Hi I was wondering if any fellow 2005 owners here have upgraded their using the IMS bearing retrofit kit developed by LN engineering. You hear a lot of people saying avoid 2005's and you hear a lot of owners much like myself say no problems to date. But if you think about it.. the price you pay for an 05 vs an 06 (maybe 5-8k less) allows you to put that saving towards the IMS upgrade for $525 + labor (no more then clutch replacement labor costs). This is the route I went since I got an amazing deal on my car and I do most of my own engine work. I was weighing my options back and forth and ended up like the idea that I could upgrade the IMS in the 2005's vs the 2006+ which are not serviceable by the LN engineering kit and yet still prone to IMS issues even though they are less likely. Anyway i bought mine with a CPO transferred onto me with 58k on the clock. So I plan to upgrade the bearing as well as replace the clutch while Im in there. I figured between the price i paid and the cost of the parts I walked away with an extra 5-6k in my pocket to keep for "ohh no!!!" days.

Anyway I was just wondering if anyone else is looking at their 05 the same way.

Thanks!
Chris

 

with 58k on the clock, the ims would have already gone bad most likely.

I will be doing the upgrade once my clutch needs to be replaced

 

Not worth it in my opinion. Although the 05's tend to be more prone the percentage or should I say, the chances, of you actually having a failure are still quite small. What you CAN and SHOULD do is heed LN's advice about oil and oil servicing. If you have read their articles you understand that the failure is generally caused by the bearing going bad. This occurs for a number of reasons but in late model M96 engines the likely cause is bad oil or oil maintenance. Because of this fact I would change my oil every 3-5K miles, after every track day, and I would switch to better quality oil like Motul or Castrol which are both Porsche approved. Oil changes every 15K is a marketing ploy in my opinion and not doing anything for bearing health.

Jason

 

Hi Jason,

I guess I am one of those extra careful people that thinks if i am in there and don't change it then it will blow just because i was "cheap". I see alot of the 996 guys changing them as a piece of mind repair and thats sort of the way I have been looking at it. I plan to stick to the 5k oil changes as well but was wondering if anyone else has similar feelings about it once they are "naked" from any type of warrantee. My CPO is up in November!

Thanks for your input!
Chris

 

If you got the money to blow then by all means go ahead and do it. I think the labor is going to cost you more than the kit itself. But, look at it this way, with the Porsche engine exchange program your out of pocket expense for a replacement engine is still going to be no more than 8K installed at the most and a lot less at the small end. Early M96 IMS bearings tended to fail due to actual defects in the bearing itself that should not be a factor for you. If your engine has been driven regularly and received timely oil changes then you should be fine. Of course there is an exception to every rule..... If you do install the LN kit I would be interested in seeing how much it cost you and thoughts on the install. I own a 06 but if I had an 05 I would also be tempted by the LN kit.

Jason

 

As an 05 owner (997S with almost 40K miles), I'm very attentive to threads such as these. Though I am diligent about oil changes (6K miles), careful with warm-ups, etc., I still worry. Nonetheless, I still can't justify the IMS kit just yet for two reasons:
1. I don't need clutch work. Since the majority of the expense is the labor (I think), which can be 'diluted' by the labor costs required for a new clutch (which isn't my issue), it's a pricey piece of insurance and;
2. I don't understand the risk of making a change to a delicate part (with a delicate procedure) in an engine that is otherwise still working. That is, is there no risk in he procedure itself? Is it uniformly foolproof? Or would I be substituting one type of risk for another? Has anyone heard of failure of the new part - either as a result of the new bearing failing, or a problem with the installation procedure?
Finally, the mention of the Porsche engine swap program is intriguing. Is it offered to any owner in case of this type of failure? What is involved, both procedurally and financially for this option? Depending on how this works, to me, it is the safest and most comforting option of all.
V

 

Thanks for chiming in. I should have added that I will be doing all of the labor myself. Their really isn't a whole lot to it I just got to check on the specialty tools required to pin the vehicle into top dead center before I pull it apart. So in this case a clutch would be around 600-800 depending which one i get and the bearing $525 plus the $70 tool kit required to extract the old bearing and replace it with the new one. So I would be looking at about $1400 plus blood, sweat, and tears vs just the clutch for 6-800. I have heard labor of about $1000-$1500 to replace RMS leaks on a 996 so I would imagine the labor for this would be the same (not dealer pricing). I too am curious on the porsche engine swap program and have all the same questions as you. Anyone have any info regarding this???

Thanks,
Chris