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RE: oil temp probe !!??

fstringham7a

Well Known Member
RE: oil temp probe !!??

Long story short my third oil probe from GRT is bad!!!! And my original probe from Dynon (single wire) never was stable even after a rework of the ground system to beef it up? First GRT probe died on it's first flight ( July 2011) as temp climbed it dropped to 15 degrees and there it stayed. Second GRT probe lasted a year but a couple of weeks ago it gave up the ghost by going to 16 degrees and alternating between correct oil temp and 16 degrees depending on how hot the oil was. High oil temp back to 16 ..... Then when the oil temp reached a magic lower temp it would go back to reading a seemingly correct oil temp. So last week GRT sends out the third probe. Wired it up ..... Turned on the Dynon D120 .... Recalibrated it to the correct # 3 setting ..... Outside air temp 90 oil temp 63 ..... You have got to be kidding me??? No such luck, after trouble shooting the probe with GRT tech's it was determined that their latest greatest probe that supposedly fixed the problems of the previous batch that went dead on me was also pronounced dead. They are now sending out a fourth probe that they benched tested to make sure it was reading correctly. It might arrive by Thursday. Great just two days beyond my scheduled family trip to Oregon when I planned to leave tomorrow?..:mad: So a call to Dynon to see if they have a better probe for the D120 than my original 2009 model. Their tech folks told me they did not. They said they are aware of the problem but they have been putting their efforts into the Skyview latest greatest. Wow and I thought my D100/D120 was the latest greatest. :eek:He admitted that they should give us ancient monitor guys a break and come up with a better oil probe especially considering we are going to a competitor to find a solution that in the end at least for me hasn't been very satisfactory. He said they need to get a two wire solution for us D120 folks but can't promise when that will be. He did say he was going to put in a request with the big guys in the front office to turn them loose to fix this but again who knows when that will be........

So short story long ..... Here I sit waiting on a probe instead of excitingly getting all my stuff together for a trip long planned and highly anticipated. But that is the life of an experimenter!!!!!!'!!!!!!!!!'!!!!!!!!!
 
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Hey Frank,

I have had two GRT oil probes die on me. The first one lasted about 40 hours, then the second one lasted 50 hours. Here is how I had the temp sensor probe wire secured for the first two probes:

DSCN2357.JPG


GRT's recommendation was I secure the wire closer to the sensor. Well there ain't too many places closer to the sensor to secure it to, so I needed to get creative and secure it to the tach cover:

DSCN2373.JPG


Hopefully securing the sensor wire this way will elongate the life of the probe.
 
my GRT probe came up wounded some hours ago. I've been waiting for a new one to arrive but they may have screwed the order due to missing staff. I guess I shouldn't get too excited.

Mine fails intermittently either showing a reasonable temp or a way too low temp. I pulled it, stuck a meter on it and played around with it and some hot water. While it continued to work intermittently, it didn't seem to be from wire support or fatigue. I couldn't cause it to fail or work by wriggling the wires or even shaking it. It just flipped on and off "randomly". Very strange.

Bill Watson
 
Bill,

My probe started to fail intermittently at first as well. It didn't fully fail until I wiggled the wire where it attaches to the oil temp sensor. I also noticed the glue that they use to hold the sensor in the brass housing was cracked, and the sensor was working itself out. I can't help but think vibrations had something to do with this.

jetdriver said:
No firesleeve on that oil cooler hose?
Nope and don't plan on it. Hoses were from Van's FWF kit.
 
Bill,

"My probe started to fail intermittently at first as well. It didn't fully fail until I wiggled the wire where it attaches to the oil temp sensor. I also noticed the glue that they use to hold the sensor in the brass housing was cracked, and the sensor was working itself out. I can't help but think vibrations had something to do with this."
In looking at the pictures of your probes they look like my first two probes with a black material to hold the probe wires that are probably passsing through a hole in the metal cap.

The latest one has little to no metal cap and has a gray potting material to hold the wires. As mentioned above it didn't work out of the box!!!!!

When the fourth one arrives I will temporarily wire it up and check it to see if it will give a good temp compared to the outside air temp on the Dynon. I will then make it more secure so the wire has less chance at the connection point to the probe to vibrate. Stay tuned!!!!!!

This all might be a big conspiracy to keep me out of Oregon Airspace by the mother ship.....My destination is 7S9 which is very near Van's.
 
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Oil Temp. probe

I also have had 3 bad Dynon probes fail (they need to address this problem) have 2nd thoughts about Skyview??
Now have a 2 wire GRT probe, only 5hrs. on it, keep fingers crossed.
 
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