IMS Guardian

[jb92563]

I'm a little sceptical that the IMS Guardian will give enough, or any advance notice of an IMS failure.

Seems that the Guardian needs to have metal bridging the two magnetic contacts
to trip the alarm but in my reading of all the reported failures the bearing disintegrated rapidly with little or no other audible symptoms.

Perhaps if enough small shards of the bearing cage came off over time, some pieces might bridge the contacts and stick to the magnets in theory.

Bigger pieces and bearing balls might settle elsewhere and never make it past the Guardian to get captured by its magnets.

I suppose an acumulation of finer particles might form a bridge as captured by the magnets over time if the failure is a slow progressive deterioration.

Seems like you might only be getting a marginal improved chance of catching a failure in progress.

I think the guardian may produce a false sense of security rather than a reliable method of IMS failure avoidance.

I think the money is better spent simply replacing the bearing since it might only cost you another $700 to actually remedy the problem entirely.

I expect when that Guardian does Alert, I would think you best stop immediately and get a tow to your garage (say $200 or more). Then a diagnosis, $200+, so now we are talking only $300 more to make a schduled garage appointment rather than driving till it nearly fails and being stuck out somewhere.

Its just my opinion of course but I have not seen statistics showing how many Guardians out there total, how many grenaded engines that had a Guardian but could not Alert in time to avoid the failure, and how many have Alerted and saved an engine.

Are there numbers to back up the performance of the Guardian?

[JFP in PA]

Originally Posted by jb92563

I'm a little sceptical that the IMS Guardian will give enough, or any advance notice of an IMS failure.

Seems that the Guardian needs to have metal bridging the two magnetic contacts
to trip the alarm but in my reading of all the reported failures the bearing disintegrated rapidly with little or no other audible symptoms.

Perhaps if enough small shards of the bearing cage came off over time, some pieces might bridge the contacts and stick to the magnets in theory.

Bigger pieces and bearing balls might settle elsewhere and never make it past the Guardian to get captured by its magnets.

I suppose an acumulation of finer particles might form a bridge as captured by the magnets over time if the failure is a slow progressive deterioration.

Seems like you might only be getting a marginal improved chance of catching a failure in progress.

I think the guardian may produce a false sense of security rather than a reliable method of IMS failure avoidance.

I think the money is better spent simply replacing the bearing since it might only cost you another $700 to actually remedy the problem entirely.

I expect when that Guardian does Alert, I would think you best stop immediately and get a tow to your garage (say $200 or more). Then a diagnosis, $200+, so now we are talking only $300 more to make a schduled garage appointment rather than driving till it nearly fails and being stuck out somewhere.

Its just my opinion of course but I have not seen statistics showing how many Guardians out there total, how many grenaded engines that had a Guardian but could not Alert in time to avoid the failure, and how many have Alerted and saved an engine.

Are there numbers to back up the performance of the Guardian?

If you had ever seen an M96 that was "caught" just as the IMS was near death, but had not totally failed yet, you would be appalled by the amounts of ferrous debris found in the sump and oil filter. These things start grinding themselves to death long before the timing jumps, so there is more than enough metal to trip the sensor.

You might want to refer your question on "numbers" to Jake at Flat Six, they are the ones that "get the call" when these things go into alert, so he would be the one to best address that.