Just did some maintenance incl. IMS
 

Just had some preventative maintenance done and I am glad I did. I picked up my 02 Box S a few months ago and actually got it from North Scottdale Porsche after 3 weeks of back and forth until they finally met my terms. They had done all the maintenance since new and had gone through the car and repaired a number of typical age related items for which they provided me a copy of the invoices ($2k total). When I picked her up she had 41k. I drove her 3k since and figured it was time to get ahead of a few things before they caused problems.

The first was the water pump. Sure enough it was showing the first signs of failure with a very slight leak coming out of shaft in front. With the pump out the system got flushed and refilled with distilled water, Porsche approved coolant and water wetter.

The second item was the IMSB and RMS. Both showed signs of leaking oil. The IMSB when I opened it up the grease was gone plus the shaft wobbles a bit (at least to my untrained I. Not a good sign. For anyone interested the part number on the IMSB was 6204DU17 NSK England.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1388006039.jpg

While the manual transmission was out we changed the gear oil. Didn't think it would make a difference in how it shifts but it definitely feels smoother and easier to shift.

Wanted to change the brake fluid in preparation for some upcoming track days but figured out the factory lug key was missing so of to the dealer I went yesterday and the parts guy played guess which of the 30 different lug keys works on my lugs. The brake fluid change will need to be done in the next week.

Of course we did an oil and filter change. Opened the filter open and it was free of any internal bits.

Last thing was the fun part. Installed a underdrive pulley from Pedro's Garage. Definitely adds a little kick that is most noticeable above 4.5k rpms and so far I notice no other change to steering, electrical and cooling. When it gets hot we will see how the A/C works.

All in I feel good that I got ahead of some potentially expensive issues.

Hmmm. No grease in the IMSB. You could knock me over with a cinder block.

If the old IMSB was wobbling the engine oil has seen some contamination. I can only hope that you pulled the sump plate and cleaned it, as well as installing a magnetic drain plug, or a filter mag. The oil filter will bypass material laden oil at start up, so the filter is not going to catch it all.

If not, the new IMSB has a very good change of seeing accelerated wear and collateral damage from the remains of the old bearing.

At least carry out a couple of short service interval oil services, the first at 500 miles, the second at 1500 miles.

Thanks Jake. The sump plate and oil filter where completely clean. If the bearing had wear wouldn't one expect to see something in the bearing itself? Both seals where completely in place with everything internally looking good to my untrained eye with the exception of the grease missing. The bearings roll freely with absolutely no loose material of any kind. The picture of the bearing is exactly as I found it. All it had was trace amounts of motor oil.

If the bearing was "wobbly" it lost some material and that opened up the clearances. That material went somewhere.
I'd still shorten that first service interval, at minimum.