Maryland Indy Experience

I had my car in the shop last week and I thought I'd share my experience with the collective. Briefly, my 2003 C4 cab. has about 75K miles and while climbing underneath the other day for an oil change I noticed oil beginning to accumulate at the seam between the engine and trans. Not enough to make it to the garage floor but a clear sign something was leaking. Rather than be worried, I saw this as an opportunity to have some "midlife" maintenance done. I took the car to GT Performance in Edgewood, MD. Gennady Soykher, the owner, has worked on my car in the past installing my RoW M030 suspension a few years back. Gennady got to work immediately even though I showed up without an appointment and he had a shop full of cars. I received regular updates of progress and we had several conversations about which parts would be appropriate to replace given the mileage and the fact that the transmission was out to evaluate the source of the leak. He advised me that both the RMS and IMS-B were leaking(I had already planned to do the IMS even if dry) and surprised me by telling me the clutch looked new! I've always assumed it was the original since I bought the car @ 42K and I had planned that it would need to be replaced soon. The money saved on the clutch allowed me to do some other updates/preventive maintenance. Here's the full list of what was done: *AOS *IMS-B *RMS *Spark plugs *Serpentine belt *Dx intermittent coolant leak as evidenced by occasional smell-Pressurized system and found a small expansion tank leak. Replaced tank and flushed/filled cooling system. *Mounted and balanced 4 new Continental Extreme Contact DW tires I had shipped from TireRack(took 24 hrs to arrive after I ordered them) *4 wheel alignment *Oil and filter, magnetic oil drain plug, air and cabin filter All done in 4 days for less than $3400 out the door. Car drives like new and I have peace of mind. I couldn't be happier! I would highly recommend these guys

Did they look inside the IMS-B and report it's condition?

Nice! Hopefully you have years of worry free motoring ahead of you.

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So the clutch replacement cost was above $3400? I think I paid $2k at 47k miles.

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The bearing appeared to be intact but he said "both RMS and IMS were leaking oil" ? I'm not following you. I didn't have the clutch replaced as it looked "brand new" The $3400 was the total bill for the work performed.

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Yes but I thought you stated something about 'with the money saved by not having to replace your clutch you had $3400 worth of work done'. A clutch replacement doesn't cost $3400. Now that I think about it did you notice oil on the garage floor. I had two RMS leaks in the past and each time there was a drip or two of oil on the floor after a couple of days sitting. IMS leak? Could you have purchased a magnetic oil plug or the IMS guardian ($10-$400)? I mean now that you have purchase a new IMS bearing you'll have to change it again by the time your clutch really burns out. AOS? I have over 117k miles when do they need replacing? Coolant leak? Was there white residue on the reservoir? I had my tank replaced back when my car was under warranty it leaked and smelled. ....(edited) Actually, no the warranty didn't cover that! I was pissed.. $400. Serpentine belt. I probably need to change that on my car. On the original IMS site they mentioned that changing your water pump was more important than an IMS bearing as preventative maintenance. They've probably changed that by now though. $$$ I guess my point is, it is becoming very clear that coming to these sites these days is like going to a dealership or Indy for that matter for service, they find things wrong that are not even an issue. I'm not attacking you by the way.

I think that when you showed up without an appointment they jumped on the chance to make some $$ and got your car on the lift took it apart and then by throwing fear into their work up "leaking" IMS you better change it now "lucky we caught it" lets do a bunch of other stuff that it will need anyway.

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I think you misunderstood most of what I wrote. I'll try to be more clear for you. I said with the money saved on the clutch I had some other work done(plugs, belt, AOS.) I was planning to spend $4000 given all the things I wanted updated and I was happy to get out for less. As I stated in the OP, I had planned to do the IMS even if it was OK since the labor to get at it was already done in evaluating the source of the leak. No drops on the floor just "sweating" from the seam. I do my own oil changes twice a year and I always inspect the filter for metal since it's so easy to do with these filters. I also have a magnetic drain plug. I think the IMS Guardian is a waste of money if you have the opportunity to do a definitive fix. $400 for the Guardian plus labor vs. $619 for the LN Engineering bearing while the transmission is already out is kind of a "no brainer" to me. I also anticipated that at 75K I would need a clutch soon given that I had put 33K on the car myself and the first 42K were done by someone else. I tend to assume the worst about others. In this case, I assumed the previous owner didn't know how to drive a 6 spd. properly. I guess I felt that 75K miles is getting to the point where those wear items tend to start to fail. Replacement of the clutch would have been an additional $700 for parts and labor at this particular shop given that the trans was already out. The fact that it looked brand new says that the original owner wasn't using the clutch incorrectly and I have no reason to believe that it will be a problem for the next 75K miles. There are some on the board with >200K miles on their original clutch. I think T2 is over 340K miles now! The AOS is a $120 part that takes 10 minutes to change while you are in there. He said it was clean and dry and I told him to do it anyway. The plugs were done 25K ago but again, as log as he was in there I said, do it. The water pump was done under CPO @ 63K and the stealer charged PCNA $2500 to do it. More importantly, the water pump won't do the same damage as the IMS when it fails. As an aside, the same dealer just quoted my friend $3000 to do a clutch(without flywheel) on his 997.1 So, YES they do cost that much if you're dumb enough to pay it. If this were true, wouldn't he have sold me a clutch? I was basically "asking for it". I asked for all these services. I told him I wanted the IMS done regardless of the source of the leak. In fact, he had two cars in the shop when I got there with IMS-B failures. He showed me a stack of replacement bearings he keeps in stock because he does so many both preventatively and because of failure. I now wish I had taken pictures of the two engines he was rebuilding and the wear on the IMS he showed me. Frankly, my decision was validated by walking around his shop. I asked him to pressure test the cooling system as I was smelling coolant on occasion after a drive and I found some coolant residue on the bottom of the engine during my usual inspection. I also had never flushed the coolant on a 9 year old car so I asked him to do it while he had the tank out once we determined this was the source of the "small" leak. Believe me, I'm as skeptical as the next guy about shady mechanics who play on ignorance and fear to sell unneeded services(I lived on the South Shore for 8 years. They were all criminals up there in my book. ) Hell, I was happy he could get me in and out so quickly without an appt. From where I sit $3400 is short money to have a complete refresh of a $98,000 car. He only charged me $180 to mount and Roadforce balance four tires then do a four wheel alignment. No Porsche tax there! I shudder to think what the dealer would have charged for the work I had done. I'll be due to upgrade this car in a couple years and I only drive it about 6K miles per year so I've bought some cheap insurance and the work done will be a selling point down the road.

For those on the board that have used GT Performance, I'm sure they will agree that Gennady doesn't replace items just to replace them. I can't tell you how many times he could have taken me to the cleaners because I thought the problem was a very expensive part when it turned out to be something else, that was very simple.