New Owner, 2002 C4S, IMS Solution planned

Hi all, I have lurked here for almost a year, reading, learning and absorbing as much as I could. I Pulled the trigger last September on a low milage C4S and had a couple of months to enjoy her before the Canadian winter set in. I am pondering the LN Solution for 'the bearing that shall not be named'. The car has been a garage queen for 14 years and there seems to be anecdotal consensus that garage queens are the ones to be worried about. There is a certified installer within a mile of my home in Montreal. Jake Raby communicated his high confidence in this guy to me on another site so I just have to decide if I am willing to spend around $4k(Canadian) on the fix. Our dollar has fallen off a cliff in the last year so US purchases have become painful. The certified installer spent some time pre-qualifying the engine while helping me to ready the car for winter storage. The camshaft deviation was acceptable and the oil filter was clean. I'm not sure what else they do to qualify the engine for the 'Solution' but i am confident that I am in good hands when I decide to go for it. I have joined the local PCA chapter and am planning to attend the first two day DE event in May in order to properly explore the limits of the car. Who knows? After 2 days at the beautiful Mont Tremblant race track, maybe I'll be bitten by the track addiction and start modding the car like so many of you. So far I have done window tint and clear side markers. I bought used mufflers off a MK 1 car and installed them so that I could have the Fister D mod done to the original cans. Can't wait for winter to end so I can hear that flat 6 make it's music once again. 20150813_175204.jpg Love at first sight 20150820_104208.jpg Test drive (42,000 kilometers = 25,000 miles) 20150910_180506-1.jpg First 'date night' with the new girl. At a restaurant with a sidewalk dining area so that I could see the car. Still couldn't believe I owned it/her. I have my first Rennlist question. Despite having a code 601 (Litronic) on my under hood sticker I have the Halogen projectors and find the light output on high beams to be lacking. When my high beams are turned on, the low beams switch off. Is this the normal function? When I pull back on the stalk (flash to pass?) they are both lit at once and the result is tolerable but temporary. When the high beams are on by themselves the low beams shut off and the road directly in front of the car becomes far to dark for my liking. I drive a bi-xenon equipped BMW as a daily so maybe my expectations are too high?

Welcome. Beautiful C4S! Great idea to do the solution. Yes, it's expensive but then you don't have to worry for the rest of the car's life (as long as you plan to keep it that is). I now have an engine with the larger diameter bearing in my car. Having gone through an engine failure I can tell you it sure is worth it to take care of the problem before it blows.

Welcome to rennlist. Do the bearing and sleep well, then sell it to me.

Welcome. Congrats on the car. Keep in mind that the Solution doesn't just give you confidence about the bearing. If it is a certified installer then the qualification process should rule out other issues as well. 4K CDN would be a no brainier to me. If you have the money, do it and don't look back.

Great car and good idea on the solution. I just bought mine but if I was to buy another I would pay extra if it had the solution done. So there is a bonus on making it a more desirable purchase should you ever choose to sell it, which I'm sure you won't. I love mine. Wonderful cars!

Given your low mileage and the excellent condition of the car, you really don't have any other alternatives but to do the LN swap. Vas-y, mon ami!

Given the condition and low mileage of the car, you have to do this swap for good measure and peace of mind. Vas-y, mon ami!

Great looking car! Be sure to report back after the track day. I'm very interested to hear how it goes.

Thanks all. Several months ago I started out looking for the cheapest 996 I could find. I found a beat up, speed yellow, high milage C2, no records car for less than $20k. Parked right beside it, however, was this immaculate, seal grey, low mileage C4S with full documentation, perfect paint, perfect full leather interior and PS2's all around. The previous owner had it for 13 years and, looking at the engine compartment, i'm convinced that he didn't even drive it in the rain. It was considerably more money than the C2 but the second I laid eyes on that rear end it was love at first sight. I'm certain I made the right call. I am a firm believer in the idea that spending more up front costs you less in the long run. Does anyone here have halogens in a mk2 996? I am trying to establish whether the low beams shut off when the high beams are activated. I am just making sure mine are functioning properly. I find the high beams very dim! Still sleeping. 6 inches of snow today. Sheesh!

Be careful with all those items "hanging" on the walls of your garage - Don't want to ding that perfect paint!

Hi i am on the south shore of Montr�al, just curious to know who his your certified installer in Montr�al?

Thanks for the warning Groovzilla. There is a lot of space on all sides. The picture is deceptive. It is too new for me to be careless about falling windsurfers etc. Still in the honeymoon phase. Next winter maybe. You might notice I built a structure to ensure that my 84 year old father doesn't drive the tractor into the rear of the 911. It happened to the last car I stored there. Machs, The certified installer is Ron Green at Auto Benny NDG. His contact info is on the ims solution website. The part is $1725 US so for us Canadians that is around $2300. Add in 12 or more hours labour and you are looking at a pretty big spend. His shop is filled with 944 track cars, air cooled and water cooled 911's and he has several engine rebuilds on the go. He raced and his son is a sponsored GT3 cup car racer. A pretty good pedigree to my eye and Jake Raby agreed. He has these old bearings on a desk in the garage. They were all in good shape and were changed preventatively.

Ron is a great guy!! Very accomplished, and confident, yet humble. He's one of the top Certified Installers, for sure.

Welcome to RL, Regarding the headlight function, when high beams are on both halogens and xenons come on at once. Nice looking 4S, love seal grey.

Going with "The Solution" instead of the LN Pro in your case is a very good idea. With only 24k miles it makes good financial sense to me. I could not decide for a while whether to go with "The Solution" or "LN Pro " Ultimately decided that my 2002 Targa with 82k on it made better financial sense to go with the LN Pro bearing and save the added cash for a few other preventative measures my car was in need of.

what's the difference between 'the solution' and tunerRS direct oil feed system http://tunersmotorsports.com/trs-dev...rect-oil-feed/ ? anybody tried the TunerRS system ? they are local to me

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Hugh difference despite the appearance! IMS solution is a plain bearing and it lasts the life time of the engine, just like the mezger IMS. It's lubricated with filtered oil directly tapped from the oil filter. DOF taps the oil galley from bank 1 so it has potential to cause oil pressure issue. Also, all ball and roller bearings are NOT designed for forced lubrication.

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Very good explanation theoretically, however, I'd really like to see long term feedback from a user that has the DOF rather than just discounting it based on theory alone. FWIW, there is a 996.1 race car for sale on eBay with the DOF system tested on the tracks but I don't know how many miles or race hours he has on it. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Porsche-911-...m=152045701375

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Long term feedback will take forever because neither option is very common compared to regular bearing retrofit (w/o any forced fed oil). Plain bearing is tried-and-true. Roller/ball bearings with force fed oil...not so much. I'll take both theory and tried-and-true.

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I think they could both be feasible options but obviously this could lead to endless debates just like with oil. Either way, I have no interest in any kind of retrofits of any sorts as I plan on running my original OEM bearing till death due us apart.

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I'm running the stock single-row bearing on my '03 (70k miles) and my plan is to change it to the IMS Solution if and when my engine needs rebuild. BTW, it may change your mind once you hold the IMS solution in your hands. It's a very beefy and well engineered part. The engine case is really thin at the IMSB opening so reinforcement there makes a lot of sense. See how thick the IMS Solution flange is compared to the DOF flange.

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Toyota used to over-engineer parts before yet Honda's still worked good if not better than them in the 80's and 90's. If you want to see meets minimum requirements, look at some Lotus parts. It's clear that attending Jake's class has kidnapped the orignal Ahsai and replaced it with an imitation copied clone.

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Not at all. Still same old me. I've been saying the same regarding the DOF. What changed is I was able to see and hold the IMS Solution in person so I got a much better feel of it.

Ashai, I take it from your comments that The Solution would be your choice for a permanent fix if you were in the market for one? That is the conclusion I have come to as have, apparently, most responders in this thread. I have been following your comments in many threads over the last 8 months or so and your opinion carries a lot of weight around here. I was also hoping you might have some insight about my headlight question. I have halogen projector headlights. The low beam halogen (Not xenon) light turns off when the high beam turns on, leaving a dark area in front of the car. Hardback indicated that his Xenon low beams stayed on with the halogen highs. If that is true of the halogen projector as well then I clearly have a problem. I just realized after looking at your headlight that you have the built in headlight washer so you clearly have xenons.

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Thanks for the kind words and your C4s looks stunning! Yes, if I were in the market for IMS retrofit, the IMS Solution would be my first choice, budget allowed. Re your lights, I'm not familiar with halogen projectors but from the wiring diagram, it's not obvious if the low beam power will be cut when the high beam is on but I guess it's possible (due to ambiguity in the wiring diagram for the flash/signal switch). I hope others who have the same headlights will chime in.

I have the same halogen lights. Yes, they are both on.

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Great and it makes sense (why would you turn off the low beam when you turn on the high beam). So it could be something wrong in the flash/signal switch. The switch works correctly by turning on both low and high beams when you pull it to flash but it cuts out the low beam when you push it to turn on the high beam.

Thanks for that Triple Black and Ashai. Bad news for me I guess. I have the wiring diagrams from the Bentley manual but, to be honest, I struggle to understand them. Yes Ashai. It will illuminate both high and low beams at once when I pull for the flash to pass function. It turns the lows off when I push for high beam. FYI Some cars do turn off the lows and I guess the highs do double duty. I asked lots of friends to show me their lights this past week. On top of the odd Hi/Low beam issue I have no daytime running lights. It is a Canadian car but the low beams don't come on with the ignition (DRL). I changed the double sized DRL relay. No luck. There is also no gong/buzzer if the key is in the ignition and the lights are left on. Based on my research on this forum I bought the ignition switch and am poised to buy the light switch as well. I suppose the hi/low stalk is a possible culprit as well. I noticed some aftermarket splices, electrical tape and a couple of inline fuses in the loom behind the light switch. There was a manual and bill for a car starter/alarm in the file of invoices that came with the car but it was not installed. I assume this loom was tapped into for the starter/alarm. I'll verify that these wires are ok. Any thoughts besides that? This may be beyond me frankly.

Yeah, you have a lot going on there - m601 option for litronics but you got halogen headlights, wiring hack, DRL not working, and a questionable stalk. Per the wiring diagram, the low beam pins are different between litronics and halogen so someone must have rewired that also. Maybe you can remove one headlight and see if there's more hack. Any sign of front end collision? I wonder what happened to the original litronic lights.

I was thinking that way too but despite the 601 on the under hood sticker the car never had the xenons. There were never any of the level sensors at each wheel that I believe come with the factory xenons. Before I figured that out I was thinking they may have been stolen early in the cars life. Apparently it is not unheard of to have some discrepancies with the hood sticker. I also popped out both headlights to be certain there were no hacks there. Owning a 14 year old car seems to involve a certain amount of forensic archeology.

I see. It does look like the car never had the m601 option then. The hi/low stalk switch is not cheap so I think it's better to do some troubleshooting first before repacing it. The DRL will need some troubleshooting with a multimeter and the wiring dagram.

Ugh! I figured that was in my future. I wanted to start out knowing the proper function of the high/low issue. Thanks for your help. I am hoping there is something wrong with the loom behind the headlight switch. Maybe something happened when they removed the starter/alarm.

The troubleshooting should not be too bad with stock wiring. The aftermarket wiring could be a little bit challenging. Worst is to just rip out the afermarket parts/wires.

Thanks for the pointers . I was going to try to get at it today but it is in an unheated barn and I woke up to below freezing temperatures this morning. Definitely looking forward to the end of cold weather.