Check and double check the AD?s. Those crankshafts are extremely expensive, and certain crankshafts for different size Lycoming were affected during a number of years.
I found out today from a friend of mine who has access to an oil man?s 1999 Cessna 182 with the 540 engine and only 700 hours TTAF&E that he later found out had been flying illegal all of this time. But the AD covered other size Lycoming engines as well. After going through many extensive annuals, often at 14k plus, come to find out this shop in Abilene, TX that had doing the annual for a number of years, and is supposed to be reputable, missed several important AD?s, with the crankshaft being the most costly.
Since it wasn't caught in time, it will now cost $21,000 just for the crankshaft alone for the 540 engine, and that doesn?t include labor.
This was only noticed because another shop gave the annual this year when the plane was moved closer to my hometown. The way I understand it, Lycoming would have fixed the crankshaft at no charge, or for $2k later on for a number of years, but somebody else would have had to supply the labor. There was a handful of other things that this A&P fixed as well, that made the engine run much better, all missed by the other shop.
It?ll be interesting to see if the Abilene shop is going to ante up $21k for the crankshaft, along with supply a mountain of free labor too, for missing this all of these years.
Right now this 200k plane is grounded. Also, if something was to have happened, insurance companies would not have paid out because the AD?s were not complied with.
