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Reliability of VANS engine gauges.

Arie

Well Known Member
Good day guys
I am interested to find out how reliable the VANS engine gauges are. I know of the issue with the manifold pressure guage that over-reads when transmitting, but beside that ,are they prone to failure or is it a hit and miss affair.
Your experience with them will be appreciated.
 
I have changed the Tac. sender, the MAP gauge , the oil pressure gauge and sender, and the volt gauge in 800 hrs of flight. Considering their cost VS the other options, I am not un-satisfied with them, and would rather change a $45 gauge every few years then buy a $300 certified gauge.
 
Vans gauges

I have had two failures of the Oil pressure gauge/sender in 5 years, approx 400 hours. I just replaced them with an real direct reading pressure gauge. I?ll take my chances with a tiny oil line in the cockpit. I built my plane with a standard Manifold pressure gauge, So no sender issues there either.
 
Accuracy

May be good to know how accurate the gauges are in addition to the reliability.
 
870 hrs and still ticking

I have all the standard vans engine gages and bar one fuel level sensor, no failures or complaints. I believe one of the biggest determinates of gauge life is vibration! At least biannual dynamic balance or a balance master. YMMV
 
Gauges

Tacho was under reading by about 150 rpm......dangerous when you have a sensenich FP.

Oil pressure now reads high, if tapped goes back to proper reading.

As someone sai vibration will kill them quickly.
 
A voltmeter died during Phase One.
Fuel pressure gage got replaced after 2,000 hours.
EGT started acting after 3,000 hours.
All the rest of standard stock Vans dials are still operational well past 4,000 hours. :)
 
Put this in perspective !

Think about the hours you spent in a C150 or C172. If it didn’t quit you were good ��
 
Full set of vans gages have been working for over 800 hours with no issues, except a burnt out light bulb. My frequent check of accuracy, being an engineer, with alternate sources I have within other instruments (mostly my flight data recorder that uses independent source data) has shown very good consistency.
 
Vans Ammeter

My only Van's gauge is my (secondary) ammeter (charge/discharge type, center reads zero). I've had two of these Van's ammeter gauges fail on my RV-10. In both cases, the ammeter gauge worked OK for a while (perhaps 100-200 hours), then started intermittently oscillating and/or showing full (40amp) charge when I know darn well the correct indication is zero.

I have not bothered to replace the second failed Van's gauge, as my EFIS has a (reliable) alternator current and bus voltage display.
 
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