Another IMS leak

[PlasticMan]

I recently took my MY02 C2 cab in for its 3rd oil leak, which again appears to be coming from the IMS seal (I'm told that the RMS is unaffected). The problem, however, appears to be more complex than expected. There is a ball bearing within the crankshaft casing which was likely to be defective from the time of initial production. The remedy now is to replace the entire crank shaft structure which abutts the IMS. This sounds like an entirely new problem that I have never heard of. I was wondering if anyone has ever had this problem? If so, was it a permanent fix?

[Tool Pants]

Peter told me Porsche went from a double to a single row bearing. That is why the failures show up on the newer cars.

[karlooz]

i had an IMS bearing go bad on my '98 boxster which required a new engine. mind you, it wasn't a leak. the bearing disintegrated and chunks of metal may have been floating through the crank case so PCNA decided to replace the engine. if your bearing has failed then you may want to inquire about an engine replacement.

Edited January 16, 2004 by karlooz

[Pedro]

I am having the complete set of problems on my '97 996. To solve my first oil leak I replaced the cover of the intermediate shaft with the one with the new seal and didn't change the RMS because it was ok. Two months later I got another leak and figure out: a damaged RMS. The worst part of it is that I found on the first intervention that the IMS bearing is failing and that it may disintegrate anytime.

To solve this I will need to completely disassemble the engine and get a good intermediate shaft from another source rather than Porsche. The reason is simple: Porsche redesigned the IMS and to use the new part a lot of changes need to be made in the engine including new timing chains.

You may ask how it is possible that an expensive car with such a reputation on quality and technology may have such kind of problems with only 40.000 miles. You may think that Porsche should be aware of the flaws of the 996 engine. And you are right, they are. Why? Because Porsche is redesigning a lot of engine parts at our expense. They introduce new parts not to make a better engine but solve design flaws. And Porsche doesn't care to keep the original parts or direct replacements available as the new IMS requires a lot of changes in the engine. This is not my concept of Customer Care. And my concept of quality is not having an expensive car with 40.000 miles with such problems.