I am thinking of buying a Diamond DA 40 and would like to get some idea of maintenance costs.
I have been told that the diesel engine is costly to maintain with the timed components – hoses, etc
I would be most appreciative if any owners could elaborate on the actual costs of ownership.
Regards John
You are talking about DA40… Can you be more specific on with one you are looking for ?
Diesel, (135hp, 155hp or 168hp) or Avgas (180hp).
Romain
Hi Romain,
I’m not sure of which engine type/power as I am still acquiring information to help with my final choice.
If you assist with any information with regard to maintenance costs I would be most grateful. Currently I have Permit to Fly aircraft and the maintenance costs are low and renewal through the LAA is £200 per year.
So before moving to a CofA aircraft I am trying to gather realistic information on costs.
Regards John
Hello John,
I have a DA40-180 (AVGAS) that I have owned since 2008 (a 2007 XL). Lovely airplane with G1000, TCAS, TAWS, GFC700 autopilot … and low maintenance costs, but regrettably I will be selling it quite soon.
I can let you have a lot of info – pls get in touch: my email address is on my profile
Regards,
Tom
While seven years ago I might have agreed that the Diesel engine aircraft tended to be more costly to run I now find the costs of maintaining them falling to a point that the lower fuel costs are makng the total cost of running the aircraft more or less equal to running an Avgas aircraft.
The reason for the fall in cost is that with operational experience the manufacturers have extended the life of parts such as gearboxes and driven bugs out of the softwear, also the maintenance people now understand how to troubleshoot using the downloaded engine data and understand the difference between a minor ECU brainfart and real issues.
The one note of caution I would give is that these aircraft don’t like sitting around doing nothing, so only buy one if you can see yourself using the engine hours during the calendar life of the engine.
Most of the engine I see are given a hard life by student pilots but run for a few hours each day, these engines give very few problems, and an engine in the hands of a careful private owner who uses the aircraft once or twice a week is likely to give even less trouble.
As usual the harshest critics of these engines are those who have the least to do with them.
I can let you have a lot of info – pls get in touch: my email address is on my profile
@DA40drvr it would help many others if you could post the main figures e.g. typical fuel burn at a given speed (IAS/TAS) and altitude, service costs (and whether done at a company), insurance (and the hull value)… A lot of people ask about this stuff and it would save you multiple emails.
The one note of caution I would give is that these aircraft don’t like sitting around doing nothing
What sort of issues would low usage cause? I would think the modern diesels would suffer a lot less from internal corrosion than the old Lycos etc.
Some figures:
8,000 ft, 141 ktas, fuel burn 8.0 USG / hr
Low down (3,000 ft) 135 ktas, 8.9 USG / hr
Insurance is £2,700 on hull value of £160,000
Annual costs – in every cast done by Diamond UK:
- last year [items required per 200 hours] was £2,453 plus VAT;
- 2014 was £1,969 plus VAT; 2013 was £1,919 plus VAT [in both cases 100 hours items]
(at each annual including FAA A&P sign-off at £450 + VAT)
Propeller + governor 6 year overhaul Feb-2014 cost £3,554 plus VAT
I note that it is N reg….presumably operated under Part 91…Was there a good reason for the six year prop overhaul? Or is it s life-limited part on a DA40?
The one note of caution I would give is that these aircraft don’t like sitting around doing nothing, so only buy one if you can see yourself using the engine hours during the calendar life of the engine.
Which I think means 100 hrs per year minimum, or a little more depending on the specific turbo-diesel engine, no?
What sort of issues would low usage cause? I would think the modern diesels would suffer a lot less from internal corrosion than the old Lycos etc.
I seem to remember reading that submitting a routine engine parts order requires some kind of statement about the engine, and there are no PMA parts from alternate suppliers. Will the manufacturer sell parts for a diesel that is over calendar TBR, with low time in service? If they won’t, I think that would ‘encourage’ an engine replacement every 12 years.
When buying into ownership of anything for which you are totally sole sourced for ‘support’ over decades of future service, I think you need to understand all service issues very carefully, Garmin products are another good example.
I ran a 135hp diesel between 2008 and 2016, flying 70h per year. Unfortunately I didn’t keep records of maintenance cost, but it was between 2 and 4 thousand EUR annually, depending on things that required replacement.
