IMS Bearing Replacement - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

I bought a 2002 Boxster (Base) last year with 68k miles on it from an import car dealer. All manuals and carfax are included. Unfortunately, The maintenance records does not exist. The maintenance booklet has only one Porsche stamp on it dated 2002 when it arrived in New York Porsche dealer. Needless to say, I am looking in the dark about any repair being done in this car from the past. Not even a regular maintenance information is not written in the book. The dealer where I bought this car is no help at all. They just said that they got this car as a trade-in to another car. My concern right now is the IMS bearing. I can see a lot of talking about this issue. I am not sure if the past owner has this bearing replaced or not. The engine seems running beautifully and without any oil leak visible from the bottom. As part of a maintenance, I would like to include this IMS replacement for my car. I need to ask anyone if you know a reputable/knowledgeable porsche mechanics who can replace the IMS bearing in the state of Maryland? I would like Jake Raby to do it but they are too far from us. Thank you very much from any information.

I would contact Jake and see if he has any independent affiliates in the area that could do the job. With that kind of mileage, you are likely due for a clutch replacement anyway, so it could all be done at once. I would be concerned about the oil change interval history, as Jake has proven extended intervals with thin oil can contribute heavily to internal wear. It really doesn't cost that much to ship your car and know the end result is done correctly.

Welcome to the forum and to Porsche ownership. Jake's replacement IMS bearing has only been available a relatively short time. Chances are your particular vehicle has not had the replacement bearing installed. But Jake keeps track of which engines he works on (not sure if his affiliates do), so he should be able to tell you if he's worked on your car.

Husker, you need to get that pumpkin out of the snow!

Contact a good local shop or contact LN Engineering for dealers in your area that have been trained on this. Chris

Will licensed Porsche dealers be able to do this ims replacement?

Dealers would rather sell you a re-man engine; their techs are not trained to do this type of work.........

Plus this isn't a "Porsche" part, so dealer techs wouldn't be allowed to install the improved bearing. JMatta - Punkin has been resting comfortably in the garage for about 6 wks. Pulled her out for the 12/12 snow (a mere 5"). Felt sorry for her and the weatherman predicted 40 deg for last Sat. Decided to drive to Lincoln for lunch and give her a bit of exercise. Of course the weatherman lied, as you can see by the gray clouds in the 1/16 pic. But it does show off the 14" of snow we now have. I'm really glad I bought a bad weather car last winter.

Whats your location? In the past week we've done IMSR procedures on cars from Mississippi and Pennsylvania and have done them from as far away as California. Shipping is cheap. If the bearing would have been replaced by us or purchased from us we'd have the VIN of the car on record along with the serial number of the bearing that was installed. The car would also have a decal in the driver's side door jamb that could not be overlooked. ALL bearings we have sold have the VIN recorded since day one.

I wonder if LN does the same VIN and SN tracking information.

LN has a database of the purchasers of bearings.

Hi Jake I am located in Baltimore, Maryland. I did not see any decals of yours. If you do have an affiliate repair shop in PA, this is close to Maryland. Please provide me the contact number and address if any. My car's VIN is WPOCA29802U623712 .Thanks

We currently do not have affiliates in your area or in PA, my post was stating that cars from PA have been driven to our location for the procedure to be carried out. We are slowly authorizing shops to do this work and coming up with reference materials to support the procedure. We take this seriously as the wrong installer with the wrong attitude can destroy your engine when applying this bearing retrofit.

Up in North Vancouver, British Columbia Scan Automotive are going to host a Tech night for the PCA West region crowd. Among the activities they will be installing an IMS retrofit kit for us to check out. They are capping it at 25 attendees, and I think they have 7 spaces left if anyone's in the area and interested. Should be fun!

i need to replace my clutch soon. I had it at the dealer to check out a falling revs issue, they couldn't tell me if it was due to O2 sensors or slipping clutch. but if it is a clutch on its last legs I'm going to look into the LN although I'll have a local Porsche indy shop do it(assuming they're doing these). the dealer prices are nutz and no LN upgrade.