To all of you who have upgraded your IMSB

Just two simple questions. Now that you have done away with the factory bearing. Do you sleep better at night? Or do you still have lingering doubts about the reliability of the upgraded unit?

I sleep the sleep of the innocent, because my 911 is now pure.

I sleep better. No real lingering doubts. Not really convinced the upgraded bearings are any better. There is no real long term data out there. It took years for the IMSB issue to rear its ugly head. It is a wear item that wears over time and mileage and should be replced every few ears or so many miles. I think f you do that there are no worries.

I didn't lose sleep worrying about the IMSB issue before I changed it, and I don't lose sleep over it now.

Honestly I still think about it. Really just as a reminder not to turtle it. It is my excuse to always excercise the beast.

I sleep way better....THEY scared me so I had it done and now I do not worry anymore. Like I hear from many others, the bearing was in perfect condition when extracted. I did it because I did nor know how the previous owners drove the car. Good night!

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+1

I haven't done it yet, but plan to when the clutch goes. I do think about it a lot. Not to be a Debbi Downer, but haven't I read that replacing the bearing doesn't mean it still couldn't fail? Or is that only with an OEM bearing and not LN?

I still sleep poorly, even though I have had the LN IMSB "upgrade. Ambien helps a lot.

LN got to you all didn't they? Their scare tactic works! Nothing like scare mongering.

I still think about it probably more than i should but LN didn't get to me, the countless+ cars that have self destructed has.

It's scare mongering tactics that made the resale cost of the 996 available to the likes of me. I could not afford a car over $30000 as a toy but for the scare mongers tactics. I say thank you. I would still love to know the comparison percentage of failures in Europe as against the USA. If anyone has that figure.

Yep, it was them ole scare tactics what done it. Same ones that caused me to give up cigars. Know of a guy whose engine blew due to intermediate bearing failure and of a smoker who died of tongue cancer. Neither a pretty sight, neither a likely scenario, both potentially preventable. And, having taken appropriate steps, yes, I sleep better. For both reasons.

Before the upgrade, I slept fine until one day I didn't. So I had the work done and I'm back to sleeping fine. My rationale: I track mine a lot and have put a bunch of dough into upgrades and mods. At this point the cost of replacing a dead engine would sideline me from the track, and I'm not ready for the fun to end yet.

I'd been planning on doing mine this spring(currently 69k miles) but my 2 BMW's have run up $5k in unexpected repairs the past 12 months leaving me a bit short on funds.

No and no (my bearing is not an LN unit).

I did not lose sleep before the LN bearing and I don't now. I would not own a car that stresses me out. Way more thighs in life to lose sleep over.

Marc: was "thighs" a freudian slip or intentional?

Yeah, maybe you meant to post that in the IHI thread

I bought into the hype and changed ims/rms/aid/clutch at 60k. Original ims was rock solid. Seal still intact. These cars are getting a bad rap due to their owners, us!

If your factory IMS lasted 60+k miles with no evidence of impending failure, then there is probably a good case for replacing it with an an OEM bearing as according to the Class action, 1 in 12 single row bearings survived to 100k miles. Is there any real evidence that greater than 1 in 12 alternative bearings have actually achieved the same, bearing in mind that you are now recommended to replace the IMS bearing every 40 - 50k miles?

My car seems fine, but I am "baselining" it by doing some routine items next week. Summer is fast approaching us in the desert. -Water pump -Low temp T-stat -Plugs -Clutch -RMS -IMSB (LN) -AOS Then I'll know where I stand on the routine items for the car. The PO mx history was spotty, so I'm going to resolve that. Current mileage is 78K From this point forward, I'll do a new IMSB with every clutch...and sleep soundly.

+1 to ambien. Also the IMSB issue is a blessing in disguise. It made an amazing car available at a low price!

I dont worry, just make sure to warm the engine properly before cranking it! Havent had to replace a clutch yet, but probably will go for the DOF option with a new bearing when they replace the clutch. Say, has anybody experienced a failure of any of the IMS "cures" out there? Sometimes the medicine is worse than the disease! Will anybody fess up to it?

What are you using to warm the engine? Have one of those installed block heaters? Only time I worry is when I cut open my oil filters and there are still little (nonferrous) bits in there. The used oil analysis does help me sleep more than anything else though. That's a legitimate, science-backed way to keep an eye on the health of your engine.

I planned to change the bearing in my '99 @ clutch time, and that's what I did. I don't lose sleep over it any more than I'd lose sleep about forgetting to change my oil. Incidentally, I did not decide to swap the bearing until the class action suit started getting close to settlement. Once Porsche "admitted" (by lack of reasonable denial) that the bearing was problematic, it became a rational decision to recategorize it as a limited lifecycle part.

I've owned six M96 equipped cars, all on their original IMS except for my current 996 which had the LN part installed by the PO. I still drink myself to sleep at night. That's normal, right?

Even though I changed mine I tend to stay awake all night worrying about what else might blow it up.

Just do it and move on. 924/944/968 owners have done $1,500 preventive maintenance on timing belts every 45k for years. Older Carreras had to update chain tensioners and air boxes. 964s needed reseals the first few years. If you insist on buying a used high performance car, it will eventually get expensive. There are no cheap Porsches. If you can't handle this kind of thing, buy a Corolla.

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It can't be said any better than this!

+1 I'm having the whole shebang done as we speak. (turns out my clutch was at its' end, so timing is perfect)

I sleep like a baby, one less thing to worry about....

Scheduled for April 5th drop off. Fingers crossed and yes I'm still loosing a little bit of sleep.

I was quoted $2300 for clutch, IMS and RMS from my local indy. Kinda cheap, maybe too cheap. I'm guessing this quote was using an OEM Porsche replacement bearing. What do you think?

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ask them which bearing. 2003 Carrera 4S Speed Yellow / 1955 356 Continental 1500 Rust Red

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No, that's about right. Parts about $1400 and $900 in labor.

I sleep great. Never think about it.

replaced bearing w/ LN Engineering at 96k miles. Have to replace it again (it's a wear item)…Now at 148k.

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Perhaps you can tell us how the LN bearing looks like after ~50k.

Point of interest: my original double-row looked just fine at 78K. (engine/tranny had never been split since new...apparently) New LN double-row should do another 50K with proper oil and 5k service intervals.

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I just had mine done with the lne brng for $2100

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My original IMS bearing had 110K on it when I did the clutch. Inspection of the bearing showed no sign of issues so it stayed. Just changed the oil, no signs on metal on the oil plug magnet or the filter at 120K. As soon as I am confident in the price/performance of a double row replacement, I will think about changing it out. I still sleep well at night and I am slowly building another motor to replace this one. Things don't last forever.

Brings up an interesting point though. If the single row failure rate is 5% as suggested by the lawsuit, that means the majority of the 996s built have probably surpassed 50k with their original IMS. Yet we replace it with a part that has a 50k service life per the manufacturer, which is based on more frequent oil servicing with their specified oil. That's better?

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Mmm! I think that this may have been the point I was making earlier. The problem may be with individual engines and not necessarily the bearing itself.

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One of my theories is the fact that Porsche had used various production of IMS bearings from various manufacturers/locations. The location is imprinted on the IMS. Anytime you have this scenario, you risk consistency and control including QC aspect of tolerance, materials, and assembly. It is this aspect that there could've been a strong chance that there was a bad batch of IMS bearings. I know Jake has collected a good amount of IMS bearings but will not share the info on what percentage of his collection had come from the various regions. If we had a good sample size, we might be able to loosely correlate or debunk whether a particular region of manufacturer is the culprit or not.

I am considering the IMSB replacement, as an insurance policy. I will do the IMSB, RMS, AOS, waterpump, lower Temp T-stat, plugs and coils in one shot. Don't think I need a clutch as that was 25K ago. Total cost without IMSB is coming to $3425 with me supplying parts. Now the tricky part, I've made a list of all the IMSB options I've found over the past couple of years...which one to pick??? IMSB % of LN Classic Pelican steel ball bearing kit 25% FVD upgraded sealed ceramic single row ball brg 76% LN Classic single row kit 100% LN Dual ball retrofit kit 123% EPS Roller Bearing Kit 131% LN Triple ball retrofit 153% Tuner Motorsport DOF kit w/ single row ceramic brg 154% Pedro's TechnoFix DOF 154% Insario - Simple 158% Insario - Double 255% LN "IMS Solution" DOF 265%

I think if diy, I would consider the LN classic and FVD's bearing and do it every 50k miles. If you have to pay labor, perhaps a solution that will last longer makes more sense. The LN double row retrofit should last much longer than 50k? The other final, eternal solutions seem too much to me both in terms of mod and $. Keep in mind you can get a full rebuit for $10k with lots of new components so spending 1/4 of that on just improving one bearing sounds excessive to me. Just my 2 cents.

I have an '05 with the small bearing, and had I known of the IMS issue at the time (my fault for not doing online research) I would never have bought the car. For half the money (at the time) I could have found a late 993, which although they have their issues, it's not a $0.99 part that takes out a $26,000 engine. And their (993) values are going up whereas the 997 won't ever. Again, my fault. I wanted a more modern car, as it is my only car. My car had 30K on it when CPO expired, so I had the LN ceramic bearing installed along with a clutch, which was halfway worn. My OEM bearing came out in perfect condition, with seals and grease intact, and there was no oil in the IMS shaft tube, further proof the bearing seals were intact. But I felt good knowing that according to what was implied by LN at the time, their ceramic bearing had solved the problems of the sealed steel bearing, and would last the lifetime of the engine. Now come to find out they now say it needs to be replaced every 50K miles. (My LN bearing now has 20K on it). Maybe that's partly a cover-your-butt measure, to prevent a class action suit if the single-row ceramic bearings start failing in numbers. The reason I say this is that I take it from what they say, the few that have failed did so at way under 50K miles, and not from gradual wear leading to ultimate failure. In any case, whereas I once thought I was done thinking about this issue, I find it rearing its ugly head again. Only now instead of just a simple act of having a new LN bearing installed, there are all those other options now! And the guys selling them are all over the forums bickering with each other, spouting out decisive-sounding arguments why theirs is the "real" solution and the other guy is full of it. As a non-engineer, it's very confusing and frustrating. And frankly, I'm at the point where I feel like just selling the friggin thing and buying an '09. Which is probably what I should have done before spending for the upgrade and clutch back in '11. LOL end of rant!

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I doubt it is simply a bad batch of bearings based on the fact that it spans the entire build series for 996 and 997, as well dual row and single row. What I don't understand was the decision to move from dual row to single row by Porsche. 2003 Carrera 4S Speed Yellow / 1955 356 Continental 1500 Rust Red

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I do believe that was changed when they went from 5 timing chains to 3. Hind site shows that was a bad decision.

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I'm a bit skeptical whenever someone points to IMS as the main culprit without doing a thorough analysis. I feel it's often used as a scapegoat due to the initial hysteria that has snowballed. With 25+ other modes of failure with some causing collateral damage, it can be even harder to pin point the IMS as a sole source. There's just no solid conclusive evidence even within the 5% estimate by some( remember that's 5% of 200k+ produced) to be considered a defective design or anything like that. If you wanna feel better, try going on the Ferrari chat forums.

Again, this is NOT new information. Since the very first day that the products were listed, the website reflected the service life of all the bearing kits. People don't read the text, all we can do is post it, we can't make people read it.

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Somewhere I have a printed copy of the LN website as it was when I got my install done in 2011. If I can find it and scan it I will post it. Or maybe the page can be viewed on Wayback. It said NOTHING about service life of the LN ceramic bearing. What it said was something to the effect that perhaps Porsche should have considered the IMS bearing a service item. The first time the website ever said definitively about a 50K mile service life for the LN Single Row Ceramic Retrofit was approximately 1 1/2 years ago when it was revised to reflect the fact that a small number of the single-row bearings had failed. I'm talking about LN's website Jake, not yours. Maybe yours always spoke of a service life, Idk. Hmm...Wayback Machine says LN website is excluded. Truly don't mean to be argumentative but I have excellent recall and am used to reading contracts in legalese so I rarely miss anything or misconstrue even vague language. If anyone else happens to recall that LN quoted a 50K service interval right from the start, and can post a scan of the web page, I would graciously eat crow.