I don’t care what kind of big purchase it is, so much emphasis—by seller and buyer—is placed on the warranty of the item or service. And when it comes to the warranty on aircraft services and components, I’ve been wondering if it really matters as much as we think. Stick with me here—a couple of us got into this debate recently after a hangar neighbor got stuck with an eye-widening repair bill that he thought would be covered by a warranty, but it wasn’t.
The Calendar Rules
As we fly less and less, the warranties that we get with repair work might be less valuable. That’s because most repair/overhaul warranties are generally based on two factors—hours in service and calendar time, whichever occurs first. And it’s almost always calendar time first, because in general, many fly pretty infrequently in climates where the weather tanks for months at a time. So for the average aircraft owner, it means getting little useful warranty other than in the first handful of hours, since the calendar time on most warranties bears no real-world relation to the operating hours segment.
This can let even shoddy work survive the calendar time warranty, so you need to choose repair shops carefully since you will likely have little in the way of warranty coverage, as was the case with our friend who had to eat a prop governor repair on a component that had less than 80 hours of time in service. Many specialty shops (especially avionics shops) might warranty their labor for the lifetime of the aircraft, though many conditions might apply.
Stepping Up
The good news is that good shops know how to treat customers in hopes that they’ll remain loyal and tell their friends to go there. That means they might take care of parts that fall outside of the time limits but are well within the hours in service limits—at least for valued customers. Or ones that yell the loudest. Still, shops aren’t in the business of losing money, and smaller ones can’t afford the hit. But sometimes it’s complicated.
I remember a while back at the shop seeing a handful of Lycoming IO-360 crankcases cracking after being repaired and certified by an aftermarket crankcase repair station. The shop’s warranty was one year or 300 hours. Of course, the engine owners had nowhere near 300 hours on these cases after over two years in service. So when the cases cracked at 200 hours, warranty coverage was refused. All it took was one disgruntled owner to call in the FAA, which ultimately cleared the FAA repair station of any FAA violations.
It turned out the case showed evidence of fretting/improper assembly torque. For the other crankcase, an independent consultant was called in by the repair station (this crankcase’s owner was more mellow and didn’t file a complaint with the FAA). Again, it turned out to be case fretting from improper assembly torque as the cause. But there were early clues, including a persistent, untraceable oil leak that really deserved a focused examination to find the cause of the leak before the case let go. It eventually gave up shortly after takeoff. While this is an expensive and unfortunate situation for the owners, was the shop being unreasonable in not honoring the well out of time warranty for the IO-360 owners? You be the judge, but there’s a lesson here.
When the through-bolts are not torqued adequately, fretting is a common result. Fretting does not always cause cracks, but it certainly can cause extra case stress, which can lead to cracking. Idiopathic leaking is commonly seen well before a case crack becomes an emergency. The moral of the story is to chase the source of the leak—any leak—before it gets out of hand. The same can be said for burning odors, engine stumbling, or any other system issue that gets your attention. Sometimes I wonder if pilots aren’t paranoid enough. Or maybe I’m too paranoid.
Avionics Warranties
New avionics almost always come with a two-year warranty and there’s no limit to how many hours you can fly them in that time period. But I’ve seen unhappy customers complain when a manufacturer wouldn’t cover a repair when a system was a month or less out of factory warranty. Again, it’s often up to the shop (a qualified dealer in good standing) to go to bat for the customer, but even the shop might not have leverage. It might cover the labor portion of the non-warranty repair, but not shipping costs and any fees charged by the manufacturer.
And even if a component is still under warranty, a claim might be denied if the manufacturer believes the owner was negligent. True and odd story I won’t forget: I once worked on a small twin that was chartered by several band members of Grateful Dead going to and from a performance. The aircraft came in the next morning because the avionics became contaminated with, according to the pilot, several exploding cans of Orange Crush soda. And man was it a mess—sticky soda everywhere, and a couple of the panel units, including a relatively new GPS, wouldn’t even turn on. A wild ride, and a long strange trip it was. But the manufacturer (a well-known one …) didn’t see the humor in the matter when it heard the story and flat-rated a non-warranty repair. The same might happen if you wipe the display lens of your big-screen display with a harsh solvent, trashing the coating. Preserve the warranty whenever possible. Additionally, if something fails during the warranty period, report it immediately and schedule to have it fixed under the warranty. If you wait until a day after the warranty expires, the seller can deny coverage. Most won’t, but they can.
A Chain Reaction
Then there is consequential damage and warranty matters. This is when a component fails and damages other things, such as the engine or the airplane, leaving the owner (paying the bill) questioning the extent of the warranty coverage. If a connecting rod made out of improper materials fails during the warranty period, there is no question that the warranty will pay to replace the rod. However, if the connecting rod failure trashes the engine, will the warranty pay for repairs to the entire engine or is that something to be paid for by the owner’s insurance? It depends on the warranty and the insurer. It’s a setup for a lawsuit, actually. Consider that most warranties cover the cost of repairs to a component that is found to be defective. If that component causes further damage to the engine or airframe, it’s usually up to someone other than the component’s manufacturer to pay for the consequential damage—like the insurance company.
In the end, unless you fly enough hours to make real use of a service time and flight hour-governed warranty, it makes more sense to concentrate on picking the right shop to stand behind the work and provide a high-quality job in the first place. Chances are, the warranty coverage may seem generous at the time, but it might not mean anything when something finally breaks.
Maintenance/overhaul shops rely on the power found in “positive perceptions.” If a well-known engine rebuilder fails an engine, whether in warranty or out, every other engine shop knows about it and is watching how the company deals with the problem. Fall short, and you’re labeled “going under.” Rise up well beyond what’s expected and it means they’re “scared of something.” Neither case may be valid, but bad news travels fast and poor perceptions are hard to reverse.
A good warranty administrator will know “what’s right” and no written statement will cover all the variables needed to make that decision. But when he does make that decision, everyone walks away knowing it’s fair, just, and defendable.
Aspen Avionics increased our warranty coverage for the MAX systems to three years. 🙂
I had Lycoming cylinder woes 2 years into a 3 year warranty, but triple the hour warranty. To it’s credit Penn Yan Aero covered the bad cylinders. That is customer service above and beyond.