Almost made it to 100k

[Jake Raby]

"You signed it"????

Who the hell are you? Illustrate a little bit of intestinal fortitude and reveal yourself.

So how long can we expect to see smart assed comments from you?

When you will believe that the issue exists is when you find yourself on the side of the road.. Just like Cancer, its something that happens to other people until YOU get the diagnosis.

If you have an issue with me then take that issue up with me.

FWIW- The vast majority of our business doesn't come from preventives, it comes from engines that have already failed.. Those people understand the reality of this failure. One of them recently experienced a full blown engine failure while he was on our wait list to have a preventive procedure carried out. He is a member here, ask him about it.

[Perfectlap]

There have been three IMS failures on this message board since I joined a few years back. That's troubling because we have a small membership here.

I waited for my clutch to kick the bucket before upgrading the IMS but if I had to do it again I wouldn't have waited that long. Better to replace the clutch and IMS in one shot and take a loss on the prematurely replaced old clutch. In the end you still get a new clutch to put down the power and have removed a great deal of the uncertainty. If your car has more than 60K miles I think holding onto a clutch in its last 30% of life and thus postponing the IMS upgrade is not worth the gamble. For an experienced Porsche mechanic, this is not a complicated job.

[23109VC]

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

There have been three IMS failures on this message board since I joined a few years back. That's troubling because we have a small membership here.

I waited for my clutch to kick the bucket before upgrading the IMS but if I had to do it again I wouldn't have waited that long. Better to replace the clutch and IMS in one shot and take a loss on the prematurely replaced old clutch. In the end you still get a new clutch to put down the power and have removed a great deal of the uncertainty. If your car has more than 60K miles I think holding onto a clutch in its last 30% of life and thus postponing the IMS upgrade is not worth the gamble. For an experienced Porsche mechanic, this is not a complicated job.

I have a 2000 base... it is close to turning 80k and I KNOW it's the OEM clutch... the motor was swapped out by Porsche at about 15-20k miles b/c the orifginal one had repeated RMS leaks... I'm guessing they resed the clutch when they did the engine swap..so my clutch is stock. it doesn't slip, but's it's close to being replaced.

to do the clutch job - parts/labor AND the IMS upgrade (parts/labor) what am I looking at $$ wise? I will take it to a porsche independent..not the stealer..

[Perfectlap]

Originally Posted by 23109VC

I have a 2000 base... it is close to turning 80k and I KNOW it's the OEM clutch... the motor was swapped out by Porsche at about 15-20k miles b/c the orifginal one had repeated RMS leaks... I'm guessing they resed the clutch when they did the engine swap..so my clutch is stock. it doesn't slip, but's it's close to being replaced.

to do the clutch job - parts/labor AND the IMS upgrade (parts/labor) what am I looking at $$ wise? I will take it to a porsche independent..not the stealer..

Well very generally speaking, I think it's safe to say that a clutch job will cost you $1200 and doing the logical IMS ugprade will add another $600. Obviously different geographies have different labor rates but my indy charges $85 per hour.
If you're OEM flywheel is in bad shape you'll have to add another ~$500 for the part. Waiting too long to change the clutch once its starting to slip can wear out the flywheel prematurely so in that respect it doesn't pay to wait.

[sasha055]

Originally Posted by 23109VC

I have a 2000 base... it is close to turning 80k and I KNOW it's the OEM clutch... the motor was swapped out by Porsche at about 15-20k miles b/c the orifginal one had repeated RMS leaks... I'm guessing they resed the clutch when they did the engine swap..so my clutch is stock. it doesn't slip, but's it's close to being replaced.

to do the clutch job - parts/labor AND the IMS upgrade (parts/labor) what am I looking at $$ wise? I will take it to a porsche independent..not the stealer..

I got a 3k estimate from local Indy shop, that includes clutch, flywheel, IMS, and new RMS
Prices here in seattle are higher.. they charge 140$ an hour.

I'm waiting for my clutch to die first, 2000 base with 72K, 3000$ is 40% of what I paid for the car.. I'm not ready to pay that yet


Thanks
Sasha

[Perfectlap]

Originally Posted by sasha055

I got a 3k estimate from local Indy shop, that includes clutch, flywheel, IMS, and new RMS
Prices here in seattle are higher.. they charge 140$ an hour.

I'm waiting for my clutch to die first, 2000 base with 72K, 3000$ is 40% of what I paid for the car.. I'm not ready to pay that yet


Thanks
Sasha

are you still on the original clutch? Also, do you have service records to figure out how regularly the previous owner was changing the oil? If the clutch has already been changed once you could probably do just the RMS upgrade for $1100-1200. I figure two hours to drop the trans, two hours to extract the old and install the new IMS, and another two hours to put it all back together...maybe less if its an experienced Porsche specialist willing to negotiate the job for a 'flat fee' so to speak. $140 is nearly a dealer rate! I'm sure there are other shops if you check your local PCA chapter forum.

[JFP in PA]

$3K is not that bad a price if you start backing out one clutch kit with flywheel, and the IMS unit from the price. Parts alone would account for nearly half of it.........plus not all shops are equipped for or up to speed on pulling the IMS bearing; those that are can charge a bit more for that reason alone.

[sasha055]

Dealership charges 200$ an hour, they wanted 3500$ for clutch only.

Cris German Auto (the indy shop) specializes in Porsches.. he has a lot of them parked there
and 140$ an hour is not that bad..

I have ZERO history on the car, I bought in on a whim (better half agreed to get it instead of Chevy Aveo)

It's most probably original clutch.. but it runs good.. now that I finally changed my engine mount + 60K service.. my little Boxster runs perfect!

Thanks
Sasha

[Perfectlap]

Originally Posted by sppmo

"There have been three IMS failures on this message board since I joined a few years back. That's troubling because we have a small membership here. "

Wow - I would have guessed more by the posts. See what I mean by perception? I've been one here for over a month and thought the count was way higher. Thanks for that information.

I counted over 19,000 registered members. Members list (30 per page x 647 pages) 30x647= 19,410

But I'm sure people come and go.


FYI: jmho (just my humble opinion).

I doubt there are more than 40 regular posters on this board. Most only come on to ask a question or lurk. When I said 3 failures I was only including members who posted here regularly. For such a small group that seems WAY TOO HIGH.
I've found similar situation occuring on the Pelican and Rennlist 911 forums. Small comunities with a few too many of these catastrophic engine fails.
Obviously not scientific but I think the probabibility of the failure is one of those type of pitfalls that can happen at any time to any car and the mere fact that it rarely happens is more a matter of chance. I don't like leaving my car up to chance.

[jbs986]

I can not believe that they'er people out there that think IMS failure is "Hype" if it is hype I guess Excellenc Magazine must be in on this profit scam too because thay have an entire article written on it in this months issue, Please get real. I do not care about what other people think all I know is when my Box. needs a clutch replaced I will also replace the IMS/W Flat6 and RMS, all at the same time.

I have a 99 Box.W/58k miles on it.I will prob. have this work done this winter.
I love my Box. it is my DD from mar.to dec. and I think replacing the IMS is a small price to pay for pease of mind.