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Requirement To Send Oil Sample to Austro for 100 hr Service

Posted: Tue May 14, 2019 12:29 am
by ultraturtle
Obnoxious copy of a separate post in the DA62 Forum, I thought you all might like to know...
CFIDave wrote: Tue Jun 05, 2018 12:09 am ...after you pay all the international shipping to send an oil sample to Austro Engine in Austria, they never bother to get back to you with any results.
To clarify, the sample sent to Austro gets analyzed, and if there is an issue, they get back to you with recommendations. If not, you hear nothing. I'm at the Diamond Canada facility right now taking the DA42 Austro course, and made my displeasure with this lack of communication clear.

Please understand that if you choose to send a sample to an outside analyst for feedback, it is in addition to, not replacement of the requirement to send the sample to Austro. Not sure of the warranty implications, but would lean heavily toward sending the samples for at least the first 3 years. Personally, I will send them every time, since Austro knows their engines better than Blackstone does.

Re: Requirement To Send Oil Sample to Austro for 100 hr Service

Posted: Tue May 14, 2019 3:10 am
by CFIDave
As one who has owned an Austro-engine twin for 6 years (DA42-VI and now a DA62), I wouldn't bother sending oil samples to Austria, especially if Austro Engine purposely will not provide you ANY feedback on your samples. In contrast, I've been using Blackstone for years, and they provide VERY DETAILED chemical analysis of ALL your oil samples, quantifying each of the metal and other contaminant levels. They even provide a nicely written text summary (in English) of your results, comparing them to your previous oil reports. IMHO, it's important to establish a baseline set of measurements so that you have a point of comparison for your future oil reports to see trends.

The idea that Austro knows more about diesel engine oil analysis than Blackstone is difficult to believe, since Blackstone has also been providing engine oil analysis for auto, truck and non-aviation diesel engines. After all, Austro aircraft engines are really Mercedes OM640 car engines with the same chemistry using the same automotive synthetic oils.

Re: Requirement To Send Oil Sample to Austro for 100 hr Service

Posted: Wed May 22, 2019 7:46 pm
by neema
We're past our warranty. Plenty of issues that we're paying for now out of pocket (injectors, timing chains, wastegates). Will switch to US based oil analysis on our next oil change so we can see meaningful evidence of what's going on rather than trudge on unknowingly.

Might be helpful to do this with gearbox oil too. If you have one go south on you, it can take our a prop governor, too (same oil). This happened to us. Thankfully it was still (barely) under warranty. Might be good to keep a closer eye on it.

Re: Requirement To Send Oil Sample to Austro for 100 hr Service

Posted: Wed May 22, 2019 8:28 pm
by CFIDave
neema wrote: Wed May 22, 2019 7:46 pmMight be helpful to do this with gearbox oil too. If you have one go south on you, it can take our a prop governor, too (same oil). This happened to us. Thankfully it was still (barely) under warranty. Might be good to keep a closer eye on it.
Sending in gearbox oil (in addition to engine oil) for analysis is not a bad idea, even though it's possible to examine the little gear oil filter (used on newer Austro gearboxes) and gearbox magnetic drain plug for debris. I recently became aware of a DA40NG that went into the shop for its routine 300 hour servicing, during which they found a gear "tooth" captured by the magnetic drain plug. There were otherwise no symptoms that made it obvious to pilots flying the plane that one of the gear teeth inside the gearbox had broken off -- the engine and prop were operating normally. The plane was 18 months old, so Diamond supplied a new $9500 gearbox under warranty.

Re: Requirement To Send Oil Sample to Austro for 100 hr Service

Posted: Sun Jan 05, 2020 2:33 am
by Davestation
I've had Diamond contact me multiple times after sending in a sample saying that there was something suspicious in the findings, so at least I do know that they are monitoring it. No news is good news here.

Re: Requirement To Send Oil Sample to Austro for 100 hr Service

Posted: Sun Jan 05, 2020 5:49 am
by Boatguy
Davestation wrote: Sun Jan 05, 2020 2:33 am I've had Diamond contact me multiple times after sending in a sample saying that there was something suspicious in the findings, so at least I do know that they are monitoring it. No news is good news here.
Would you please expand on that information? You're saying you continue to send them samples after the warranty period and on multiple occasions they have flagged problems?

Which airplane? How many hours? What kind of problems did they flag and how did you proceed to resolve them?

Re: Requirement To Send Oil Sample to Austro for 100 hr Service

Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2020 4:37 pm
by Davestation
Boatguy wrote: Sun Jan 05, 2020 5:49 am
Davestation wrote: Sun Jan 05, 2020 2:33 am I've had Diamond contact me multiple times after sending in a sample saying that there was something suspicious in the findings, so at least I do know that they are monitoring it. No news is good news here.
Would you please expand on that information? You're saying you continue to send them samples after the warranty period and on multiple occasions they have flagged problems?

Which airplane? How many hours? What kind of problems did they flag and how did you proceed to resolve them?

I have no insight as to what changes after warranty expires - my understanding is that they monitor the samples regardless of warranty status: whether or not they pay for the discrepancies they find is a separate issue. Continuing to do trend analyses helps them with increasing the TBO on the engine over time.

Sorry, I don't remember specifics on what they found either - it's been a while. Most of the time and especially when it was a low time aircraft they would find something suspicious but not apocalyptic and would simply say to take another sample in 50 hours to see if it improves or gets worse. The second round would be fine, indicating that the first was just a fluke. The times I do remember actually having to do something were all related to the gearbox - the second sample would be worse or at least show no improvement, so they'd advise us to replace the gearbox entirely (although usually you can figure that out by just seeing significant amounts of metal on the collector).