Hello, new newbie alert and I have questions

Alex · 17 Apr 2018

GMG - You're the 1st 996 owner member in my 4 years of being a member on here that has suffered an IMS bearing failure. Many other members have suffered other expensive failures like cam chains breaking, bore scoring, snap valves, worn crank, etc.

So, with your logic applied - the best advice anyone could give is DON'T BUY A CAR.

By the way - Did you ask Hartech how many IMS bearing failures they've seen from replacement bearing 'upgrades? Thought not.

Marky911 · 17 Apr 2018

I've a foot in both camps.

Although the single row bearing is worse for going bang than the dual row, plenty of dual row bearings have let go too. Too think otherwise is plain head in the sand stuff.
My cars dual row went at 55k and a replacement engine was fitted.

When I bought my car, top of the list was an IMSB replacement but after reading a lot about it, I gave in to Hartechs wisdom and had the clutch done and IMSB seal flipped off. I'm hoping that will be enough to keep my bearing alive until something else lets go.

There are a lot of other things that can let go too though, but to say the IMSB never goes or isn't as bad as some other issues isn't correct. Tell that to someone like GMG, above. He also isn't talking rubbish. He speaks from experience and has the wallet damage to remind him for a while.

Another common statement is that 3.4s don't bore score. Again incorrect. Compared to the 3.6s they do it much less, but my indy has done a handful of 3.4s that have suffered from borescore. I trust what he tells me over some bloke on the internet. :wink:

3.4s have a whole load of their own maladies though, such as D chunking, dropping valves and wearing their crankshaft bearings out.

They were never Porsches finest hour and never will be. I enjoy my car but given the choice I'd be in something air-cooled, something with a Mezger, or something after '09 with the DFi motor.

Yes all performance engines have issues but the 996s have much more than what I class as acceptable. To think I used to wince at a £1200 vanos repair on my M3s.
The 996s issues give the M3s issues the sh*ts.

Lovely engines when they work, but they are very poor quality.

ragpicker · 17 Apr 2018

Just popped in to say :welcome:

Best newby username for quite some time, hope you stick around :thumb:

skinny_monkey · 17 Apr 2018

Well good news is that front bumper off is easy. So is belt (if you can figure out where it all goes!)

C4-STORM · 17 Apr 2018

alex yates said:
Griffter said:

Slightly off topic, apologies.

If the failure mode of the IMS bearing is that it runs dry and fails (which seems to be the prevailing wisdom) what difference does it make whether it's dual row or single row?

Click to expand...

smithereens

:floor: Love that word

opcorn:

Alex · 17 Apr 2018

alex yates said:
GMG - You're the 1st 996 owner member in my 4 years of being a member on here that has suffered an IMS bearing failure.

Let me just reword this comment:

GMG - You're the 1st 996 owner member in my 4 years of being a member on here that may potentially have suffered an IMS bearing failure as the engine'not been stripped yet to prove it.

APL911 · 17 Apr 2018

OP, welcome to the IMS bearing forum. Occasionally we do also talk about Porsches. :floor:

Alex is in my opinion correct. But it's only my opinion, which can often be confused for fact on the internet.

Notice how I underlined correct to make my opinion seem even more like fact.

Drive and enjoy your 996. If the bearing has made it this far it won't fail. (my opinion again, i've never seen your bearing)

Alex · 17 Apr 2018

:grin:

OP - I can always sell you one of these:

Phil 997 · 17 Apr 2018

Makes a nice change to see the 996 forum having a falling out over IMS and borescore :grin: usually its the 997 forum that has this debate .

anyway OP as that so much easier than your user name :floor: if you buy the car enjoy it , do what you feel you want or need to do to the car just so your aware the aftermarket IMS upgrade kit is about 1K so factor it into the buying price if your losing sleep or if not then just enjoy the car like so many do without major issue. and remember those that have had issues are far more vocal on the internet than those that havent, as no one says "drove my 911 today and errr mmmm well nothing happened " :grin: so the views can get quite squeued.
I do think re IMS and borescore that based on the number of cars built and the number of issues the stats would put you as more likely to crash the car than suffer either of those , which I know doesnt help if any of those things happen to you. but we are at risk of something everytime we wake up ,you just have to weigh up the odds. :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

Robert SausageTrousers · 17 Apr 2018

If it is the one in Truro, I would insist on a new MOT (unless you already have!) . When I contacted him there was just a few weeks left on it (expires 04.18) and he didn't seem to want to put a new one on, which sorta rings some alarm bells!

Regarding the IMS, it's a difficult one. I used to run Corrado G60's and the forums had you believe that the GLader superchargers were little time bombs that would explode catastrophically at any given moment - the reality was different, on the forums there would be a few instances and before you know it every member would be spouting about them claiming they'd heard this that and the other, it got blew way out of proportion - not least due to GLader servicing companies adding to the paranoia and internet hysteria.

I now own a LR Discovery 4, it's my second one. When I bought the first I started reading the forums and heard horror stories about crankshafts snapping, 'internet *****' I thought, but unfortunately a couple of years into my ownership the crankshaft snapped and I was faced with an £18k bill to get my car back on the road. I ended up part-exing the one with its snapped crank against a newer Discovery but still lost a huge amount.

So, I suppose what I'm saying is that I've seen both sides of it, and the IMS thing does scare me, I appreciate the notion that it doesnt happen to 100% of 996's but it seems that its a very real possibility with these engines. Does anyone know of a decent warranty company that will cover the cost of repair in the event of IMS failure?

Kingb4 · 17 Apr 2018

Well certainly an interesting thread........

Lots of good advice on here. Ultimately you will have to make your own decision and then live with it (come what may).

As with any risk, you have to look at probability and impact (you can tell I manage contracts for a job....) If your IMs fails the impact is going to be large (a big rebuild bill) but so far the probability seems small (estimates suggest less than 5% of cars have been affected).
So you need to decide on how you want to gamble: Pay £1k to (hopefully, but replacement IMS bearings aren't foolproof) lessen the estimated 5% chance of it happening. OR save £1k and hope you are in the majority, who havent suffered a failure.

I have gone for the latter, but that may bite me later. Its a decision I have knowingly taken.

Robertb · 17 Apr 2018

How much would you pay for Insurance against catastrophic failure?

Robert SausageTrousers · 17 Apr 2018

Kingb4 said:
Well certainly an interesting thread........

Lots of good advice on here. Ultimately you will have to make your own decision and then live with it (come what may).

As with any risk, you have to look at probability and impact (you can tell I manage contracts for a job....) If your IMs fails the impact is going to be large (a big rebuild bill) but so far the probability seems small (estimates suggest less than 5% of cars have been affected).
So you need to decide on how you want to gamble: Pay £1k to (hopefully, but replacement IMS bearings aren't foolproof) lessen the estimated 5% chance of it happening. OR save £1k and hope you are in the majority, who havent suffered a failure.

I have gone for the latter, but that may bite me later. Its a decision I have knowingly taken.

It's also worth factoring in that spending the £1k on the uprated bearing will probably be recuperated on the sale of the vehicle, I'm currently looking for a 996 and know for a fact that I would pay a bit more for a car with the IMS uprated, not only that but I would view the owner as being conscientious which makes the car more desirable.

Alex · 17 Apr 2018

What's an 'uprated IMS'?

As far as I'm aware the only one I know of is the final larger design used in the last IMS 997 that can only be fit when doing a full engine rebuild.

All the others are just snake oil solutions.

Alex · 17 Apr 2018

You may as well shove a pair of dirty underpants in your crankcase as blow a grand on most of the inferior after-market tripe out there..

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