What can be done to prevent an IMS failure? There is no quick or easy fix. Like with many aircooled engines, many get torn down and rebuild BEFORE an engine failure so that engines can get upgraded. Short of a pre-emptive rebuild, the best preventative measures that can be taken are to be religious with your maintenance schedule. But keep reading, there's more that you can do.
What can be done is to change your oil more often. We recommend oil changes for the M96 and later engines (as we do for air-cooled engines) every 5,000 miles or 6 months. If you track your car, you should change the oil after every race weekend or every other event at the bare minimum and should also consider used oil analysis to monitor the health of your engine.
Use a higher viscosity motor oil. There are several Porsche approved oils that are 5w40, rather than Mobil 1 0w40. Use of an oil that isn't API SM-rated with more Zn and P or an oil with moly extreme pressure anti-wear additives may improve engine life. Castrol Syntec 5w40 is an API SL rated oil that carries Porsche approval and is an excellent choice, and easy to get locally. Motul 8100 5w40 is another excellent Porsche approved lubricant. By no means should you use any oil thinner than a 0w40 - do not use 0w30, 5w30, or 10w30 viscosities!
Timken Falex bearing tests tend to indicate increased load capacity and less wear scarring with oils with high levels of moly as documented here and may prolong the IMS bearing life. To learn more about motor oils and which ones might be better for your Boxster, Cayman, or 911 model, click here.
Also, make sure you drive your Porsche as it was intended to be driven! We like to see the revs kept above 2,500 rpm - higher rpms provide better protection than lower rpms for the IMS bearing (more on why this is so further down this page). Just make sure you're engine's warmed up first before putting a large load or high rpms on it!
On a new or remanufactured engine utilizing the revised M97 IMS, the only "preventative" measure that can be taken short of our retrofit kits is to remove the seal off the front of the IMS bearing, to allow for engine oil to lubricate the bearing. Alternatively, you can repack the bearing with a quality synthetic bearing grease and put a new seal (available from any place that sells bearings). This same technique could be applied also to MY97-05 bearings, if found to be in excellent condition, but by this point, the majority of the labor that is required to do an IMS retrofit would have already been spent, so it's a better value to replace rather than solely inspect and reseal the IMS flange.
With proper lubrication and more frequent oil changes, longevity of your original IMS can be greatly extended. Our retrofit kits use ceramic bearings with significantly longer service life and come with seals removed for improved oiling as well.
What can be done to check for a failing bearing?
First of all, there's no need to loose sleep over IMS failures. There are a few simple things that can be done next time you're having your Porsche serviced to give you some peace of mind before you take the plunge and have an IMS retrofit kit installed on your car. First, check the filter for any debris whatsoever. If there is any very small pieces of plastic (bearing seal) and/or any magnetic debris that may also be shiny or appear to sparkle, that's a good sign that the bearing is going bad. Any oil leaks at the rear of the engine should be checked out immediately - it is common to think you have a RMS leak, but in fact, a failing bearing will allow the IMS flange seal to leak. Another thing that can be checked is bank to bank camshaft timing deviation, more so to see if there is fluctuation in timing values when they should be constant. Lastly, any technician who knows what a failing water pump or idler belt bearing sounds like should be able to use a stethoscope to listen to the IMS for similar problems.
What can be done to prevent an IMS failure?
There is no quick or easy fix. Like with many aircooled engines, many get torn down and rebuild BEFORE an engine failure so that engines can get upgraded. Short of a pre-emptive rebuild, the best preventative measures that can be taken are to be religious with your maintenance schedule. But keep reading, there's more that you can do.
What can be done is to change your oil more often. We recommend oil changes for the M96 and later engines (as we do for air-cooled engines) every 5,000 miles or 6 months. If you track your car, you should change the oil after every race weekend or every other event at the bare minimum and should also consider used oil analysis to monitor the health of your engine.
Use a higher viscosity motor oil. There are several Porsche approved oils that are 5w40, rather than Mobil 1 0w40. Use of an oil that isn't API SM-rated with more Zn and P or an oil with moly extreme pressure anti-wear additives may improve engine life. Castrol Syntec 5w40 is an API SL rated oil that carries Porsche approval and is an excellent choice, and easy to get locally. Motul 8100 5w40 is another excellent Porsche approved lubricant. By no means should you use any oil thinner than a 0w40 - do not use 0w30, 5w30, or 10w30 viscosities!
Timken Falex bearing tests tend to indicate increased load capacity and less wear scarring with oils with high levels of moly as documented here and may prolong the IMS bearing life. To learn more about motor oils and which ones might be better for your Boxster, Cayman, or 911 model, click here.
Also, make sure you drive your Porsche as it was intended to be driven! We like to see the revs kept above 2,500 rpm - higher rpms provide better protection than lower rpms for the IMS bearing (more on why this is so further down this page). Just make sure you're engine's warmed up first before putting a large load or high rpms on it!
On a new or remanufactured engine utilizing the revised M97 IMS, the only "preventative" measure that can be taken short of our retrofit kits is to remove the seal off the front of the IMS bearing, to allow for engine oil to lubricate the bearing. Alternatively, you can repack the bearing with a quality synthetic bearing grease and put a new seal (available from any place that sells bearings). This same technique could be applied also to MY97-05 bearings, if found to be in excellent condition, but by this point, the majority of the labor that is required to do an IMS retrofit would have already been spent, so it's a better value to replace rather than solely inspect and reseal the IMS flange.
With proper lubrication and more frequent oil changes, longevity of your original IMS can be greatly extended. Our retrofit kits use ceramic bearings with significantly longer service life and come with seals removed for improved oiling as well.
What can be done to check for a failing bearing?
First of all, there's no need to loose sleep over IMS failures. There are a few simple things that can be done next time you're having your Porsche serviced to give you some peace of mind before you take the plunge and have an IMS retrofit kit installed on your car. First, check the filter for any debris whatsoever. If there is any very small pieces of plastic (bearing seal) and/or any magnetic debris that may also be shiny or appear to sparkle, that's a good sign that the bearing is going bad. Any oil leaks at the rear of the engine should be checked out immediately - it is common to think you have a RMS leak, but in fact, a failing bearing will allow the IMS flange seal to leak. Another thing that can be checked is bank to bank camshaft timing deviation, more so to see if there is fluctuation in timing values when they should be constant. Lastly, any technician who knows what a failing water pump or idler belt bearing sounds like should be able to use a stethoscope to listen to the IMS for similar problems.
Can I replace my IMS bearing?
LN Engineering offers three IMS solutions, two of which can be done without disassebly of the engine while the engine is still in the car:
single row IMS retrofit kit (fits MY02-05 M96 engines including some MY00-01)
dual row IMS retrofit kit (fits MY97-99 M96 engines including some MY00-01)
The last option, our IMS Upgrade, requires engine disassembly and the complete intermediate shaft to be sent in to us to be reconditioned and upgraded with our triple-bearing upgrade. A separate upgrade service is available for the updated M97 IMS as well.
But before proceeding with an IMS Retrofit, you first need to identify which IMS you have!
How do I know which IMS my engine has and what can I do?
The only sure fire method of identifying which IMS your engine has requires you look at the hub flange itself. If you give us a call, we should be able to help you decide in most cases what you need.
All MY97-99 vehicles with their original engines will require a dual row retrofit kit. MY00-01 vehicles may need either a dual row or single row retrofit kit, so you'll need to inspect the flange, as described below to be sure which will be needed. MY02-05 will need a single row retrofit kit, although depending on how late the build date was, there may be some MY05 vehicles with the updated M97 IMS, which is not serviceable, at least without teardown of the engine.
Intermediate Shaft (IMS) Upgrade &
Retrofit Kits: lnengineering.com
