Metal Debris in Oil... Now What?

[dja1980]

Well, I just pulled my Boxster out of winter storage and completed my annual oil change, and I noticed metal debris in the bottom of my drain pan. I recently read an article Pelican Parts sent out regarding the IMS Bearing, so this is the first time I made it a point to really look for debris.

Pelican Technical Article: Boxster Intermediate Shaft Bearing Replacement and Upgrade (IMS) - 986 Boxster (1997-04) - 987 Boxster (2005-06)

So, what’s the next step? Needless to say, this news took the wind out of my sails for what was turning out to be a nice afternoon. My car is a 2002 Boxster S with roughly 68,000. With 2 new babies, the car hasn’t gotten driven recently like it used to. Over the last 2 years, I’ve probably only put 2-3K miles on it. I’ll have to check my records when I get home tonight.

I did a little searching here this morning and found this thread regarding options, but it looks like the information is about a year old with some new information ready to roll out at the time.

http://986forum.com/forums/general-discussions/46431-ims-fix-options-too-many-choices.html

Can I drive the car, or is it too risky at this point? If I need to get immediate work done, can anyone recommend someone in the Chicagoland area, or do I need to go long distance to get this repaired correctly. For obvious reasons, I’d like to avoid the dealership.

Thanks in advance for any information you can provide… Dave