New Owner 70K '01 Should I Worry About Ims

[AricDay]

I am a new 2nd owner of a 2001 Boxster 2.7. Previous owner did all maintenance at dealer and car looks like it's never been driven in the rain, no leaks either. Should I be concerned about the IMS with this many miles on it and no problems? Would getting the IMS replaced as precaution be a wise decision? This is my first p-car but I have owned many VW's. This car is incredible just want to drive it everywhere!

[txhokie4life]

My take -- if you are in there for anything else replace it.

If you are going to lose sleep over it and you can afford it - replace it.

Otherwise drive it until one of the above occurs :-)

mike

[number9ine]

I am a new 2nd owner of a 2001 Boxster 2.7. Previous owner did all maintenance at dealer and car looks like it's never been driven in the rain, no leaks either. Should I be concerned about the IMS with this many miles on it and no problems? Would getting the IMS replaced as precaution be a wise decision? This is my first p-car but I have owned many VW's. This car is incredible just want to drive it everywhere!

No.

Mark

[timbo]

+1, its a small percentage that suffer this, can't hurt to touch some wood though :drive:

[Glyn]

Certainly not. The IMS is very rare though by the posts you would think its very common, of course if it happens its expensive to fix because it shaggs the whole engine but i find too many owners worry themselves far too much about potential faults rather than enjoy the car.

Ive had two Boxsters over the last ten years and neither has suffered any serious issues, lots of niggly minor and annoying minor stuff but nothing that would cause a lack of sleep over.

Far too many people on these forums that diagnose problems and start from the most serious aspect, and many of them have no knowlege of mechanicals - they just hear a nice phrase and then like to use it themselves - a lot, this in turn raises the fear factor in those that have no mechanical inclination and they drive always in fear of what may happen.

Go and enjoy your car, they are pretty much bullet proof and very well put together, the car should be about driving pleasure not worry everytime you turn the ignition on

[juniinc]

Drive her like U just stole it,,,

[mikefocke]

It all depends.

Do you worry about it? Do you prefer to spend ~$1.5k for preventative maintenance or ~$15k for a replacement engine if it should need one at some time in the future? Do you have access to someone who has done the replacement of the IMS before and who you'd trust?

My choice and your choice may be different.

[AricDay]

If you start hearing the IMS is it too late?

[Wayne R. Dempsey]

If you start hearing the IMS is it too late?

No, we caught the one on the 996 in time. See a really ugly photo here: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/boxster-cayman-forum/543604-if-you-think-ims-bearing-failures-all-myth-then-check-out.html

I'm working on a very comprehensive article on the IMS bearing that will detail what you need to be concerned about, and what you can do about it too. Should be done in the next day or so.

-Wayne

[mnc-i]

Here is my two cents.

I have a 1999 Tiptronic Boxster with 118,000 miles. I picked it up in Sept 09 from a Lexus Dealer in Houston with 104,000 miles for $8,700.00.

My recommendation is to just drive it and properly maintain it, but change the oil & filter every 7500 miles instead of what the owner's manual states (for my car it is every 15,000 miles). I use Royal Purple 15W50 and I refuse to go over 7500 miles without changing the oil and filter. You also cannot go wrong by installing a magnetic drain plug.

From what I have read and have been told (forums, Excellence Magazine, Car & Driver and my local dealer) concerning buying a Boxster (97-04) is that a medium to high mileage car and hasn't had an IMS failure is not likely to have one, but if you are considering a very low mileage Boxster you are taking a risk. Yet I've always been told to buy the newest and lowest mileage example you can find.

Check out the last two editions of Excellence Magazine. It has a two part series on the IMS and the aftermarket replacement.

Just my two cents, take it or leave it.

MNC-I

[seafeye]

Drive her like U just stole it,,,

Drive it like you hate her...

[timbo]

It all depends.

Do you worry about it? Do you prefer to spend ~$1.5k for preventative maintenance or ~$15k for a replacement engine if it should need one at some time in the future? Do you have access to someone who has done the replacement of the IMS before and who you'd trust?

My choice and your choice may be different.

I don't think there is any preventative maintenance for the IMS its a sealed bearing lubricated by its own grease not engine oil.

[Wayne R. Dempsey]

I personally like 5,000 mile oil changes, MAX...

-Wayne

[timbo]

I personally like 5,000 mile oil changes, MAX...

-Wayne

Won't make any difference to the IMS though.

[infocusf8]

I own a 1999 Tip that I bought a year ago with 74K mi. on it. After driving the car for six months I decided it was a keeper and that I wanted to put a lot of miles on the car. Based on available tests a ceramic IMS bearing outlasts the OEM metal bearing almost 5:1. I made a decision to invest $1,800 and change the RMS to the new silicon RMS and install the LN Engineering IMS versus a potential IMS failure that would probably result in selling the car for parts as a new motor is around $15K installed. I made my decision based on extending the life of my car and not on the fear that the IMS would fail. As has been stated in other posts a lot of the fear over IMS has been exaggerated, at times by those who stand to make a profit from fear. Think it through and decide whether or not you think the odds favor your engine, with the OEM bearing, lasting for the amount of time you plan on owning the car or you would stand a better chance of the car lasting by doing some preventative maintenance and replacing the IMS and RMS.

[AricDay]

I own a 1999 Tip that I bought a year ago with 74K mi. on it. After driving the car for six months I decided it was a keeper and that I wanted to put a lot of miles on the car. Based on available tests a ceramic IMS bearing outlasts the OEM metal bearing almost 5:1. I made a decision to invest $1,800 and change the RMS to the new silicon RMS and install the LN Engineering IMS versus a potential IMS failure that would probably result in selling the car for parts as a new motor is around $15K installed. I made my decision based on extending the life of my car and not on the fear that the IMS would fail. As has been stated in other posts a lot of the fear over IMS has been exaggerated, at times by those who stand to make a profit from fear. Think it through and decide whether or not you think the odds favor your engine, with the OEM bearing, lasting for the amount of time you plan on owning the car or you would stand a better chance of the car lasting by doing some preventative maintenance and replacing the IMS and RMS.

Thanks, I have thought that through and ultimately I will probably replace the ims soon. I can do the labor my self and the car isn't a required mode of transportation so having it out of commission isn't a big deal.

[itzbob46]

I bought a 3 yr aftermarket warranty so I could sleep nights. Now I stay awake worrying about the warranty's worth!!! Kidding, but for around $1400 I do rest better. If I was having a clutch done, I'd do the IMS as well. Like the other writers said, it doesn't happen to a large % of us.

Enjoy your car.

Bob

[AricDay]

I bought a 3 yr aftermarket warranty so I could sleep nights. Now I stay awake worrying about the warranty's worth!!! Kidding, but for around $1400 I do rest better. If I was having a clutch done, I'd do the IMS as well. Like the other writers said, it doesn't happen to a large % of us.

Enjoy your car.

Bob

Who did you go with for the warranty?

[Bruce999]

I bought a 3 yr aftermarket warranty so I could sleep nights. Now I stay awake worrying about the warranty's worth!!! Kidding, but for around $1400 I do rest better. If I was having a clutch done, I'd do the IMS as well. Like the other writers said, it doesn't happen to a large % of us.

Enjoy your car.

Bob

x2.

Who did you go with for the warranty?

Thanks

[mikefocke]

The preventative maintenance for the IMS bearing is to replace it with a higher quality bearing lubricated by the internal engine oil. You can google LNengineering and read up on the subject at length.

[mikefocke]

Exaggerated? The guy who had 4 failures wouldn't feel that way.

Real? Yes. Well documented from multiple sources...many with no financial interest.

Probable? No, not by a long shot.

Expensive if? Heck yes.

At the same time, I take my '01S 57k Boxster on long trips with confidence that it has always gotten me there. But I'm in the position that, if it fails, I have another car and the means to rebuild the car correctly. Not everyone is so lucky.

[Jay H]

I agree that this IMS bearing issue is real. I personally know of a couple M96 motors that have failed from this exact issue. However, I know of many more Boxsters that have had zero issues. The odds are in your favor that nothing will happen. If I was to buy an older Boxster that I wanted to keep or had to heavily rely on it and had the proof that after market fixes were solid and reliable, I'd spend the $1500 and make the motor near bulletproof. I bet as time goes by, the IMS bearing update that is available from various vendors will prove to be reliable and many people will just spend the $1500 or so and have the update done verses risking the $15k that is needed to replace a destroyed motor.

I've always wondered about why Porsche has these issues with this motor... I would think that Porsche would have done some extensive testing on the motors to see how durable these units are. I work in the auto industry and we are required to do certain amounts of durability testing to insure our product will hold up to certain standards. So, I would assume Porsche tested various versions of the M96 motor to see what breaks and what doesn't break.

Most testing is done quickly as compared to the typical lifetime of a automobile. Meaning that if you are testing durability, the testing mechanism repeats a procedure over and over in a continuous manner until the testing object breaks. Is it safe to assume that the M96 motor was tested for durability and was run in a near continuous manner to simulate lots of miles of use? Did they take into consideration that some of these motors would sit for weeks on end in a garage and then taken out, used slightly and put back over the course of decades? In other words, were the test motors flogged for "X" amount of miles in a nearly continous manner on the bench or in test mules running for hours on end and deemed O.K. for production based on that type of testing? However, many of our motors are not run on a daily basis and the lack of use and oil contamination takes it's toll on that IMS bearing and those conditions were not tested (or could not have been tested due to time constraints)?

Therefore, would a daily driver's IMS bearing hold up much better than that same bearing in a garage queen car that is not used on a regular basis?

Again, this is just my $.02 and is not based on any significant data.

Jay

08 987

90 911

84 911

Edited June 15, 2010 by Jay H