[Deadly]

Thank you for the advice redpepper and danimal.

I saw a poll on this forum regarding manufacture year and it's correlation to IMS bearing failure. It would seem that, statistically, my IMS bearing should be just fine.

If my IMS Bearing shreds itself, that's not too much of a problem. I'll just engine swap the car with something that makes more power.

Dan, thank you for the list of things I should consider checking. When I say that I recently bought this car, I really mean to say that I've had it for about 6 or more months and have been daily driving it for work. Nothing, aside from what I listed in my original post, seems to be wrong with the car. It really is in a pretty good condition mechanically speaking.

Once I can get my car on a lift and get under it myself, I will meticulously check everything I can and I will share my findings here.

I have used an OBDII scanner, and the only code it threw was a misfire in cylinder 3. This was corrected when I replaced all spark plugs and coil packs.

My biggest issue that I'm facing right now is actually that I don't have anywhere to work on my car. I live in an apartment so I'm not allowed to work on my car here, and the nearby military base closed down their auto-hobby shop. It used to have a shop fully stocked with lifts, tools, and just about anything you could ever desire. Servicemembers were able to take their projects there, pay 15 or 20 bucks, and get a bay to themselves.

I will be moving to Florida sometime within the next few months; hopefully once I'm there I will have a good spot to really put some love into this car. Also, I think owning this car in Florida will be a lot more fun than here in Washington State.

Regards,

- Michael