996 IMS do or don't

Hi Guys Please forgive me in advance as I am sure this question has been asked many, many times! I am the new owner of a 2003 3.6 911 Carrera 4 122,000 miles with full porsche service history, no knocks bangs or rattles. To be honest, dare I say it, she drives like a dream and I am only going to be doing up to 4,000 miles each year. However, no IMS bearing has ever been fitted. I have read all the articles and forums of the pros and cons but still cannot make a desion on what to do as it drives so well. I would just like some advice on whether you would fix something that does not need fixing? Is this problem as big as it is made out to be? Thank you in advance. Luke

I'm sure you can see by the flood of replies the simple answer is NO. However as your 996 has done 122k you could treat it as a service item. But if there is no play or wear @ 122k thats already saying something isn't it?. But their are plenty of "Specialists" out there that will sell you a new bearing, they wont tell you anything about the longevity of it, but they will give a good sales pitch and sound very earnest with it. If you read all of the articles written about the 996 you would ask yourself "how come I even have one thats still ticking?". The age of the Internet, A car was born! some cash was earned. Something that always puzzled me was when the IMS Guardian was being developed my guess was that it was going to be a device for listening to to condition of the bearing as this was the only method I had used or seen used "whether it be as crude as putting a screw driver on the case and sticking it to your ear or through a scope". Whereas basically it knows NOTHING about you bearing or any other part of your car, what it can do is read a resistance value!. that value changes too much and it will trigger the buzzer. If the Buzzer does sound, it doesn't instantly mean your bearings has gone, it means you got metal in your oil but where its from will be down to you or your Mechanic to work out?. I'm not saying the Guardian is a waste of time either, its not looking after the crown jewels its looking after the whole castle. Just saying its name mis represents it.

Hi Luke Im sure there are loads of stories on the forums about RMS issues & others might tell you differently but, Ive been a member of the dorset region for 9 years now & didn't buy a standard 996 9 years ago because of the issues with the early cars out of fear of watching my life savings going down the swanny. In the last 9 years I've only met one person thats encountered the RMS issue first hand & that was in a lay-by in wales, guy stopped in a carrera4 as i was parked up making a phone call, started chatting about our cars & he told me the story of his engine rebuild, to be fair he bought it without an inspection & the engine sounded rough from day 1. 122k & still beating, If it's not broke i wouldn't fix it unless your having other work done that having the RMS done at the same time would make sense financially. Regards Karl

Well put by the other two posts. 996 3.4 owner for over 10 years was in the same thought as you about a bearing replacment and came to the conclusion leave as be. Just enjoy your car they are great. Regards Phil

Hi Guys Thank you all for your advice. I am very much a believer of 'if it isn't broke don't fix it' so I am glad I am not the only one who thinks this way. My theory was that if I fork out £2k for this fix there is nothing to say that something else couldn't let go thereafter and destroy the engine anyway, so I would rather take my chances and then at least if it did go in the future I could put that 2k towards the engine rebuild and replace the IMS at the same time. Thanks again guys Luke

FYI, I had my RMS replaced several times under warranty in house (found an Oil swimming pool in the garage), Whilst replacing it they did also inspect my IMS RMS is not a big deal anyway.