'01 996 Clutch Upgrade, Rear Main Seal, Intermediate Shaft Bearing, and more..

This customer came to our shop with this '01 911 after buying it used and wanted to get everything checked out. The big mystery of buying a used car with an unknown service history is just that, a mystery. Never knowing if the previous owner was on top of the maintance or not can be nerve wrecking but we are here to help. Parts Installed : Sachs Motorsport Clutch Kit AASCO Aluminum Flywheel Rear Main Seal Intermediate Shaft Bearing Oil/Air Separator Fresh Oil and Filter To start things out on this 911 the customer noticed oil coming from between the engine and transmission. Not knowing if this was coming from the rear main seal or from the intermediate shaft bearing it was time to get it in and pull it apart. With the bad record of engine failures due to failed intermediate shaft bearings it was not a "wait and see" kind of issue. Starting to pull in apart. These kind of findings worried our new car owner a little more, part of the engine casing broken off. Transmission out and the clutch in the car looks fairly new. We did noticed that many of the bolts were significantly over-tightened which hinted that the transmission had been out at some point. A look at the oil/air separator that will be replaced. Flywheel and clutch out of the way and now we can see the rear main leak and since we were this deep already it the intermediate shaft bearing would be replaced as well. There were no normal signs that it was failing but it with everything pulled apart it was better to stay ahead of any issues and just change it out. Bearing removed Old and new bearing. New Bearing and Flange After the bearing and flange was installed it was time for flywheel, clutch and pressure plate. Next the Transmission was re-installed, the final pieces put together and it was time to test drive the car. While out on the test drive our tech also noticed that the window wasn't acting correctly. It would not roll all the way down and also it would at times not drop to clear the window seal when opening and closing the door. After pulling the panels it was found that the drivers regulator was not adjusted properly so the window could not open fully. The top of the two screws was the stopper that the window was set to, but the stopper was removed and the window re-learned. The window issue with not dropping to clear the seal was also figured out and traced back to the lock/latch assembly. On top of that both doors were found to have the same issues and both assemblies were replaced. In the end this little 911 was back to fine running order and now the customer knew that it was ready for a long life ahead. Click here for 47 more images of this 911 build process.

Superb! You folks and the owner did exactly what the Dr ordered for this car. Good on you and thanks for the pictorial description. Much appreciated! Martin

Great info and write-up. Will he be cleaning the engine and underbody so the bottom matches the top?

If I want a similar job done (RMS, IMS) how much am I looking at? 01 996 4, I am about 2 hours away.

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Wow! not sure how we missed this but if you are still interested, we will certainly PM you some pricing.

Why are you only PM your Prices ??

For my 03 C4S, I did the ims/rms/eom clutch/rubber flex disc along with oil change for about $2700, and thot it was worth every penny. PL

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The pricing on this job varies tremendously based on the parts. The transmission is removed so many times we perform a clutch upgrade. Some guys want a stock clutch while others prefer to do the upgrade. The RMS is also something that you might as well do. Its really only the additional parts. However, many times, someone has had a leaking RMS replaced without doing the IMS. Or, we have seen brand new clutches in cars that have bad IMS bearings so we reuse the clutch. Its a shame because the majority of the labor is removing and installing the transmission. There is a "book" time for this job where we can form an "estimate" but we actually have our own installation philosophy and don't use air-tools. In addition, many of the cars have been taken care of differently. We have seen stripped bolts, mismatched hardware, mud-covered transmissions and all kinds of crazy things, along with cars that are pristine and have never seen rain. We clean as we repair and don't just slap a car back together. So its tough to simply put a "price" on the forums for the services. We have done this job many, many times and each one has been a different price based on parts and condition of the car. We can certainly give an "estimate" but then people consider that an official "quote" for their car and it can vary so much form car to car, again depending on parts mostly. Hope this helps a bit. We would love the chance to provide a quote for your vehicle and can certainly make it public info as long as we can discuss and disclose the details of what all has been done and what needs to be done.

while i appreciate that estimates may vary, i think it makes sense to provide a range so potential customers have an idea w/o locking you into a specific #. this way, you can keep customers engaged while still giving you some wiggle room for things that come up. the downside of not providing anything or a range is that it may come across as evasive. my 2 cents. PL

Just one question. With all the money and nice new parts that went into this, why didn't the tech have the area clean before the new parts were installed?

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Absolutely! We certainly don't want to come across as evasive. I just spoke with the shop foreman to put together a detailed write-up of the job. We will get it posted on our site which includes all the details of the "basic" install. Looking at the numbers, it is safe to say we have 12 hours in the job and our current rate is discounted to $90/hr if the parts are purchased from us ($100/hr if the parts are supplied). So labor alone would be $1,080.

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Which area are you referring to?

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Just a suggestion, I think you better make a clear differentiation between manual and tiptronic models as the labor will vary by a decent amount between the two.

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Very good point....yet another reason not to quote on forums and keep it as a PM For the record, this is for a manual.

This is what I was referring to. Why would you not clean prior to installing parts? I would think a customer would understand a fee for cleaning this much mess. Seems like a way to get gunk inside engine and on new clutch parts if you dont clean it. Im sure the mess is from a leaking RMS and clutch dust. The example is from my DIY contrasted with your posted pic. Also noticed the defective case bolts were not replaced with updated ones. Not being critical just asking why? Thanks for posting.

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I agree 100%. We have a parts washer that we normally roll under the car and clean everything up before installing the new parts. Maybe the tech did it in a backwards order and installed it first and then cleaned it. Not sure why we didn't take/post a picture of the area once it was cleaned, but we do have a policy that all the affected areas are cleaned, especially in the transmission when there is debris like this. As for the bolts, I will go into the shop to get that answered asap.

Quotes source post: 10665507

First, thanks for an informative thread as well as posting some details on the potential labor costs... We internet forum guys can be a tough crowd. I can say in general it is frustrating when vendors always do the 'PM me for price' thing, especially when it is a part vendor that is advertising a sale but doesn't want to actually disclose the sale price! (obviously not referring to this thread) It also seems that for this particular job (clutch/IMSB/RMS) shop quotes around the country are all over the place! It isn't so much a variation in hourly rate, more a variation in just how many hours they charge to do a similar job, so it really is helpful to get some benchmarks from reputable shops that are showing exactly what work is being done. As for cleaning, I do find that most 'shops' don't spend nearly as much time cleaning unseen areas when they are being worked on as I do, and I'm positive I don't spend nearly as much time cleaning underbody parts as KK, but in general I agree that of all the expenses associated with car repair, I'd be thrilled if a shop told me they spent an extra $90 of my money but spent some extra time really cleaning things up. Heck, these days I'm usually happy if I don't have at least a few greasy fingerprints on the body after a shop visit!