If you were in my shoes, what would you do?

[thstone]

Drive as-is. At this point, if the IMS bearing made it almost 120,000 miles, it is likely to make it all the way until some other engine component fails.

When the engine does fail, buy an 80K mile replacement engine from a salvage yard (mine cost $1,800) and have a shop swap it in ($2,500) and you can be back on the road for another 60K+ miles for around $5K. If you can do the swap yourself, you can get it done for ~$3.5K.

[KRAM36]

Originally Posted by thstone

Drive as-is. At this point, if the IMS bearing made it almost 120,000 miles, it is likely to make it all the way until some other engine component fails.

When the engine does fail, buy an 80K mile replacement engine from a salvage yard (mine cost $1,800) and have a shop swap it in ($2,500) and you can be back on the road for another 60K+ miles for around $5K. If you can do the swap yourself, you can get it done for ~$3.5K.

To me, that sounds like the more wise choice.

[BrightonBoxster]

I agree with THStone, post #9. I just bought my 2003 Boxster S Tiptronic this month, with 102,500 miles on it and I knew that the IMS bearing was an issue so I researched this topic as much as possible before making the decision to buy the car. The majority of failures seem to occur well before such elevated mileage is attained, so a well-used car may be a better prospect than a low mileage garage queen. I am an eternal optimist, and if 20% fail, I see it as 80% being just fine, and I kind of like those odds.

[Perfectlap]

Originally Posted by thstone

buy an 80K mile replacement engine from a salvage yard (mine cost $1,800) and have a shop swap it in ($2,500) and you can be back on the road for another 60K+ miles for around $5K. If you can do the swap yourself, you can get it done for ~$3.5K.

not if you spec racing guys keep buying up all the 2.5's!

You got a deal there.