We all were really counting on that being your "last and final comment" I don't think we can trust anything you write! :barf:

Who ever you are, you have now pissed me off.. Previous to this comment you were just an irritating troll, now you are insinuating that we are running an unfair business and "ripping people off".

I challenge you to find ONE of the IMS retrofit purchasers that we have installed a bearing for that feels they have been "ripped off". I haven't instilled fear in anyone, just told them exactly what the issues were and shared the stories that most would never get to see.

It doesn't appear that too many people care about what you think or want to read your comments. It seems to me that you are just another "vendor hater". Vendor haters work to break the back bone of those who actually give a damn about your car. Keep hating me, I love every minute of it.

so Jake im a little bit confused now. First, you said that you streamlined the process so that the motivated home garage wrench turner could DIY. But, then you said you don't sell the parts.

So as of right now I can't buy the bearing from you and DIY the project? or can I lol :confused:

I have almost 18,000 miles on an IMS Replacement (not retrofit) and is probably one of the first ones ever done.

My wife is driving one that has a couple thousand miles on an IMSR.

My sister-in-law's IMSR is 6 months old and ~4500 miles or so I'm guessing.

There were 2 2003 Boxster S IMS failures last month in Houston.

One of them is at our shop now. Sadly it had just been purchased,
and prior to purchase inspected at a dealership who found an RMS
leak and charged the original owner $2500 to fix.
For that kind of money an indie can do the IMSR, RMS, Clutch and probably
hand back a handful of franklins. To me that is getting ripped off!

Never mentioned the IMSR -- or we might have never have seen the car at the shop.

When I made a visit to the local Porsche dealership and talked to the head mechanic. He raved about the IMSR and said that they had done several.

My philosophy is if I open up the engine -- if its my engine/car it gets done.
If it is someone elses, I recommend they strongly consider having it done
if the labor to get to that point is coincident with some other repair.

ymmv,

m

LN sells the parts... Just because we streamlined the procedure and helped make the last tool doesn't mean that we have to continue selling the parts.. I've been focusing on development and we can't do that if we have to field 20 phone calls a day on how the process is done..

At some point we may go back to selling the parts, BUT not right now as we have too much going on. The support thats required with each kit is tremendous, people make it harder than it has to be.

Jake I thought at one point you were going to
 

qualify, train and support people in shops that would then be equipped to do IMS kits for owners. By the time they are doing their 3rd or 4th replacement, the questions should be down to almost zero. Maybe the business model of selling to all comers is not the best approach for your business as it takes up too much of your personal time.

I'm not familiar with your staff and their training, how many simultaneous IMSRs can your shop handle at once? How much do you personally have to touch each car? How much delegation are you able to do by now?

Just some thoughts, you don't have to answer them here.

Thank you for your input! Besides Jake, I think you are the only one who posted any mileage! Its good to hear you have put 18,000+ miles on your bearing and that everything seems to be good.

Well helps that those 3 are in the family -- so I keep tabs on them.

The 18K one is my daily driver. The replacement was done in the fall of '08
when we rebuilt the engine from a blown freeze plug.

I have a few more customer cars with IMSRs running around -- but
I don't get to see them (which I guess is a good thing :-)
So I can't comment on mileage.

I agree with both Jake and Mike Focke. Selling to the public would require
the potential to service a good bit of hand holding. We've done quite a
few now -- and we still had to call Charles a few months back when the
bolt snapped on us when we were pulling one. The average guy would be
in a panic -- we had to do some head scratching and scrambling
our selves, but it all worked out in the end -- just another feather in
the cap.

BTW, Jake does do training (of which the IMSR is probably
just a footnote :-), and I hope to attend soon, but our schedules
have not meshed yet.

cheers,

Mike

Thats tough to do. The fact is not every shop has a technician that can think outside the box well enough to be tasked with this job. The other challenge is having to deal with customer complaints when a shop we "recommend" or "certify" doesn't meet the customer's expectations. We become too responsible for everything and if I am going to be responsible then I am going to do the work under MY roof.

Usually after the first successful IMSR there are no questions, unless the situation involves a failed bearing where intervention is required that takes a bigger pair of balls to employ.

.
That part doesn't take any of my time, my staff can handle that without an issue, but their time can be more productively spent, for sure.

We can handle two procedures simultaneously, but I never do that because nothing here is about quantity anyway. I have the space to do 10 procedures at once if I wanted, but have no desire for that.

I carry out QA inspections at 6 critical points of a normal procedure. I also personally carry out the before and after chassis dyno evaluations for each IMSR equipped Porsche. I then drive each car at least one round trip to and from my facility (83 miles) and inspect for noises and leaks before the vehicle is shipped back home or released to the owner.

I could easily delegate 100% of the procedure and QA to my staff, but I refuse to since MY NAME is going in the door jamb of that car after the procedure. My staff is great, they learned this procedure along with me and they co-developed the changes to the procedure as well. The person who does your IMSR under my roof is the same person that assembles M96 engines.

Very good thoughts, for sure.

I have been planning some one day IMSR training courses at various parts of the country in 2011. After attending the procedure would be very easy to carry out. It all takes time. Lots of time.

I don't have a lot of miles on my LN IMS bearing (less than 1k) but I can attest to its very high quality of construction. Comparing to the original bearing the LN part is significantly beefier and turns smoother. At 83k my original bearing showed no outward signs of trouble. When I removed it and popped off one of the seals a lot of cooked smelling oil gushed out which I believe is a bad sign. Because I could do all the clutch and RMS seal work myself the added cost was about $600 to put in the better IMS bearing. That isn't an extravagant amount of money when you consider a set of tires will cost much more than that typically. FWIW this was the first time I've ever replaced a clutch on any car and overall the whole things was pretty easy. I like DIY though and enjoy working on cars.

Steve

L&N bearing mileage
 

I've only got ~1K miles on the bearing upgrade, having just bought it, so I don't have much to add except this - knowing that the car had the L&N bearing was a _major_ selling point for me. Great to have it.

I've got 10k on mine and it was done in Sept of 2009.
Chris

just passed the 1K mark. Mostly Track. Nothing to report. It still runs and that's just what I hope it keeps on doing.

I wonder how long before the first faked LN bearing replacement shows up in a used Boxster

Thats why we've serialized every vehicle that we have supplied a bearing for as well as every unit we have installed. I have a log book of VIN/ IMS door decal serial number/ IMS flange serial number since day one.

If someone is going to pull a fast one, they'll have to work pretty hard to do it with my name on it..

Unfortunately, that won't work for anyone who didn't use Flat6, like me. I plan on keeping my receipt from the shop that bought the bearing from LN as proof.

Thats another reason why people ship cars across the country for us to do the procedure here.. :-)

Keeping receipts is the key, cars have already been falsely stated in at least two ebay ads that I know of.

~2500 miles on my IMS retrofit purchased from Jake. They did indeed ask for my VIN for their records, did it myself so no door sill sticker.

Email Dean to request one. We'll cross reference it's number to your VIN on our records.

Will do, thanks Jake.