significantly lower than the number of UNREPORTED unfailed (and likely never to fail) original bearings.

[Giller]

How long has the LN bearing been around for? Wondering what the sample size of the replacement actually is?

[thom4782]

Here are the facts. Draw your own conclusions.

Porsche reported in the Eisen class action lawsuit that about 8% of single row and less than 1% of dual row bearings failed in model years 98 through 05.

Out of 15,000+ installations, about 5 LN bearings have failed or three one-hundredths of one percent.

[Giller]

Originally Posted by thom4782

Here are the facts. Draw your own conclusions.

Porsche reported in the Eisen class action lawsuit that about 8% of single row and less than 1% of dual row bearings failed in model years 98 through 05.

Out of 15,000+ installations, about 5 LN bearings have failed or three one-hundredths of one percent.

15000 is a good sample size.....do we know how long they have been around for? Wondering what the proven longevity is.

[oc-boxster]

Is your car a manual trans? If so wait until it needs a clutch and just change it-especially if you plan to go another 100,000 miles.
Thankfully my 2002 needed a clutch at 80,000 miles shortly after I bought it. I was in the "leave it alone" camp. It would surely have failed.

[thom4782]

The LN IMS Retrofit - it's dual and single row IMS bearing designs - was created in 2009.

I believe that LN considers its dual row bearing a permanent fix. With zero dual row failures, they may be right.

On the other hand, LN recommends owners treat its 1st generation single row bearing as a maintenance item because its load carrying is far less than its dual row counterpart. The maintenance interval is 50,000 miles or every four years. That said, LN single row bearings may last far longer.

LN introduced its Gen 2 Pro bearing at the beginning of this year to eliminate the single row Retrofit's load carrying concern.