johnireland

trouble with their RMS or ISMB? As in you haven't changed either and you don't have oil on the garage floor...and if so, what is your milage. And the point of this is? The "official" failure rate of the original factory installed ISMB seems to be between 4 and 6 percent. True or False? And what is the "official" failure rate of the original factory installed RMS? I'm not looking for rose colored glasses views, I'm just looking for perspective.
And just to keep it in perspective, I hope each answer is only for that person's personal experience with their car.

Macster

I hope you have thick skin. You are going to get some probably rather harsh comments directed at you for bringing yet another RMS/IMSB (mainly IMSB) thread here.

In the spirit of your attempt to get some hopefully useful info, and because I'm such a nice guy, I'll chip in with my experience.

2002 Boxster. RMS replaced at around 25K miles. (RMS still leak sign free.) IMSB never touched, it is original. Miles on car/engine: 287K.

rpm's S2

Dear John,

Macster is being nice. I'm going to be a little more blunt.

There is no definitive answer to the question you are pondering. Many 996s will have a leaky RMS at some point, but the vast majority will not suffer a catastrophic failure of any type. However, it happens. And it is horrendous and painfully expensive.

Need more... See the giant stickie thread at the top of this board with IMS in the title? Please read that.

johnireland

Thanks for the reply. I know I'll get some flak but in the time I've been here the bias seems to be based on reported problems when infact they are a minority mechanical issue. So who isn't having failures and for how many miles.

Macster

Told ya!

Still, Ralph is right and he put it very succinctly.

DTMiller

Thank god someone finally raised this question.

johnireland

Hi rpm and thanks for the RMS info. If everything could be covered by the stickies we wouldn't need any new posts. And your point that no one has definitive known causes for the issues begs to again make people aware of what the real risk is for failure based on positive as well as negative experiences.

rpm's S2

Here's the bottom line that some people don't get: There is a 5-10% chance that your Porsche's engine, due to a known and proven design flaw, may self-destruct. The repair will cost nearly the value of the car. There are several reliable updates that will avoid this potential problem. In general they cost a few thousand to install, or the cost of a 60K belt service.

Do it or don't, the choice is yours. But stop asking about it! No amount of discussion will change the basic facts.

Is it time to propose to admin that any new IMS threads just be deleted?

Gonzo911

Based on this and his previous posts, the OP is clearly bored and/or looking for attention. Move along...nothing to see here.

Mods, please lock this down quickly.

Dharn55

Hmmm, a few thousand dollars for a 60k belt change???

911 carrera blue

rpm's S2

It was a ballpark comparison.

996pp

Its Sunday. Get out and drive your car!! Or sell it and buy a preius with warranty

porsche951

73k on my 2002 Targa. Original IMSB. I'll replace it sometime soon along with my clutch but in the meantime I have installed a magnetic drain plug, switched to Joe Gibbs DT 40 oil along with changes every 6 months. And lastly examine my oil filter which BTW is absolutely free of anything metallic. Also sending oil samples to Blackstone Labs.

pszikla

Hey John!
I replaced the RMS seal at 28000 miles and not a drop of oil since.
The IMSB is original and I currently have 111,000 miles!
She runs perfectly!
Pete