white98ls

My mom is 69 years old with rheumatoid arthritis and a bad back (can barely walk more than a couple of blocks without needing to sit). She drives an '07 Cayman, manual. You can do it!

CarAholic

Not really here. I love porsches and have had the privilege to own a few, these past couple years. Recently had a GT4 and ended up selling it for something that would provide a different expiernece. If you don't track the car regularly it becomes stale. The S is way more engaging on the road and that translates to more fun for me. Had the GT for almost 20,000 miles and it was a fantastic car but for street driving I prefer the S. Any of the boxsters/caymans don't make sense,unless you track, when you already have an S. The 911 is entirely different situation though as the driving dynamics are vastly different. Still miss my 991 C2S and it was on of the very few cars that I did not get bored of. So for those of you pining for a porsche don't feel down as you currently have a fantastic vehicle.

rpg51

I was regretting having started this thread until this post. This actually helps me put my Porsche Envy disorder behind me. Thank you.

WolfpackS2k

You cannot access the IMS in the M97 engine without disassembling the engine. The 997 911 debuted in 2005 with the M97 engine.

Many people in this thread probably know that Porsche lost a class action lawsuit regarding IMS issues. The cars included under this lawsuit DO NOT include the 997 or 987, due to the fact that for the M97 engine it is a very rare occurrence. Were that not the case they would have been included in the lawsuit.

vader1

Not true. You need to remove the transmission to access the bearing, but you do not have to disassemble the engine. Most people with older cars do an upgrade to the IMS bearing when getting a new clutch.

https://www.europeanpartssolution.co...t-instructions

Some of these products have a very good reputation at being far more sound than the original Porsche design, and Porsche made 2 upgrades to the IMS bearing during the run of the engine and according to the internets, the later bearings have had few reported failures. Theoretically, if you bought an older car and budgeted to take it straight to the shop and pop in a new clutch and improved aftermarket bearing you can probably sleep soundly but I don't imagine the clutch job is cheap and neither are the new bearings.

WolfpackS2k

Those instructions are a bit confusing to me, because there are design differences between the M96 and M97 and they don't differentiate at all with those instructions. (unless I'm missing something?)

vader1

Well you might be right and my post might be wrong according to this on Rennlist:

https://rennlist.com/how-tos/a/porsc...erences-383726

I don't claim to be an expert with these engines at all, only that when I was researching them I was told I could do an easy retrofit on a 2008 but that looks to NOT be the case and the retrofits are easy on pre 2005 models. I was originally looking at 2007-2008 Caymans and was told by either a Rennlist or Planet 9 member that those years were "easy retrofits" but seems to be an easy mistake to make. For what it is worth, at least what I could find on the internet it seems from each year forward of 2005 failures were exceedingly rare, and bearings were improved by Porsche a couple times over that three year span.

Just pulled this:

LN Engineering currently offers a Dual Row IMS Retrofit as well as the Single Row Pro IMS Retrofit, where the engine does not have to be disassembled to replace the factory sealed ball-bearing, both with a 6 year/75,000 mile service interval. IMS Solution LLC’s oil fed plain bearing arrangement similar in functionality to the intermediate shaft bearing used in the past aircooled models and most recently in the GT2, GT3, and Turbo models based off the GT1 aka Mezger engine, eliminates the ball-bearing design completely and is a permanent fix. Typically replacement of the IMS bearing takes 10-14 hours (with exception of some Tiptronic 911 models) and is usually serviced at the same time the clutch and dual mass flywheel.

LN Engineering also offers a MY06-08 IMS Upgrade kit for the larger bearing found on model year 2006 through 2008 M97 engines, but engine dis-assembly is required for installation. The 06-08 adapter bushing which allows the IMS to be serviceable without further dis-assembly is also available. LN Engineering also offers an IMS Upgrade service where you send in your intermediate shaft. The main drive sprocket is pinned to prevent slippage of the drive gear, which is a known problem area. The shaft is also evaluated for run out, which will lead to premature bearing failure.

GSteg

The instruction seems to be for engines that have the smaller single or double row bearings. Larger single row bearings cannot be removed without taking apart the engine. '06-08 M97s have the latter. '05 M97 is a mixed bag.

jeffbrig

Part of the confusion is that it isn't a simple question of 986 vs 987. The US-market Cayman came out in 2006 as a S model with the 3.4L M97. In the non-US market, some early Caymans were sold with the M96 motor. When the 987 Boxster debuted in 2005, it still had the carryover M96 engine. It wasn't until 2007 that the Boxster got the updated engine and it's improved IMS bearing. In all of these cases I'm talking about the S models - I haven't done any research on the base engines, as I never shopped those models.

From the Cayman Wiki:

• Late 2005 to Early 2006 3.4 litre "M96" 295 hp flat-six (VarioCam Plus). "M96" engine versions not sold in U.S.
• all MY 2006-MY 2008 U.S. delivery Cayman (245 hp) and Cayman S (295 hp) equipped with "M97" engines
• Late 2006–2009 3.4 litre "M97" 295 hp flat-six (VarioCam Plus)

It is widely accepted that the M96 bearing has a significantly higher failure rate than the M97. The M96 can have the IMS bearing extracted and replaced while the transmission is off - easy to do. The M97 requires splitting the case, which is essentially a full teardown and rebuild. I have heard rumors that some companies are working on a contraption to mill the opening on an assembled M97 so the bearing can be extracted and a replacement installed.No idea how that's gonna work out...

06LagunaBlue

I had an 06 S2k and an 09 911 (the 09 was the first year of the DFI motor with no IMS/RMS issues), while the 911 is an absurdly wonderful car and a better daily than the S2k, the S2k might be more fun. The 911 was so fast you almost couldn't have fun with it without risking jail time, and I had the base carerra. The S2k has a better transmission and is more fun to bring to redline. When you combine this with the high maintenance costs of the 911 and the potential for a $20k engine failure, I just didn't think it was worth owning long term, though I'm glad I scratched the itch. I am now looking at getting back in an S2k as a weekend car.

If you really want the Porsche, get it, I'm glad I did because now I no longer wonder. For those of you with the S2k, drive it and enjoy it, its a special car!