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Sparkling oil. Time fore IMS bearing replacement?

F

FabioAzevedo

New member
Hi

Today, when changing the oil and filter on my 996 I noticed that the oil was a bit sparkling when touched the oil drainer. Although I put a magnet where the oil was draining but didn't catch anything, checked the oil filter and also nothing.
It is the first time I am changing the oil on my 996 is a reason to worry about or can I just keep drive but keep a closer look on it?
I did budget an IMS replacement when I bought the car, but would be great to wait till it needs a clutch.

Regards
 
Welcome!

It is difficult to know what you mean by "sparkling". When the IMS bearing starts to fail, you tend to get small, thin, flakes of metal in the oil, probably from the bearing cage. The filter collects them, so it is best to cut the ends off the filter and open it out, to examine it properly (as per the attachment).

I doubt a magnet placed in the oil while it is draining would pick up much. If you still have the old oil, maybe try to strain it through a very fine filter to see if there are any metal particles in there. Maybe also send a sample off for analysis. Fitting a magnetic sump plug would also be a good idea.

You don't say which model 996 you have. I don't want to suggest that you ignore it, but if it was me and it was an earlier 3.4 with the dual-row bearing I would fit a magnetic plug and monitor it for 5-600 miles and check the plug and filter again. If it was a later 3.6 with a single row bearing, and I had budgeted for it, I might be tempted to get the bearing changed. Just my 2p's worth.

 
Thank you for you reply.
It is 3.6 c4 from 2001

Today I checked again the oil filter and the magnet and turns out, it had really small pieces of metal not to many thought.
Ireckon it comes indeed from IMS bearing.
I had already budgeted to replace it but I was planning to replace it on this spring but I'll have replace it as soon I can
Thank you

 
Hi

Not good news, carefully research the various types of bearings available and make an informed choice that suits your needs.

Replaced my IMS on my 996 C2 last year at 47,000 miles. Clutch was just about finished but bearing was perfect. Put low temperature thermostat in as well in order to reduce risk of bore scoring.

Hopefully mine is now sound.

Good luck

Trevor Cayman295



 
My 2001 3.4 dual bearing manual C2 coupe had minute fragments of metal in the oil filter after just 35k last year. So I had the IMS replaced and took the opportunity to get a new clutch fitted at the same time. Fortunately when I bought the car in February 2018 it came with a warranty which I extended in October of that year so the cost of replacing the IMS bearing was covered. I think the warranty company took the view it was cost effective for them to replace the suspect item rather than wait for it to fail and leave them with a much larger claim. Just because a car is low mileage and with a dual roller bearing doesn’t make it immune to this design fault.
 
Yes I would do I ASAP
One company supplies bearing and they claim to have supplied thousands with no failures

is it LV look on internet
 
FabioAzevedo said:
Thank you for you reply.
It is 3.6 c4 from 2001

Today I checked again the oil filter and the magnet and turns out, it had really small pieces of metal not to many thought.
Ireckon it comes indeed from IMS bearing.
I had already budgeted to replace it but I was planning to replace it on this spring but I'll have replace it as soon I can
Thank you
Click to expand...


I would have it flat towed to a repair shop - don't drive it to the shop. I would not recommend operating the engine any more as you could make the problem worse and cost yourself more money. Make sure the shop you go to is a specialist in the M96 engine as well. You don't want to use a general mechanic for this issue as they may not know exactly what they are looking at.
 
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