What’s the general reliability of a Porsche 911, 2004? Considering buying one with 45K miles on it.
Agam , this question like all the other many questions that show up here asking how reliable a used vehicle is has no answer. You are looking at a 14 year old vehicle that has to stand on it’s own . Have a good mechanic look it over before you buy and it may last you anywhere from 1 day to many years.
Ask the owner if the IMS bearing or the entire has been replaced. If it hasn’t, quickly step away from the car. This a bearing inside the engine that is prone to premature failure and if it does, will destroy the entire engine. You do NOT want to pay for a new Porsche engine$$$$$$$$
More information is here:
https://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/Porsche-996-997-Carrera/13-ENGINE-Common_Engine_Carrera_Problems/13-ENGINE-Common_Engine_Carrera_Problems.htm
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Gutsy. In 2007 I cross-shopped used Boxsters, new Honda S2000s and new Miatas. Got the Miata. Wasn’t comfortable with the Porsche reliability from off-lease cars circa 2004.
911’s of that year came in either a turbo or non-turbo flat six configuration it appears. So the reliability will likely depend on which yours is. For the non-turbo there’s recalls on the navigation system, air filter housing, clutch slave cylinder, and XE relay socket. The only one of those that looks problematic is the clutch slave cylinder, which likely requires removal of the transmission. So make sure that’s been done. Besides clutch issues & some expected niggles you’d see in any high end sports car like this, looks pretty reliable to me. There’s apparently a lack of available of replacement cylinder heads for engine replacements if that matters to you. Make sure only Porsche-approved engine and transmission lubricants have been used of course. As w/any low slung sports car, parts are a little more expensive and replacement usually takes more time than an econobox. $350 parts + 4 hours to replace the water pump for example. So budget for that.
Just curious, what does the IMS bearing do?
IMS stands for 'Intermediate Shaft Bearing ', which is the supporting bearing of the intermediate shaft, on the flywheel end of the motor. The purpose of the intermediate shaft is to drive the camshafts indirectly off the crankshaft.
Clipped in from a Porsche site. Its the “on the flywheel end” that’s the bugger. The engine has to come out. Not sure why they decided to drive the cams off an intermediate shaft except maybe to use a common head design and forcing the cam chains to opposite ends of the engine.
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