Just found out some engine parts have a shelf life...

I was reading the maintenance manual for a Pratt & Whitney PT6 the other day and stumbled on a note that rubber seals and hoses in the engine can expire even if they've never been installed. They said a seal sitting in storage for 8 years is basically junk regardless of how it looks. Has anyone else run into a situation where old stock parts failed a test or caused a leak?

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finleyh892mo ago

Oh come on, is that really a thing? I've pulled 20 year old o-rings out of boxes that were still perfectly fine. Yeah, technically rubber degrades over time but in a controlled storage environment I bet most of that stuff is still good. I think manufacturers put those shelf life dates on there to cover their own backsides more than anything else. Unless you're storing parts in direct sunlight or a hot shed I wouldn't lose sleep over it.

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the_tessa2mo ago

Have you ever actually seen what happens when a 20 year old o-ring gets put under pressure though? That rubber might look fine sitting in a box but it gets brittle and loses its compression set over time. I've had seals fail on hydraulic systems that were stored indoors and they caused way more damage than the cost of just replacing them would have been.

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