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Just found out how much a DME antenna actually costs new
Was looking up a part number for a 737-800 and stumbled on the price for a new DME antenna. $4,200 for a piece of plastic and some copper. Boss laughed when I asked about ordering one instead of repairing the old one. Has anyone else had to justify a repair vs replace on these things?
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the_charlie1mo agoTop Commenter
Shook my head reading that. $4,200 for something that's basically a glorified circuit board in a plastic shell. I had the same laugh with my lead mechanic when we priced a new static discharge wick. $600 a pop for a piece of carbon fiber and a wire. We ended up repairing three old ones with epoxy and a soldering iron. Saved the company a couple grand but took all afternoon.
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lindaowens28d ago
Right there with you. Had a similar thing happen with an old air compressor at the shop last year. The replacement control module was $3,800 and they said three weeks to ship. We cracked it open, found a cracked solder joint on the power relay. Cost us ten minutes with a flux pen and a cheap iron from Harbor Freight. Company wanted to buy a whole new unit for almost twenty grand, we fixed it for basically nothing. It just makes you wonder how many "broken" machines end up in a landfill over a two dollar part.
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ray3631mo ago
Feel the same way @the_charlie, it's wild how much they charge for stuff that's basically a few common parts in a fancy box. I had a similar thing with a furnace control board at my shop last month, they wanted $1100 for a new one. I opened it up and it was just a bad capacitor, cost me like 3 bucks and 10 minutes with a soldering iron. These companies know most people can't or won't fix stuff, so they just jack up the price and call it a day. Glad to hear you guys saved the company some money, even if it took an afternoon. That's the kind of stuff that keeps the boss happy and the equipment running.
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