Garmin SB23024 Servo Failure - High out of pocket expense

[ZentRose]

I had an in flight servo failure with the Garmin GFC500 autopilot and I had to pay $2500 out of pocket. I am wondering if you can share your experience with your replacement on your mooney. The stated hours for the routine repair were quoted at 4-6 hours when I dropped the plane off but the install on the bill is 19.4 hours. The dealer also enabled smart glide when the plane was not equipped with a GAD 13 so this resulted in an error when I took off.

I am looking for a shop in Southern California that can install a GAD 13 and inspect the installation done by this shop as I am not confident in their work. Any recommendations?

I emailed Garmin support but have not got a response yet. Attaching the receipt. 

N3486NSB23024.pdf

[Yetti]

Item 1 is for the Remove and replace for 2 servos.   4 hours each does not seem completely out of line

Item 2 charging you a day for waiting on Garmin Tech supports seems out of line.   Pretty sure the tech was not waiting by the phone and was able to bill to other jobs. 

Item 3 upgrade seems in line.    but missing that you did not have the GAD13 install should have shown up on a check out and they should have resolved before return to service.   Worth a question, but not a major talking point.

[Minivation]

From personal experience (working at a Garmin dealer shop) I normally expect around 8 hours per servo for removal and installation of a GSA28. Yep, they are a pain to do the job properly.

Agree with Yetti that 8 hours for Line 2 seems a bit out of line but as a maintenance inspector myself, I will say trying to troubleshoot stuff  on GA aircraft is extremely open-ended and the time spent can balloon very quickly. Not defending the figure in the invoice but maybe there's more to the story than what's written on the paper. I do my best to document every detail so I can defend myself if a customer questions the billable hours.

Socal ... try David Nutile with Helicomm Avionics. Good guy.

[ZentRose]

3 hours ago, Yetti said:

Item 1 is for the Remove and replace for 2 servos.   4 hours each does not seem completely out of line

Item 2 charging you a day for waiting on Garmin Tech supports seems out of line.   Pretty sure the tech was not waiting by the phone and was able to bill to other jobs. 

Item 3 upgrade seems in line.    but missing that you did not have the GAD13 install should have shown up on a check out and they should have resolved before return to service.   Worth a question, but not a major talking point.

Thanks I agree. To clarify this was a warranty repair for Garmin's faulty autopilot servos. 

I am wondering if people typically come out of pocket for Garmin warranty claims. I can't get a reply from Garmin support. 

 

 

[ZentRose]

18 minutes ago, Minivation said:

From personal experience (working at a Garmin dealer shop) I normally expect around 8 hours per servo for removal and installation of a GSA28. Yep, they are a pain to do the job properly.

Agree with Yetti that 8 hours for Line 2 seems a bit out of line but as a maintenance inspector myself, I will say trying to troubleshoot stuff  on GA aircraft is extremely open-ended and the time spent can balloon very quickly. Not defending the figure in the invoice but maybe there's more to the story than what's written on the paper. I do my best to document every detail so I can defend myself if a customer questions the billable hours.

Socal ... try David Nutile with Helicomm Avionics. Good guy.

 

Thanks. When you do warranty work on the GSA28 servos can you petition Garmin to cover the extra hours required? 

 

I don't think I can reasonably question line #2 without knowing all that was involved. I am fine paying for that.  

 

[201Mooniac]

2 hours ago, Minivation said:

From personal experience (working at a Garmin dealer shop) I normally expect around 8 hours per servo for removal and installation of a GSA28. Yep, they are a pain to do the job properly.

Certainly not disputing your experience but when I had my 4 servos replaced under warranty they were completed in 16 hours.  I don't know if some servos were quicker than others but that is an average of 4 hours.  I'm sure it varies by aircraft and whether the shop did the original install and a host of other things.

[PT20J]

I took my plane to Crown Avionics at KPAE which installed the GFC 500 originally and Matt replaced all three servos under warranty at no charge. 

[Minivation]

1 hour ago, 201Mooniac said:

Certainly not disputing your experience but when I had my 4 servos replaced under warranty they were completed in 16 hours.  I don't know if some servos were quicker than others but that is an average of 4 hours.  I'm sure it varies by aircraft and whether the shop did the original install and a host of other things.

I had a previous response but I realize I was thinking *new* servo installations instead of remove+replace all this time. Certified "oops" moment. New servo installs take 8+hours because of the extensive sheet metal work involved with installing the brackets and framework.
I admit I don't have any experience with Garmin A/P on Mooneys (maybe soon when we consider replacing the S-Tec 60-2 on the 201 I fly, but that's a topic for later) but from my experience doing a 4-servo replacement on a Bonanza, it took me two days so it's squarely aligned with your experience. But I can see this taking longer on some real painful types like the T-tail Arrows and Skylane RGs (gotta crawl way into the tail to access the pitch servos).
 

3 hours ago, ZentRose said:

Thanks. When you do warranty work on the GSA28 servos can you petition Garmin to cover the extra hours required? 

Garmin reimburses up to 2.5 hours per servo per their Service Life Extension Program. I don't handle the financials at my place so not sure how we do it but I wager most shops would charge just the difference within a reasonable range (e.g. 4 - 2.5 = 1.5 hours/servo as shown in the example above).
I don't think shops are really in a position to negotiate with Garmin to cover extra hours, but if the extra hours were caused by an egregious error or oversight by the original installer, then I know Garmin has a pretty hardline policy of requiring the responsible installer to make right on the issues on their own dime (or at least pay for it).

 

[ZentRose]

13 hours ago, Minivation said:

Garmin reimburses up to 2.5 hours per servo per their Service Life Extension Program. I don't handle the financials at my place so not sure how we do it but I wager most shops would charge just the difference within a reasonable range (e.g. 4 - 2.5 = 1.5 hours/servo as shown in the example above).
I don't think shops are really in a position to negotiate with Garmin to cover extra hours, but if the extra hours were caused by an egregious error or oversight by the original installer, then I know Garmin has a pretty hardline policy of requiring the responsible installer to make right on the issues on their own dime (or at least pay for it).

 

Thanks! I asked Garmin for reimbursement or some other form of goodwill for the additional hours. They will probably say no but it doesn't hurt to ask 

[skykrawler]

Looks to me like they were on the phone several times throughout a day with Garmin Tech support.

 

[LANCECASPER]

On 4/1/2026 at 11:32 AM, ZentRose said:

I had an in flight servo failure with the Garmin GFC500 autopilot and I had to pay $2500 out of pocket. I am wondering if you can share your experience with your replacement on your mooney. The stated hours for the routine repair were quoted at 4-6 hours when I dropped the plane off but the install on the bill is 19.4 hours. The dealer also enabled smart glide when the plane was not equipped with a GAD 13 so this resulted in an error when I took off.

I am looking for a shop in Southern California that can install a GAD 13 and inspect the installation done by this shop as I am not confident in their work. Any recommendations?

I emailed Garmin support but have not got a response yet. Attaching the receipt. 

N3486NSB23024.pdf 2.37 MB · 16 downloads

I may have missed this, but was this the shop that originally installed your GFC500?

[Marc_B]

FWIW.  I had my GFC500 servos replaced (4 servos including YD) under warranty and my shop didn't invoice me for the work.  But that was a just a simple servo exchange...

On 4/1/2026 at 7:33 PM, Minivation said:

but if the extra hours were caused by an egregious error or oversight by the original installer

...then that might have added hours to troubleshoot and fix.  But should be a discussion with the shop as to what they found and why the overage I would think.