IMS Replacement Gone Bad - at my dealer!

[san rensho]

Dealer made this mess? Dealer owes you a porsche remanufactured motor with a warranty.

[911monty]

Man this is the stuff nightmares are made of.....

[Giller]

I would start collecting your facts around what causes this damage. Dealer might claim the damage was pre-exisiting and had nothing to do with IMS change. It will be up to you to prove they were negligent. That can be tough on an older car.

[nieuwhzn]

Ugh, ugh, ugly, idiot mechanic. This is st least a total tear down of the engine. Check tolerances on the crankshaft bearings, rods, pistons. Check for cylinder marking, valve seat damage, etc., etc. Dealer is better off getting you a recertified engine.

[kjc2050]

Originally Posted by Giller

I would start collecting your facts around what causes this damage. Dealer might claim the damage was pre-exisiting and had nothing to do with IMS change. It will be up to you to prove they were negligent. That can be tough on an older car.

No, this isn't the case. They are accepting responsibility and there's no question that they caused the damage.

[BirdDog]

I agree with others - the dealer needs to get you a Porsche re-manufactured motor.

Steel valves hitting aluminum pistons have most likely damaged the pistons, and probably the connecting rods, rod bearings, etc. Those bent valves probably have damaged the valve seats. Pulling the heads and replacing the valves is not an option. Engine should be pulled, completely disassembled, and every part pretty much checked. But a better, more timely solution would be a Porsche re-manufactured motor. You only had 30K miles on your original motor.

I'm really sorry this happened to you... hang in there, it can be fixed...

[kjc2050]

Originally Posted by BirdDog

I agree with others - the dealer needs to get you a Porsche re-manufactured motor.

Steel valves hitting aluminum pistons have most likely damaged the pistons, and probably the connecting rods, rod bearings, etc. Those bent valves probably have damaged the valve seats. Pulling the heads and replacing the valves is not an option. Engine should be pulled, completely disassembled, and every part pretty much checked. But a better, more timely solution would be a Porsche re-manufactured motor. You only had 30K miles on your original motor.

I'm really sorry this happened to you... hang in there, it can be fixed...

Thanks. Trying to get an update from them today... no luck so far. Service Advisor is out today, Service Manager hasn't returned my call.

[Flavor 987S]

Originally Posted by san rensho

Dealer made this mess? Dealer owes you a porsche remanufactured motor with a warranty.

I agree. And it's probably the fastest solution. They owe you for "loss of use" too. So, the faster they get it done, the better for them and you.

[kk2002s]

This is a situation that has to just make you scratch your head and wonder how this could go so bad in a Porsche shop.
It's like a Mafia hit: As soon as the timing was off after the replacement work, it was just a mater of turning the key to complete the hit.

It's easy to sit back and tell you how we might deal with this but you actually have to deal with it
I just hope the dealer continues to step up to and brings this to a resolution your happy with. The dealer isn't going to be happy and they will probably never do another 986 IMSB replacement again

Maybe one of those 718's just sitting around gather dust in their showroom will complete the deal

Best of... on this

[Jake Raby]

This is why you won't find a single dealership listed as Certified Installers of the IMS Retrofit products. Dealers are the last places that started doing these retrofits, and two years after we started selling the products, many dealers still maintained that the bearing was impossible to remove and replace.

This is way out there, and there's no telling what they actually did to create this mess. The most common issue is not checking timing first (HELLO thats part of our pre- evaluation process) and since the timing was out, it easily jumped during the procedure. They probably don;t even have the proper LN tools to lock the cams, and they are trying to use the factory tools, which increases difficulty. They may not have pulled the tensioners either.

All that said, why didn't they notice the cam timing was out before the engine was started? Its clear that they didn't, because it bent valves when it started up after the procedure.

Did the tech not check his work after completion? If he would have rolled the engine over to check cam timing, you'd not be where you are right now, and he wouldn't be looking like a fool.

Negligent techs piss me off. Please PM me the name of this dealer, and the tech. Its imperative that their accounts, and the database be updated with this bit of information, because I guarantee that if he screwed yours up, that he's done the same to others. Those might try to be turned in as warranty jobs to LN, so this is a big deal.

That said, I'd not trust anything that he did, and you better hope that he isn't the one repairing the damage/ reassembling the engine! I certainly hope that someone checked his IMS work before it went back together.

Hate to hear that this happened to you. All the "PCA members say this guy is good" talk doesn't go too far with me. Plain and simple that shop needs a QA tech thats checking cam timing before the engine is completed. Here at least 3 pair of eyes look at everything before it goes back together, and even if I am doing a job, my own employee checks MY work...(and I trained him). Thats the difference; when you treat cars like they have wings, instead of tires.