IMS tell tale

[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by That986

My thoughts: stop hyping this up

Agree'd.

Maybe we should have a sticky that says "Concerned about IMS? Read this", and to just state all of the facts so that the owner can make up their own minds. It's ridiculous the amount of over-hyped threads on this.

Fact of the matter is this:

- It's extremely rare, but it can happen. So can a car accident.
- It'll happen more on cars that are rarely driven, than cars that are, due to the bearing being lubricated more.
- There are sometimes tell tale signs; oil leaks and metal flakes in the oil filter
- If you do have signs, check/replace the bearing.
- If you don't have any signs and it's driven often, just drive the car and enjoy it.
- If you don't have any signs but it's rarely driven, consider a replacement only by looking at the above facts and making your own mind up, as replacement IMS's have also been known to fail.

There's no 'should' or 'shouldn't', there's just the facts, and a decision to be made by the owner, both of which are completely justified.

You can't say someone is wrong for not changing the bearing as, like said, replacement ones have been known to fail and it's a rare thing to happen anyway. You also can't say someone is wrong for replacing it as they may have a car that's rarely driven and want a fresh new bearing.

Can we please consider some sort of sticky to stop the 100,000,000 over-hyped threads on the same subject?

[Disaster]

Originally Posted by geraintthomas

Fact of the matter is this:

- It's extremely rare, but it can happen. So can a car accident.

No one in the automotive business considers a failure rate above 1% to be rare. 10% is catastrophic.

Originally Posted by geraintthomas

- It'll happen more on cars that are rarely driven, than cars that are, due to the bearing being lubricated more.

This is true with a caveat...a big one. Most people don't know the car's history and many of these cars sat for periods in their lives so damage might have already occurred and be a ticking time bomb. Once the surface starts spalling it is just a matter of time. Driving it more will shorten the time to total failure.

Originally Posted by geraintthomas

- There are sometimes tell tale signs; oil leaks and metal flakes in the oil filter

I'd recommend oil checks instead. These are more reliable. Blackstone provides the metal content in oil when you can't even see it.