Porsche intermediate shaft bearing failures are one of the most talked about issues with the 996 and 986's with the M96 engine. During the design and product selection process, Porsche chose to save a bit of money by selecting a less expensive bearing that was "good enough". Time has proven, however, that the bearing selected was simply not up to the task and the resulting failures have cost owners huge sums of money.

So it never surprises us when we have customers who want to skip the worry about IMS bearing failures altogether and replace it as soon as possible. Such was the case with this 996.



Parts Installed:
Porsche Boxster and 911 models LN Engineering IMS Retrofit -Single Row



The Build

Under body panels and trans mount removed


Drive shaft removed


Air box removed


Crankshaft locked into place


Shifter linkage disconnected


Oil leak from bell housing


Transmission removed


Transmission removed exposing clutch pressure plate


Clutch disk and pressure plate removed exposing flywheel


Old worn out flywheel


Flywheel removed exposing IMS bearing and rear main seal


Camshafts locked into place


Timing chain tensioner removed and hole plugged


New IMS bearing, main seal, and engine case bolts


New cam cap seals


New IMS bearing, main seal, and engine case bolts


Old bearing


IMS Bearing removed


Rear main seal removed


Rear main seal and engine case bolts installed


IMS Bearing installed


New flywheel and clutch kit



New flywheel installed


New clutch disk and pressure plate installed


Transmission bell housing


Transmission bell housing cleaned out


Transmission reinstalled


Drive shaft reinstalled


C/V shafts reinstalled



Shifter linkage reinstalled


Under body panels reinstalled




The trickiest part about IMS bearing failures is how random they can be. We have seen a well maintained Boxster have a catastrophic IMS bearing failure with under 40,000 miles and have changed a bearing in a 996 with over 100,000 miles that was still in good condition. But when talking about a part that can cause thousands in damage if it does fail, security becomes incredibly important. This 996 decided to completely eliminate that concern and now, instead of spending his time worrying, can spend more time thinking about how awesome his Porsche is.



For more on this build, visit its gallery here. Also, to find out more about our intermediate shaft bearing installation, click here. As always, feel free to message us or comment below with any and all questions.

 

Great job! I don't mean to hijack your thread, but you seem really knowledgeable about this stuff. Quick question, if you don't mind:
A couple years ago my '99 996 had an IMS failure that took the engine with it. I debated what to do, but since I planned on keeping the car I opted for a brand new crate motor from Porsche, which they claim to have upgrades from Porsche's lessons learned over the years with this motor and a warranty.
Do you have any first hand knowledge on if the crate motors have this, or a similar upgrade? I'm not out of the warranty period on the new motor.
Thanks!

 

Porsche crate motors do not have this bearing . the bearing this shop used is the LN after market bearing which is considerably stronger .