IMS issue - What Years?

[harryrcb]

Originally Posted by Dave S.

Changing your oil frequently is always a good idea, but I'm always surprised when people say that in regards to the IMS bearing since it is a sealed bearing.

Dave, that's because oil still finds it's way into the intermediate shaft and to the bearing which then washes the grease out of the "sealed" bearing most likely due to heat expansion. Unfortunately the oil does not get replaced in that tube too often unless perhaps you drive the car like you stole it, then newer oil gets to it eventually. I have replace several bearings that have been tracked regularly (almost monthly) and driven hard even on the street with 3-5k oil changes and in one case the bearing had 98k with the bearings in perfect condition however none of them had grease in them. On the other hand I just replaced one where the car was babied and the oil changed only around 10k , the bearing failed at 33k. my opinion is that because the oil was not changed often and the car not driven hard at all the newer oil did not get a chance to "splash" up into the bearing shaft and oil broke down along with the bearing.