Do boosters after 2005 still have problems with intermediate shaft bearing?

Booster?? Boxster? Yes, they have it until 2009, but the problem is overblown.

Maybe overblown, but when it's yours, it's not. Peace of mind is is a priceless commodity. I wouldn't own my 2000 996 unless the bearing was replaced. Would you?

I don't replace them anymore unless I am removing the transmission for other work. I've been active in Porsche clubs and driving & owning 996/997/987 cars all with M96 engines since they came out in 1998 (16 at the last count). I must have over 750k miles on these cars by now and never personally had a problem. I just did the math and thought that if I change every IMS bearing, I am certainly going to spend $3k per car, which I usually own for 6-12 months. There is maybe a 5% chance in the cars 25 year plus lifespan that the IMS bearing will fail, so maybe less than 0.2% chance that it will fail while I own it. If I got unlucky and the worst does happen, I would drop in a replacement engine from a salvage yard for a total cost of under $10k. So for me, it just doesn't stack up to replace the bearing on its own.

Like Andrew said, this is an issue until 2009 - they corrected it. Depends on who you ask, but being in the Porsche restoration and service business, it is more prevalent than you may believe. There are plenty of way to monitor it, and the best thing for peace of mind is when you replace the clutch, replace the IMS bearing with an aftermarket ceramic one -that will guarantee your engine safety from IMS failure. As far as a "heads-up"- when you change your oil, play extra close attention to the oil when you drain it and look for metallic flakes in it. If you see it, immediately stop driving it and get it replaced (along with the clutch since you are in there) and you will be OK. If looking to buy an 01-08 Boxster, check it out carefully. See if they've replaced it. If the car is at 70-90K count on it being worn and on the tail end- never assume everything is fine. Best of luck! They are fantastic cars, really reliable aside from this thing, and they corner great and still look very good after all these years.

Porsche Pete is 100% correct!

Thanks. But unfortunately I've already had it fail once.

You had the replacement IMS bearing fail??

Not sure yet. Warning check light on and plastic in oil. Opening engine tomorrow. But Brumos Porsche in Jacksonville, FL has told me they seen a couple of failures with the new ceramic intermediate shaft bearing. As others have said, in 2009 resign with on intermediate shaft bearing.

Just FYI- these used engines are really hard to find due to this problem. And if you have to change the engine, please make sure you are aligned with the right engine because of so many changes between them over these years. Case in point- I bought an 04 with a bad engine (IMS) and had a crashed 03 Boxster S with a good engine... simple swap, right? Nope! All that work, and then I learned there are all sorts of differences between 03-04. An 04-05 was my option. Now I have an 04 with another 04, but with all that time and labor invested I have to just drive it to get any value out of it and hope for the best in the summer.

So Mike, just to clarify the replacment bearing that was installed that you think might be currently failing is ceramic?

Yes, ceramic from LN engineering.

Hmm sorry to hear that. Smitty and I have been having an interesting conversation about the IMS and are both actively try to figure out what is the best option for replacement. From my personal research of the IMS of failures it seems like the oem or single/double row bearings weather ceramic or steel they have one thing in common and thats oil starvation. You might want to research the LN dof IMS it sends a stream of filtered oil directly into the bearing when the car is running keeping the bearing lubricated constantly. Heres a video link that explains the known isssues of the IMS and also how the direct oil feed IMS works, Im not saying its not prone to failure but it seems to lessen the riskk of IMS failure. Here the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzUq2DFpeKw