That's actually against the common conclusions with these cars. If you don't do many miles, the IMS and RMS is at MORE risk of failure since it is not being oiled often.

The conclusions have been that many miles, and hard miles at that, with frequent oil changes makes the failure LESS likely.

Not in all cases is the rule that more usage results in more failures, sometimes lack of usage results in failures. I think of classic cars when stored incorrectly or too long drying out the seals. They can have 500 miles and need to have an engine reseal on them.

Low miles, high miles, track or no track, I'd do it if your engine is out.

Rebuilds are 13k-17k these days, what's $600 to protect your investment?

Cheers
Aaron

 

+1

I agree.

 

I drive every day, to the gym, grocery shopping, sometimes when I go out when the drive is longer than a short taxi ride in downtown, and occasional road trips.

While I have respect for LN products I don't believe that replacing LN bearing alone is a single bulletproof protection against engine failure, nor does LN claim it to be one. There are multiple things that can cause the engine to fail. Read flat innovations website IMS bearing installation guide and you will find that there also are other complications that can occur because of the amount of pressure is being put on the crankshaft to pull the old bearing out, etc.

It's not just $600 to protect your investment. It's $1300 (LN part + labor) in addition to the cost of doing a clutch job, or $2000 if replacing the bearing without doing clutch.

I would like to see more substantiated information here like percentage of bearing failures causing catastrophic engine failure vs percentage of engine failure rates with LN part installed and at what mileage before I drop another $1300 on my high mileage car.

 

Wait, you started this thread and now you're putting down recommendations based on experience?

I've torn most of my 996 apart and put it back together a few times, trust me there is room for improvement. Plus my indi installs these now as often as possible, LN says zero failure rate of IMS with this upgrade.

Factory IMS is a KNOWN issue on these cars, especially lower mile usage and non-frequent oil changes...

Starting to sound like the "which oil to use" or "which coolant to use" debates. Obviously you are making your own conclusions.

Just a tip, next time you ask people on here for advice saying you have little experience, just take the advice and make your decisions. Otherwise you'll be less likely to get any...

PS I HATE the "I don't want to spend $1,300 on my old Porsche". Although the value depreciates, the parts and labor do NOT. So if your car was $95k new, $1,300 in maintenance is CHEAP. I spent over $3k this winter in maintenance parts and did all the work myself to save the labor... My original sticker price was $96k USD and I bought it for $30k USD so still ahead the way I see it.

Cheers
Aaron

 

well according to my indy porsches are reliable cars and engine failures are rare and if there is no indication of a leak during the inspection and I'm not going to force myself to spend $1300 lacking evidence that I need one and that it would in fact save my engine some day. What else, get new cylinders, shaft, etc etc.. Might as well get a new headache free lease.

My OP was about a seal, not LN bearing.

Speaking of which, I wouldn't go as far as saying "zero failure rate" though, taken from LE website:

"Does installing an IMS retrofit or doing an IMS Upgrade make my engine immune to an IMS failure?

It's hard to answer that question. Porsche revised the design three times across the MY97 to MY08 M96 engine and eventually decided to eliminate the IMS completely from the new MY09 engines. The design of the IMS itself is subject to flaws that cannot be overcome simply by replacing a bearing. That said, we've put the best bearings we can in our IMS Retrofit Kits and Upgrades to give your M96 the best fighting chance for a long service life. It may be advisable to consider the IMS a service item, like a timing belt in many modern cars. Seeing that we're just starting to see more MY05 engines with IMS failures in late 2009, that may suggest that bearing replacement (or inspection at bare minimum) should be considered every four years or 50,000 miles to 5 years or 60,000 miles, similar to many manufacturers' powertrain warranties."

 

Purplxd "Wait, you started this thread and now you're putting down recommendations based on experience?"

+1 LoL

 

Mate, do whatever you want... I don't care anymore about your car.

Cheers
Aaron