IMS Bearing Upgrade Under Warranty?

Hey folks! Has anyone upgraded their IMS and had it paid for under warranty as a preventative measure? I bought a 3rd party MileEdge extended warranty from a dealer when I bought my 2002 911/996 C4, it's good for 43k or 43 months. Before contacting them I wanted to see if anyone had already considered trying this. WDYT? Thanks! James

While I don't know they specifics of your warranty, I will bet that they will not pay for this. Unless you get a shop to say the engine has a rattle and they diagnose it as an ims failure. If it ain't broke they won't pay to fix it.

Not only won't they "fix" it, read your fine print carefully as putting a non-OEM part in might void parts of the warranty.

Their is no part of your after market warranty that will cover preventative maintenance...

Does your extended warranty cover oil changes, brake fluid and tire replacement? No? I think you get the point.

Definitely try this and report back

That's what I suspected but I thought I'd see if anyone out there had managed to finesse this kind of job out of a warranty before. Thanks!

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Haha. I will do... I love the 'eating popcorn' emoji. Hahaha.

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Great advice!! Thank you, I didn't consider that. Cheers!

Wait till it fails, then turn it in. See how much friction that you get from the clown sitting in the cubicle on the other end of the phone line. The only warranty I have seen pay for an item like this is LaSalle Warranty company, but all 996s are too old for them to cover now. I do all their Porsche engine repair work, and I've never seen them give anyone a hard time, and they've honored every claim. I won;t even consider having a car show up here if the job is a warranty case, unless its covered by LaSalle. Nothing but headaches from all the rest I have experienced.

^^Great info right there!

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I have a feeling you didn't read the fine or any of the print for that matter did you?

One buys a third party warranty from a company and pays a one-time premium of - say, $1200. Or whatever. One then gives the car over to an L&N qualified installer who charges ~$4000 to install the bearing, and hands it back to the customer. Sending the bill for said work to the third party insurer. The insurer pays the installation and parts, and from day one is $2800 negative. Now - I teach econ, & stats in college, and once in a while finance, and even marketing. Something here just doesn't quite appear kosher, but I can't - quite - put - my - eye - on - it. Bueller?

There is a 95% to 98% chance they won't have to pay it out. Ins cos don't work that way. But I like your optimism.

Did he say Warranty and IMS in the same sentence ?

Get a loan from western sky and pay for it

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Do you mean the fine print of the warranty? I absolutely did! But with the keys to my first Porsche sat on the desk in front of me and the prospect of a 2500 mile road trip ahead of me to get the beauty home, I figured it was probably worth the gamble for the sake of $1500.

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I'm an optimistic realist. I figured I'd ask the question but suspected the answer would be no.

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Haha. I did!

I blew up the head gaskets on my suby around 130k km. Outside of OEM warranty but still had 20k on the aftermarket warranty. They covered everything except the $100 deposit. It was a $2800 repair. Best $1200 i ever spent on that car. lol

Just remember, they fix things that are broken...not about to break. So, if you have, say, a cracked serpentine belt, or a failing water pump, those won't be covered under warranty. However, a broken serpentine belt or a broken water pump would be....

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Got it, thank you! Appreciate it.

These warranty general fix items with no issue that cost hundreds of dollars... Maybe even 3-4k, or maybe even 5K. When the bill is 15-20k the game changes, and the guy in the cubicle is often paid on a reverse commission platform, meaning he makes more money if he saves the company money. I have seen every game played on the planet with these guys. They generally complicate the process so much that the policy holder gets pissed off and just pays for the work. The last time I accepted a vehicle with an aftermarket warranty was in 2009. In that instance the "inspector" came out to look at the failing IMS bearing, which he called "The Intermediate Bearing". I was busy on the dyno when he showed up, but we had the car on the lift with the tranny pulled when he got there. He was wearing a vest with 30 pockets on it, and a Safari hat. He was directed to the car and a few minutes later he came to ask if we had a ladder. I asked him why..... Then he says "well, since the car is on the lift and the transmission is out, I can't access the intermediate bearing without a ladder". I asked him why, and he said "Well, that bearing is between the steering wheel and the rack and pinion, so I need to get under the dash to inspect it". I looked at him like he was a dumbs and he said "thats where its located on a Ford". I turned around, and walked off and just left him there wondering. I told everyone in the shop not to speak to him. After 30 minutes he Googled the problem. By that point I was so pissed that I just threw him off the property. So.... Thats who you are dealing with. People that don't know a damn thing, but they are in charge of getting these claims processed. Its a joke.

In my case, The guy came to my mechanics shop, took pictures of everything. My mechanic said he never saw anything like it before. Usually, they don't even do a site visit. This guy even asked to see my old air filter that he thew out in the garbage. He asked my mechanic if it was a common repair, he said he does at least 1 head gasket job a week on the NA 2.5 flat 4's. and maybe 2 a year on the turbo flat 4's. Guy said that was good to know. Probably dropped subaru head gasket repairs as an approved item from their list. lol

Yep, and they fail because thats an open deck engine, and the cylinders shuffle... Yes, I've built Subys with Nickies cylinders, too... And 800HP.

oh, he knows. He's glad subaru does nothing about it either. lmao

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Just out of curiosity how much was your aftermarket warranty? And how many miles were on the car when you purchased the warranty? Thanks

When I purchased my car I opted to get a 1000 mile warranty through the dealer for the long drive home. They explained it as essentially it covers anything that would prevent the vehicle from passing a safety inspection. I.e. - doesn't run, brakes don't work, etc. So, if the engine exploded on the drive home I was covered - but that was about it. This was not third party though - it was through the Porsche dealer.

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Was this all in the fine print?

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My warranty company did a site inspection on my 996 when I needed a new water pump and some other repairs. My Indy said it was unusual but not unheard of. Likely because it was in for multiple issues. I'm sure your client that was counting on the warranty $$$ appreciated your cooperation...