Question on Boxster Intermediate Shaft Bearing

Anyone in the Chicagoland area you can suggest to perform the bearing swap/update?

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[Nick at Pelican Parts]

No I cannot. I would check with local Porsche owners or club members, they would know a good shop in your area.

I opened a post in our forums. A Pelican community member may be able to answer your question.

- Nick

[2003S]

I had mine done at Midwest Performance Cars on Lake & Ogden. They are a very experienced / knowledgeable shop, and do all the work on my Boxster.

[dad911]

Originally Posted by Dave (guest)

Anyone in the Chicagoland area you can suggest to perform the bearing swap/update?

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This post was auto-generated based upon a question asked on our tech article page here:

Here is a list of "preferred shops" for LN installs: https://www.lnengineering.com/installers.html

[Dave2001S]

I have a 2001S with 138K miles on it, and to my knowledge the IMS bearing was either replaced early in the life of the vehicle (I am the third owner), or is not a problem. After all these miles, assuming its not a current problem, should I be concerned? What I mean is, if it hasn't failed to this point in the car's life, is it likely to be ok?

[mikefocke]

All things that rub against another wear out and statistically they wear out in a classic bell curve and there is no way of knowing when yours is going to fail Dave. We do know from Porsche that your model year's IMS fails on average at a rate of around 1% per car year.

Having said that, you will go broke replacing all the things that can fail. And there are at least 20 more know to fail components in your engine.

Are you able to:
Scrap the car if it fails
Replace the engine if it fails
Spend ~$2k to replace the IMS

Which are you emotionally and financially comfortable with.

I don't have an answer that is right for everyone.

[MitchSF]

Very good summary of current thinking. I just had the bearing replaced in my "new" 2000 S with 29K miles, getting it back today. My first thought was to install the IMS Guardian, but I want to sleep comfortably so for me, replacement with the LN ceramic bearing was the best option. It turns out that I have the double row bearing which has a very low incidence of failure, but I have no regrets.

[glenndeweirdt]

Midwest Eurosport in Bensenville. They work closely with LN Engineering. You may contact Charles Navarro from LN Engineering directly to get a recommendation.

[Dave2001S]

Thanks Mike, hard words to hear but I understand completely and I appreciate the input. I think I'm going to start a little IMS (or should I say Boxster in general) savings account for that impending rainy day. In the meantime, I'm savoring my top down rides!

[mikefocke]

Just got back from a 300 mile road trip in a non-Boxster and thought several times along the way how nice it would have been to have been in the Boxster instead.

Enjoy these wonderful cars. But remember any IMS equipped M96 is starting to get old and wear isn't the only enemy. Age gets to parts that are plastic or rubber eventually. So by all means have a reserve for repairs and/or develop some capability of doing simple mechanical things yourself.

The trick I found to low cost maintenance is knowing what you can do safely, what you should farm out to a non-Porsche mechanic and what only a very experienced and equipped Porsche expert should do. For me examples were oil/filter change, O2 sensor swap, IMS swap. The oil because I had a set of ramps. The O2 just because I didn't have a lift and any muffler shop could do it in 10 minutes. And the IMS because I don't do my own heart surgery either. My Boxsters were cheaper to maintain than my Honda or Acura for the same age car and time period!

[Dave2001S]

Looks like I'm going forward with at least a partial engine teardown to remove the heads. I'm searching for the source of oil in the coolant; suspect a head gasket, cracked head. So, if I'm going that far and spending that type of money, should I get the IMS replaced at the same time? Would replacing the IMS (and maybe the RMS too) add significantly to the cost of a head/valve job?

[JFP in PA]

Originally Posted by Dave2001S

Looks like I'm going forward with at least a partial engine teardown to remove the heads. I'm searching for the source of oil in the coolant; suspect a head gasket, cracked head. So, if I'm going that far and spending that type of money, should I get the IMS replaced at the same time? Would replacing the IMS (and maybe the RMS too) add significantly to the cost of a head/valve job?

These engines almost never blow a head gasket, but they do crack cylinder heads rather too frequently:



As you would need to drop the engine to do either cylinder head, the IMS and RMS would already be exposed and an easy swap while the engine is out.