Metal Flakes Found in Oil Filter - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

ubii · 08-29-2011, 06:20 AM

I did not get an opportunity to pull the sump cover this weekend, but will do so in the next couple of days and take a few photos of what I find. Obviously, I will not drive or even start the car and will drive my Rover instead. I did call Bob Hindson Racing this morning, who is an LN Engineering dealer here in town, who said that they could install the IMS Retrofit kit, clutch, and RMS for $2400 (this includes all parts, fluids, and labor). These guys have been around for 40 years and are probably the most trusted shop in town. I think regardless of what I find in the sump, that I am going to do this anyway, just for piece of mind.

SeanZ4 · 08-29-2011, 08:53 AM

BHR quoted me a lot more than that a year or so ago for my '00S for the same work. I'll have to call them again.

sean

blue2000s · 08-29-2011, 09:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ubii

I did not get an opportunity to pull the sump cover this weekend, but will do so in the next couple of days and take a few photos of what I find. Obviously, I will not drive or even start the car and will drive my Rover instead. I did call Bob Hindson Racing this morning, who is an LN Engineering dealer here in town, who said that they could install the IMS Retrofit kit, clutch, and RMS for $2400 (this includes all parts, fluids, and labor). These guys have been around for 40 years and are probably the most trusted shop in town. I think regardless of what I find in the sump, that I am going to do this anyway, just for piece of mind.

Are you sure about that price?

Perfectlap · 08-29-2011, 10:11 AM

Porsche specialists up here in the expensive North East charge about $90-100 per hour. IMS upgrade, clutch, RMS is about $1800. No extra labor charge if the flywheel has to be replaced.

From what I was told, two hours to take down the trans, two hours of labor to extract old RMS, install new items, two to put it back together. And the obligatory oil change to flush out any debris left over. Maybe add another two hours to service the rear axle boots (if torn) while everyting is apart.

Perfectlap · 08-29-2011, 10:17 AM

by the way, how many miles did you actually put on the car and how long have you owned it? If there was a previous owner did the car see mileage habits change dramatically from one owner to the next? In other words is this a case where the original owner barely drove the car 4-5K miles a year and then a new owner started driving a lot more frequently?

ubii · 08-29-2011, 12:02 PM

I called and spoke with Bob Hindson Racing (BHR) again and was able to confirm that the $2400 does in fact include all parts, fluids, and labor. I guess I will hold off dropping the sump cover, as BHR is going to do that anyway to look for debris. I will see if they will take some photos of what they find, once they tear everything apart and ask to keep the old IMS as a souvenir. The shop is about 40 miles away, so I will get the car towed there next Tuesday and they will start working on it either Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning. I wish that they could get to it this week, but I guess I can live without it for a week or so.

Perfectlap: To answer you question, I have had the car for a year now and have put about 10K miles on it, which is why this was only my second oil change. I am the fourth owner and looking at the Carfax report, it appears that the first three owners averaged between 3-5K miles per year. So, I put 2-3 times more mileage this past year than what the car has typically seen, in the past.

Perfectlap · 08-29-2011, 01:18 PM

That's exactly what I imagined. When a car has very low miles the parts tend to sit dry for long periods of time. The seals around the IMS become weak and brittle, add the the vibration that a dramatic increase in driving will uncork and voila your IMS seal is literally disintegrating as you drive the car. Probably the same for the other vital engine components that are made of plastic. I'm no expert on those other parts but I'm sure my suspicion is spot on. Folks were complaining about this when Mobil 1 changed their formula and it was "said" that the new blend provided insuficient lubrication.

Put it this way, with the prices of the Boxster falling into hands of drivers who look for a low mileage car and then promptly start driving them on daily basis or close to that, the number of IMS failures is going to sky rocket.

Luckily you were astute enough to look in the filter. Most people probably take it to the dealer and I wonder what they say to the customer when they find that debris. "sir...it appears that our oil interval suggestions were inadequate, or our oil recommendation wasn't the right fit or we failed to alert you to the hazards of insufficient running time and now you'll be requiring a $2K repair or $1200 if you want do it on the cheap. If you don't spend this money you're engine will self detonate at any momment. Would you like to have us change the wipers?".

ubii · 09-07-2011, 06:40 PM

Well, I dropped off the car yesterday afternoon and got a call back from the shop today. They dropped the sump cover and did not find any metal debris, but did find what appears to be fragments of either the chain tensioner paddles and/or ramps, as seen in the photos below. This probably explains the noise that I heard the last several times that I started the car, prior to discovering the metal flakes in the oil filter. They plan on pulling the engine, so they can inspect both and then replace whatever needs replacing. Obviously, this will result in much more labor than what was included in the original estimate. The revised estimate is now about $5500, assuming that they need to replace both the paddles and ramps, as well as the IMS bearing, RMS, and clutch. This is worst case, as the labor will be a lot less if they only need to replace the paddles and not the ramps. Anyway, I am just curious how this compares to what others have paid for this work, in the past.