[edbelton]

The other day I let a friend of mine drive my 98... and all of the sudden I have this moment of inspiration where I came up with this brilliant theory (LOL, we need to blame it on something) about the IMS failure based on the way he drove it. I learned driving in a stick shift car, I never owned an automatic car, and I think my dad taught me well, so I am always trying to make my driving as smooth as possible. Anyone can drive stick, but what really makes a difference is the way you shift. Shifting should be almost unnoticeable. You need to aim for quality when you shift, not shifting like crazy as many people do. Well this friend of mine would realease the clutch in a very abrupt way, not once, or twice, but pretty much all the time. Multiply that for 15K miles and you have an stressed engine due to abrupt changes in torque ( that stresses the timing axel and thus the bearing) , or underreving prior to stall, or when the ac kicks in (sometimes my rpm drops below 500 and I hear some noise from the engine if I am in gear), add everything up and there is your IMS failure. That why, accoding to what I read, that boxsters with automatic transmission are less prone to it, shifting is usually smooth and there is no stalling at a red light or underreving due to not pushing the gas enough. I dont know, it could be the biggest BS you guys have ever heard, but in my mind it makes sence. It is evident that there is a flaw, and that the engine shoud be designed to take it, but this car is not a toy, it is by far the hardest I have ever driven, it is not easy to deal with the extra hard clutch and shifting isnt always smooth. After driving it for a couple of months I took my old vw corrado for a ride.......boy, I thought the clutch had broken, it went all the way in as if it had no spring, so soft, so easy to drive....