Skip the IMS??

[78F350]

Originally Posted by brjak

Value of car is not reduced to zero. You could part the car out, or sell as a rolling chassis. Probably get 6-7kCDN. in essence without IMs and engine failure. value-7K. 11K car with 2K invested in an IMS replacement. Car value 11K. SO really the swing is roughly 3K on the car. Now saying that we are talking about a 97 Base boxster.

Even on the 97 Base, you should now consider it a maintenance item. Not an end all fix that will make the car last forever, or a reason to immediately stop driving and head to your nearest LN authorized repair shop. Clutch, suspension, tires, etc will all wear out. Most likely you will not let them go until there is a catastrophic failure.
Do the same for your IMS. When the clutch is replaced replace the bearing. Not that big an add-on if the other work is already being done.
I pulled the bearing on two '01 2.7s with about 125K miles. Both were intact dual row, but had lost the grease and had foul smelling oil within the IMS tube. It was just a matter of time (and probably not long) until they started started wearing through the finish on the bearings.