About to buy - with a newly replaced IMS - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Hi guys, im looking for a little advice. I am currently looking at getting my first Boxster and Porsche. I plan on it seeing some daily driving but getting it to have fun with, backroads, track days, and possible some longer trips. The car that I am currently looking at is a 99 and the seller is in the process of doing the IMS, RMS, oil separator and clutch. The reason for all the work for the sale is, the guy buys and sells cars and the IMS was apparently making noise when he got it. I went to look while the work was being done and the car looks pretty clean underneath for 95kmiles on it. I saw the old bearing that came out and it was intact, but had a little play in it with mild grittiness to its feel. There was no signs of it had been puking out metallic goo that I've seen in pictures, tho it could have seen some break clean. An LNEngineering kit was being put in. Is this level of "on the verge of failure'" a concern and I should run away from the deal, or if it drives well when done, I should jump on it as its priced well for having all this work done and the overall condition is good?

if it drives well after, and oil is flushed, seems fine to me. the concern is seizing, wear on other parts, etc. If it doesn't intermix, holds coolant, doesn't burn oil, and has the IMS fix installed it sounds fine to me.

As an old motorcycle instructor told the group how much risk are you willing to take ? Did any grit/shrapnel from the IMS get pumped across the cam/connecting rod/crankshaft bearings ? No way to know without a teardown . Any chance the shop pulled the sump plate and did an inspection ? Did they inspect the oil filter element ? What was found ? Any copper colored ( bearing ) material ? Not trying to scare you just being realistic . When you get a good one the cars are very rewarding . When you get a bad one oh boy what a money pit they can be . Good luck with your search/purchase .

Thank for the input. These are all inline/confirms with my thoughts. Regarding the oil filter inspection, I may not get a chance here as the oil has been changed so the filter is long gone, making it impossible to know if any or how much junk may have passed through. I would assume the oil path would at least be through the filter first before going through oil pump and rest of the engine?? Leaving the risk that windage causes contamination? A test drive is due after the work is done and final purchase decision is made. I know this is not enough miles to tell if it will hold so ya, I might take a gamble. A new engine with similar mileage seems to be in the 2.5-3k range. That cost added to the purchase price gets it to about its market value to slightly above so labour if and when it happens would be the thing having me grabbing my ankles if I dont have a driveway/garage by then to do it myself.

If you do a test drive, have the oil filter pulled afterward and see if there is ANY debris in it. *I assume that after replacing the RMS and IMS it's going to have fresh oil and a new filter. Any tiny pieces of metal in the filter now will indicate that the engine is contaminated and likely compromised. It only takes a couple minutes to raise the car and remove the filter and removing the filter does not drain the rest of the oil.

To the OP , you are in California there must be a ton of Boxsters available . If this one doesn't pan out there must be 50 more around the corner . There is no such thing as a cheap Porsche .

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This sounds a bit odd to me. 99 Boxsters come with the dual row bearing which is usually totally fine at this mileage. The grittiness may be due to the extraction procedure. But then the noise must have been coming from elsewhere. Anyways, I don't think you can buy a car like this with a bulletproof engine, so if it runs well and the price is correct it's worth it probably. Where in Cali are you located?

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Odd, but I did see and feel it. The "noise" I was told second hand, if not the IMS, possible it was TOB noise that started a "while we're in here" replacement. In the bay area.

Yeah, can be anything, but at least you'll know what will be put in the car, so no surprises. I hope it turns out as a good deal! I'm also in the Bay, I might see you around