I mentioned in an October
blog post that one of the biggest reliability issues we were having that was specific to the SR22T was with the oil cooler flange cracking. This is due to the existing oil separator being attached to this flange and applying excessive fatigue loads.
We had identified this area as a good place for a potential redesign at the start of production because it was difficult to access, and had potential chafing issues. With other priorites in Engineering we didn't focus on it for about a year. As fate would have it, it took a year or so before the fatigue cracks grew to the point they were noticable on the flange and we began to get reports from the field. We then put a production fix in place replacing the existing oil separator with an Andair separator which mounts completely differently and also provides more access.
All the parts are now in place to fix the airplanes in the field.
SB2X-71-19 provides the necessary instructions to replace the separator and prevent future oil cooler cracking.
