Took a dump

[bcrdukes]

/sarcasm

That's GOT to be the IMS!

/sarcasm

Jokes aside, sorry to hear about your troubles, Starter986. Hope you get this resolved.

[Starter986]

Originally Posted by bcrdukes

/sarcasm

That's GOT to be the IMS!

/sarcasm

Jokes aside, sorry to hear about your troubles, Starter986. Hope you get this resolved.

IMS... leak seal... all the same. You still have to take apart a lot of stuff to get to "it". After that... it's just dollars.

I appreciate good sarcasm.

[Homeoboxter]

This must be totally off because I know nothing about the tiptronic, but this story reminds me when the shifter position sensor, a.k.a. the neutral safety switch in my SAAB went out. The engine wouldn`t start in P, only started in neutral. It worked, I used the car like that for a couple times, but sometimes the car was sluggish and was hardly moving in gear. The sensor was not able to detect the selected gear reliably and confused the control unit. So maybe the seal failure is not the root cause but the consequence of something else? Just a thought.

[Starter986]

Originally Posted by Homeoboxter

This must be totally off because I know nothing about the tiptronic, but this story reminds me when the shifter position sensor, a.k.a. the neutral safety switch in my SAAB went out. The engine wouldn`t start in P, only started in neutral. It worked, I used the car like that for a couple times, but sometimes the car was sluggish and was hardly moving in gear. The sensor was not able to detect the selected gear reliably and confused the control unit. So maybe the seal failure is not the root cause but the consequence of something else? Just a thought.

I believe it was a consequence of my son zigging and zagging... and yinging and yanging... while the Rs were singing every scale.

The car has since started in Park... but thanks for the insight!

[Starter986]

Just got off the phone with the indie highly I am considering.

$1200 to R&R and diagnose the transmission. Parts extra, and likely some labor installing seal(s).

Will inspect RMS and advise from there.

Recommending the IMS... LN Engineering, non-oil fed. ~$800 for the part... couple hours install... budget another ~$1200.

It's the IMS. The 'while we're in there' makes sense... but is it a wise purchase? Opinion?

The car will be going to this shop... I'm on the fence about the IMS (a$ will be my wife, lol).

Thank you.

[piper6909]

Originally Posted by Starter986

Just got off the phone with the indie highly I am considering.

$1200 to R&R and diagnose the transmission. Parts extra, and likely some labor installing seal(s).

Will inspect RMS and advise from there.

Recommending the IMS... LN Engineering, non-oil fed. ~$800 for the part... couple hours install... budget another ~$1200.

It's the IMS. The 'while we're in there' makes sense... but is it a wise purchase? Opinion?

The car will be going to this shop... I'm on the fence about the IMS (a$ will be my wife, lol).

Thank you.

Regarding the IMS, if I were in your situation I'd go this route:
Sourcing Your Own Porsche IMS Bearing

If the OEM NSK bearing held out this long, I can't see spending 16x as much for a non-OEM part. Just my opinion.

Good luck.

[78F350]

If the goal is 'no IMS worries' and confidence that it will last, I would not source my own bearing. A couple other issues with sourcing your own are that the shop will probably not want to install it and the original center bolt will be compromised after removal.

You can buy the Pelican Parts IMS kit if you want to be cheap. You can even buy it just to get an improved center bolt.
If I was paying a shop to do the transmission repair, I'd go ahead and have them install the LN dual row bearing. Also I'd do the coolant tank if it hasn't been done already.

That said, I was just playing with a 2.5L engine with over 180,000 miles on it and after looking at the bearing I decided to pull the outer seal and leave it alone. At this point the IMS bearing is only one of many things likely to fail and I'd rather replace the engine than rebuild it.