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YOUR RESEARCHJalopnik Article: How To Own A Ridiculously Cheap And Reliable Porsche 911
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Use cars i bought or even my last 3 houses
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I can't tell you how many jerry rigged items I've come across fixing used cars I bought or even my last 3 houses.
Jalopnik Article: How To Own A Ridiculously Cheap And Reliable Porsche 911
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This isn't a unique 996 issue, price replacing head studs on a 2.7/3.0/3.2 or installing oil fed tensioners in an early car and get back to me.
Jalopnik Article: How To Own A Ridiculously Cheap And Reliable Porsche 911
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I don't know this for sure but that article reads as if he took much of the content from the threads in the 996 forum. If he didn't, then it was very interesting to see an objective person validate what most here have been saying for awhile. The 996 NA can be a great bargain for some.
Most of the commenters (and some of the writers) on Jalopnik site strike me as being a few years removed from being old enough to own a car. Somehow I doubt this will make a difference.
Though my reply to the article is - duh. Anyone objective that doesn't panic after visiting this forum and its 100 IMS threads will conclude that the car has a POTENTIAL issue, that there's a fix for said issue, and then make a decision based on their tolerance for risk. If $2k is too much money, you really shouldn't have a Porsche. This isn't a unique 996 issue, price replacing head studs on a 2.7/3.0/3.2 or installing oil fed tensioners in an early car and get back to me.
I read this story with interest where it states:
These procedures (IMBS replacement) are a DIY job and completion is around 10 hours, and access is such that any weekender with a garage or driveway with jackstands and hand tools could complete it.
Like many of us who grew up with serious car interests and little cash, I consider myself pretty handy wrenching cars and motorcycles, and wouldn't mind trying this myself, but when I see things like "drop the transmission, remove the flywheel, etc." and I can do this in about 10 hours I get a little skeptical.
Any thoughts about how easy this is?
I've never done it before, but 10 hours does not seem out of line if you have a lift. I plan to do it myself (or at least that's my thought now) without researching it more.
Thats funny... My, my how things change. 8 years ago this procedure was said to be impossible, and Porsche claimed the bearing was "permanent", not being possible to retrofit. back then, what we were doing was like a skunkworks project.
Today you can do it all in your driveway with a pair of jack stands. Wow.
I think that anyone doing this in their driveway, with a pair of jack stands, is a gluten for punishment! A boxster is a lot easier due to the tranny location, but a 996 is a bitch.
Different skill levels exist, and people doing this make the same mistakes over and over again.
I hate when people, especially in journalism makes these kinds of blanket statements that seem pretty irresponsible at the least.
As mentioned, there will be a huge variance in skill level, experience, tools, techniques involved with this. Even with this, you have peeps that can never be heart surgeons just because they lack the patience or attention to detail type mentality that is often needed, especially for critical applications like these.
I can't tell you how many jerry rigged items I've come across fixing used cars I bought or even my last 3 houses. That's what happens sometimes when peeps that normally don't do this for a living carelessly try to tackle something of this nature. It's not rocket science but at the same time, it's not meant to be for every joe to tackle either. Even something as simple as a brake job, I saw stuff like loose caliper bolt or untightened bleed nipple for example. [Rant off]
^True Dat^...It should also be noted however, that much of what passes as "professional" these days is verging on laughable (or cry-able in some cases). It's pretty sad when you pay big money to said "professional" for work/product that turns out to be sub-par or even downright fraudulent. Lets face it, the entire D.I.Y. industry has been built on shoddy "professionally" done work. There are certainly incompetents on both sides of the fence. Buyer Beware !!!
The big thing the 996 has going for it over the 997 is that you can change out the IMS bearing without tearing down the entire engine. I know the common wisdom is that the 997s will always be more valuable than the 996s. I think that is true with regard to the 997.2s, which don't have the IMS. But every year the 997.1s get older and even though the IMS bearing were improved they still were not perfected. In five years, what would you rather have, a well maintained 996 with an upgraded IMS or a 997.1 with a IMS that will by then be over 10 years old?
What numbers? I have never seen a single reliable number on the failures of the factory ones let alone the replacements. Also, remember LN engineering has every motivation to downplay the reliability of their product. They know what they have is necessary but also they don't want people to trust their product too much because they want them to replace it more often.
Every Porsche tech I have ever talked to, and I have talked to a fair number of them says the 997s do fail occasionally and the replacement ones can too, but less often. The replacements have failed but it is very rare from everything I have seen.
This is a source reference. Confirm exact model applicability in the original material.
