IMS Replacement Survey

[mikefocke]

Harry is right. LN confirmed the RMS was not included.

[Sumflow]

When the inner bearing seal deteriorates because of heat, the oil washes the permanent grease out of the bearings case. At low RPMs speed is not high enough to develop an elastohydrodynamic film to overcome surface irregularities. This metal-to-metal contact, leads to the failure of the IMS bearing and subsequently to a blown engine because the cam timing is off.

Little is known about the history of my car, so after all the scare story’s floating around Boxster forums, during a recent clutch cable installation, on #620323 probably the 323rd American Boxster, 68,000 miles. There is a shop here in Hawaii that replaced it as preventative maintenance with LNs lightweight ceramic hybrid bearing, made with tool steel races, and Timken sintered silicon nitride ultra-low friction roller balls.

It took about two hours plus the clutch job which took forever waiting for parts. Combined with the lack of rear grease seals, the new bearing is lubricated by splash, as well as submersion lubrication. Ceramic is designed specifically for poor lubrication, and high heat.

I had a lot of other stuff replaced, water tank, cables etc. Anybody needs a reasonable shop in Hawaii for Boxster's PM me. But you never know. The bearing that we took out was already an LN ceramic.

[AZCanna]

Just had mine done last month @ 61500 miles. Old bearing showed some wear but hard to tell if it would have failed or not. Was in for other maintenance as well (water pump, cv boots) clutch was still good.

IMS Replacement portion was $648 parts from Pelican and $1200 on the labor at an indy shop here in AZ.

[jdcorbitt3]

Just replaced mine. Old one had 70,miles on it. The seals wre in place and the bearing felt good. 03 boxster S engine.

[Bala]

Replaced a perfectly fine double row on a 2000 S. PP bearing kit.

kit - 150
LN tool - 150
clutch- 258
rms - 45 (messed up the first install but got smarter on the second)

[spdylw986]

I had mine replaced this week. 2002 with 32,000 miles on it. IMS looked fine. There was no play in the bearing at all. I got it last year and 4000the miles ago, so I wanted the prentative security of getting it replaced as I was unsure of how spirited previous ownere was.

Glad I made the move though as the flywheel and clutch were in pretty bad shape. Had those replaced as well.

I hope to now get many years of "worry-free" enjoyment out of her.

[opus69]

The following is a cut and paste from my post on another thread.

Just got my 2002 S out of the shop last week. I left the car on jack stands elevated in the rear for several weeks waiting on some brake springs. It may be coincidence but after installing the springs and driving a short distance the air oil separator failed with very loud sounds and what sounded like rotating metal on metal. It only lasted a short time and I was less than 1/2 mile from home. Service maintenance light came on. Replaced the AOS but it just did not seem to be running properly. Cam timing was about -2 and -5 but appeared to be steady. Took it to shop less than 2 mi home. The mechanic dropped the oil pan which was completely clean. I change oil faithfully, but one of the first oil changes had some very tiny metal flakes on the magnetic plug. (none since). The clutch needed replacement and having concern about the metallic grinding sound I had the mechanic go ahead and replace the RMS (minor leak that had been documented at the dealer over 2 yrs ago) and the IMS bearing. The bearing did not look too bad but it did have a very slight wobble. It am a firm believer in preventive maintenance. Clutch, RMS, and IMS bearing replaced (LN). Runs much smoother and quieter.

[Sumflow]

Originally Posted by opus69

The bearing did not look too bad.

What does this guy mean?

The idea that he could look at a bearing and decide that 50,000 miles from now the thing will not fail. What did he do take it out and check it with a micrometer?

About the most he can say is that the bearing does not appear to have gone yet. How does he know the seal on the other side is not already blown?

The idea of preventive maintenance is to replace it before it even has a hint of looking bad. The design is bad. You are improving the design by replacing it. The design will always look bad to the trained eye until it is fixed. How can he look at a bad design that may self-destruct at any time and say that it does not look bad?

[Mandrew1]

Had mine replaced In early April - peace of mind, to be sure, but Sportscar Clinic in Roanoke, VA did it for around $1900, parts and labor. They also installed a Borla cat-back on the reassembly (part cost NOT included)

No wear whatsoever on the bearing assembly or clutch. Sigh...I'm never that lucky.

[Brockmeister]

I'm not a big "preventative maintenance" guy either. Usually when it breaks, I fix it. But when the word "catastrphic" is included, and I really like the car, I get it fixed. In my case the clutch was high, so at 72,000. My gaby got all the goodies.

[opus69]

I am not sure if you were referring to my comment about the bearing not looking too bad, but I had the bearing out and in hand. Seals appeared OK and it turned smoothly. What I was most concerned about was that it had a small wobble which to me suggests it was going to fail sooner than later. Since we were doing the clutch, I would have replaced the bearing anyway.