Ferdinand.

Hello everyone!

I have picked up older 996 2001 Carrera 4 3.4 with 170 000 km on the clock }
The car has servise record from Porsche up until few months ago. I have gotten in touch with dealership who serviced this car and they refuse to tell me the servise history until I bring the car over to them (unfortunately it is about 5 hours drive for me)
The only thing I found out it this
To quote the dealer "I can find no evidence that the intermediate shaft bearing has been replaced; only the sealing rings of the crankshaft and intermediate shaft were replaced in 2017".

My question to you dear specialists is, "Do you think that at about 140 000km when they did this service they also changed IMS bearing? Wouldnt it be very reasonable to do at that point? and the only reason why it was not done at that servise, that it must had been done before?"

Thank you in advance for any valuable feedback on this! Trolls please be considerate with my first post (I have been searching for a few days now)

808Bill

Unless you have proof that it was done, consider that it was not done.

dporto

^^ Which is essentially what the Porsche dealer said... In other words, it doesn't matter what would have been reasonable to do. It wasn't done. You "picked up" the car...you should change out the IMSBearing - the sooner the better seeing as it's most likely a small single row bearing. Good luck

Mike Murphy

The good news is that with 170k on the clock, the bearing is unlikely to fail tomorrow

yelcab

Unlikely but not impossible.

barchstein

I wonder what the correlation is between the risk of an IMS failure and the current havoc caused by the coronavirus?

relinuca

Ferdinand,

Why are you asking Rennlisters to speculate on such issues. Bottom Line: No paperwork , no facts.

relinuca

dporto

While I get the sentiment, the bearing may have "failed" already - there's no way to know unless you drop the oil pan and filter, and/or pull the bearing. Remember, there are 4 stages of IMS Bearing failure (only the 4th being catastrophic). Making assumptions or burying your head in the sand can leave you stranded with huge repair bills...

Mike Murphy

While everyone is right about assumptions, I cannot imagine someone replacing an IMS without replacing the IMSB. The entire engine has to come apart to replace the IMS. They probably meant IMSB, not IMS. So I would try to find the paperwork - not an estimate or a quote, as I’ve seen that truck before. The invoice.

In either case, I stand by my comment that 170,000km is a LOT without a failure. Unless of course the failure was at 140,000. In which case 30,000km was racked up on the replaced bearing. If that’s the case, I would probably replace the IMSB at this point, again, because it could be worn.

I would check your engine serial number in case it has a larger bearing.

Byprodriver

I would be very surprised if they didn't inspect the IMSB while the cover plate was removed, why else would they take it off ?

Ferdinand.

Thank you everybody for your comments!

The car was serviced its whole life at Porsche dealerships and no money was spared on it; therefore I believe they did the IMS bearing replacement at 140km or at least checked on it, so I will try to find evidence for it and drive it over to the dealership to confirm. Meanwhile I have done exhaust bypass, eibach springs, ordered BBS SR 18inch wheels, protected roof with 303 impregnation and ready to roll as soon as it gets above 15C / 60 fahrenheit

Nevertheless I am expecting to do clutch in next 10k so I will do IMS as well wish me luck, thansk again for your input

Ferdinand.

I would check your engine serial number in case it has a larger bearing
Thanks for the tip, I have my engine serial number in front of me. Could you please navigate me how to find out whether the bearing is larger?

Thanks

dporto

Because it (the flange) was leaking. This was common practice at dealerships before the class action suit was settled. Their stance was that the bearing couldn’t be serviced/changed.

Ferdinand.

Update - Change of plans -

Since I will be changing oil this week I decided to send an oil sample for testing. It is about 20 USD in my area and will be able to check on my situation without dropping tranny etc...
2000 and 2001 cars were in transition from dualbearing to single bearing IMS and I have not found 100% certain way on how to check which bearing this enginge has, on top of that the dealer who used to servise this car is an absolute moron who refuses to tell me what has been done and just wants to milk me like a well fed cow........... quoting me 1000 eur for new oil, engine belt and telling me how me condition of my IMS (which he can already predict as they are holding on to all the service records.....)

*Eastep*

The service history belongs to the car, not the shop. If the dealership needs those for their own records, they can make copies. If this is an authorized Porsche dealership, I'd contact Porsche customer care, and make them aware of the situation. The care specialist could probably send you the records (up to a certain time frame)
I did something similar when I bought my car. I had service records, but they were incomplete. Unfortunately Porsche doesn't hold the records "permanently". After xxx amount of years, they are removed from their database. While I was speaking to the rep, they also updated their records of my car, to show that I am its current owner.

If the place you bought your car from isn't an authorized dealer, and they dont want to be of any help; I'd start building my own service history.
Find a good independent shop, and go from there. Save all invoices/receipts and proof of servicing, moving forward.
It sounds to me that the place you bought the car sold you on misinformation or flat out lies, and now that your calling their bluff, they're clamming up, because they could potentially face legal repercussions.
Good luck. Sorry your having to go through this.