GFC 500 Issues

[PT20J]

There's a lot of chatter on Beechtalk about problems with GFC 500 servos. I'm curious how many at MS space are having problems vs those that are problem free.

[Skates97]

I don't have enough months for your poll, it's only been installed for five months, but I do have almost 100 hours on it. No problems at all for me. 

I have read that there were possibly some issues with a batch of servos, is that why you have the  6 month number in the poll? 

[PT20J]

7 minutes ago, Skates97 said:

I don't have enough months for your poll, it's only been installed for five months, but I do have almost 100 hours on it. No problems at all for me. 

I have read that there were possibly some issues with a batch of servos, is that why you have the  6 month number in the poll? 

No, I was just trying to make sure that there was enough time on them to have meaningful data. As I understand it, Garmin did have a recall a year or so ago, but there seem to be several reports of failures outside the recalled serial number range.

According to a post by Trek Lawler, the GFC 500 servos have 30W motors whereas the GFC 600 servos have 50W motors. 

Skip

 

[ArtVandelay]

On Beechtalk, they seem to last about 2 years.

[Z W]

No problems after almost two years here.  Works flawlessly.

[Unit74]

My understanding was that Garmin had a batch from the early servos that had issues. Best I can tell, they tightened up their product.

[Greg Ellis]

Maybe @donkaye could chime in here.  If my memory serves me, I recall him to be one of the first Mooneys to get the GFC500 installed.

[toto]

1 hour ago, Unit74 said:

My understanding was that Garmin had a batch from the early servos that had issues. Best I can tell, they tightened up their product.

I may be the only person who voted “yea” in the poll. All servos were replaced under warranty within the first year. This was due to a widely-discussed porpoising issue that the shop was unable to resolve. The servo replacements were a total cost of zero, and the problem has not recurred. 

[HIghpockets]

Flying home from Maine this past June my GFC 500 went into failure mode shortly after departure. I hand flew  in VMC to my home airfield. It was a roll servo failure that occurred 18 months after installation. Was covered by warranty. My avionics guy believes it was a design flaw involving a bearing. 

[donkaye]

2 hours ago, Greg Ellis said:

Maybe @donkaye could chime in here.  If my memory serves me, I recall him to be one of the first Mooneys to get the GFC500 installed.

 

1 hour ago, HIghpockets said:

Flying home from Maine this past June my GFC 500 went into failure mode shortly after departure. I hand flew  in VMC to my home airfield. It was a roll servo failure that occurred 18 months after installation. Was covered by warranty. My avionics guy believes it was a design flaw involving a bearing. 

My servos weren't in the included batch of bad servos.

[Greg Ellis]

20 minutes ago, donkaye said:

 

My servos weren't in the included batch of bad servos.

I mentioned your name because the original question on the poll was if you had the GFC 500 for more than 6 months and I remember you being one of the early installations much longer than 6 months.

[PJClark]

Mine were installed and delivered to me in Oct 2019.  Have about 115 hours on them (COVID has sucked) and my pitch trim servo became intermittent at about 114 hours 2 weeks ago.  Fortunately under warranty just under the wire.  RMA accepted by Garmin but on backorder with ETA 7 Dec.

Didn't know there was a bad batch...guess the other two of mine may be vulnerable...anyone have the serial number range easily at hand?

I also have a slight porpoising tendency I've managed to ignore

[Davidv]

45 minutes ago, PJClark said:

Mine were installed and delivered to me in Oct 2019.  Have about 115 hours on them (COVID has sucked) and my pitch trim servo became intermittent at about 114 hours 2 weeks ago.  Fortunately under warranty just under the wire.  RMA accepted by Garmin but on backorder with ETA 7 Dec.

Didn't know there was a bad batch...guess the other two of mine may be vulnerable...anyone have the serial number range easily at hand?

I also have a slight porpoising tendency I've managed to ignore

One way to tell if your pitch servo is bad is to engage the autopilot on the ground then try to overpower it.  If it smoothly lets you pull the yoke back and forth with some friction it may be good.  If it suddenly releases after some pressure it may be bad like mine was before I had it replaced.

[PJClark]

Good tip will try it! 

[PT20J]

3 hours ago, PJClark said:

Mine were installed and delivered to me in Oct 2019.  Have about 115 hours on them (COVID has sucked) and my pitch trim servo became intermittent at about 114 hours 2 weeks ago.  Fortunately under warranty just under the wire.  RMA accepted by Garmin but on backorder with ETA 7 Dec.

Didn't know there was a bad batch...guess the other two of mine may be vulnerable...anyone have the serial number range easily at hand?

I also have a slight porpoising tendency I've managed to ignore

From Trek Lawler’s post on BeechTalk:

when we had the recall in early 2020 on the GSA 28 servos, we identified a potential problem around serial number 5G9001400 during production where it concerned us enough to want to make sure there were no potential failures. Just to be safe we made the determination to replace all of them up 5G9002000. So to address Ashley Jones comment about replacing them all when the plane is in for service. if the units are above this serial number I can assure you the concern we had for the early units is addressed. 

[ZuluZulu]

13 months, almost 200 hours.  No problems.

However, on my last flight, it started slightly oscillating in pitch.  I suspect the controls need to be lubricated but have not yet tested that hypothesis.

[kris_adams]

1 servo replaced within the first year

[PJClark]

Cool my servos aren't  in the recalled SN range.

[81X]

15 hours ago, ZuluZulu said:

13 months, almost 200 hours.  No problems.

However, on my last flight, it started slightly oscillating in pitch.  I suspect the controls need to be lubricated but have not yet tested that hypothesis.

Pull alt static when this happens. A small amount of water in the static system can do this and it’s super annoying.  Could also be control lube or even Mis-programmed, ask @donkaye about that.  

 

to answer the OP’s questions, I was the first mid body with the GFC500 and had a couple of Servos in the impacted range replaced about a year ago after the trim servo acted up a couple times. Failure mode was just that I had to manually trim, it wasn’t runaway trim or anything terrible like that. Zero troubles since and way more trustworthy than my KFC150 it replaced. 

[ZuluZulu]

31 minutes ago, 81X said:

Pull alt static when this happens. A small amount of water in the static system can do this and it’s super annoying.  Could also be control lube or even Mis-programmed, ask @donkaye about that.  

 

to answer the OP’s questions, I was the first mid body with the GFC500 and had a couple of Servos in the impacted range replaced about a year ago after the trim servo acted up a couple times. Failure mode was just that I had to manually trim, it wasn’t runaway trim or anything terrible like that. Zero troubles since and way more trustworthy than my KFC150 it replaced. 

I doubt it's misprogrammed since it worked fine for more than a year.  Will try the other suggestions, though, thanks!

[Jim Peace]

After paying all that money I would be upset. Garmin seems to have more issue than not with quality control. Remember when the GTN screens blanked out. They didn’t want to fess up to it until people from mooneyspace and beechtalk started talking about it. Then my new 345 crapped out about a year after install, I agreed to a yellow tag unit from them only to find out they tagged it but never actually repaired it. It slipped through the cracks. Act of God to get them to give me a new one. A good poll to create would be how difficult it is or is not to get garmin to admit to a problem and how long it takes to get a fix. 
 

these servos should be covered whether or not in warrantee period. 

[PT20J]

Per Trek’s BT post, the recalled servos were around s/n 5G9001400 in early 2020. My just-installed serial numbers are all around 5G9016474. If the serial numbers are consecutive, that implies that Garmin has produced over 15,000 in a bit less than 2 years. 
 

[Ragsf15e]

2 hours ago, PT20J said:

Per Trek’s BT post, the recalled servos were around s/n 5G9001400 in early 2020. My just-installed serial numbers are all around 5G9016474. If the serial numbers are consecutive, that implies that Garmin has produced over 15,000 in a bit less than 2 years. 
 

Please tell me you have a beautiful day over in sunny Seattle and you’re taking that awesome new panel and AP on its maiden flight?

Pictures please!!

[PT20J]

7 hours ago, Ragsf15e said:

Please tell me you have a beautiful day over in sunny Seattle and you’re taking that awesome new panel and AP on its maiden flight?

Pictures please!!

It is a beautiful day, but I spent most of it in the hangar getting the new fuel and oil pressure transducers not to leak. I hate pipe threads. But I discovered a sealant recommended by a local IA that he guarantees won’t seize, gall, or leak. Armite LP-250. Everything dry after a runup and short test flight. 

I haven’t taken any pictures because I haven’t finished putting the interior back in yet and that’s on hold for the annual next week. Maybe I’ll post an “almost finished” shot.

Skip

[Ragsf15e]

45 minutes ago, PT20J said:

It is a beautiful day, but I spent most of it in the hangar getting the new fuel and oil pressure transducers not to leak. I hate pipe threads. But I discovered a sealant recommended by a local IA that he guarantees won’t seize, gall, or leak. Armite LP-250. Everything dry after a runup and short test flight. 

I haven’t taken any pictures because I haven’t finished putting the interior back in yet and that’s on hold for the annual next week. Maybe I’ll post an “almost finished” shot.

Skip

Interesting, i added a snubber to my oil pressure transducer recently and didn’t have an issue.  I actually used sealant tape which my IA cautioned me not to get all the way to the tip, but it sealed up first try.

Fuel might be tougher for you since it’s thinner.

Edited October 31, 2021 by Ragsf15e