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Poll...TFE 731 inflight shutdown

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LJ45

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 2, 2005
Posts
1,080
How many people have had to shutdown or had a TFE 731 fail?
How many hours with the TFE 731 before this happen?

I had my first yesterday at 3200 hrs. of flying with these types of engines.

Thanks,
 
gear_guy said:
Has'nt happened yet.:eek:

Lets hear the details

Climbing thru 16,000 in our Learjet 45, we got a high oil pressure caution, chip detect, smell of something burning and a loud grinding noise. All of this in about 15 seconds. Shut down the engine came back to our home base where we await a loaner engine. The engine is hard to rotate by hand and the chip detector is full of metal. Sounds like we lost the carbon seal and then the bearing very quickly.

Anyway, all worked out and felt like we were in sim. training.

OK, I corrected the spelling...should have ran spell check first
 
Last edited:
I've heard about the software problem in the N1 DEEC causing flameouts on idle power descents on the TFE731 but have only heard of a couple shut-downs for other reasons. NONE of the failures I have heard about were due to the core engine.

By the way, I just received an advisory wire announcing a software update for the N1 DEECS that solves the flameout problem.
 
I had a "fuel computer" problem that resulted in an engine run away at F410 in a Lear 35. The temp went to 920 and the N1 was racing away before we got it shut down. Sneeky little bugger started a slow temp and N1 increase for no reason. The PF and Captain I was flying with pulled back the throttle a little and that was all she wrote. I was told that is could have been nuematic icing...In anycase it was the last flight for the company before they ceased flight operations the following day.
 
h25b said:
I've heard about the software problem in the N1 DEEC causing flameouts on idle power descents on the TFE731 but have only heard of a couple shut-downs for other reasons. NONE of the failures I have heard about were due to the core engine.

By the way, I just received an advisory wire announcing a software update for the N1 DEECS that solves the flameout problem.


Used to fly a LR-35 with DEECS. Never had any kind of problem like you're talking about. Never had to shut one down either. I've only had one thing happen....and it was really f-ing weird!

Took off out of BTR one night, nasty weather everywhere. As we were climbing out through about 3000 feet or so, we felt the airplane yawing. Our freaking left engine would drop 40%, then come back up, drop 40%, come back up, drop, rise, drop, rise,......the entire drop/rise cycle lasted about 2 seconds each time it did it. CP and I were like, what the f-ck?? Hell, there's no checklist for that. Airplane was yawing, boss was wondering WTF we were doing.....:) Hell, we had no idea how to fix it, like I said, there's no checklist, and we didn't want to shut it down, because it was never anywhere out of limits on anything......it was just acting really f-ing weird. After scratching my head, I said 'Hey Ed, try turning off the fuel computer'. We did that, and it fixed the problem. So, we concluded it was a DEEC problem. We turned the DEEC back on at altitude and experienced no problems at all. When we got home, we had it looked at, and of course, they could find nothing at all wrong with anything. So we kept flying it, and it didn't do it again for about 8 flights. Then sure enough, there it was. Of course, once we turned off the FC switch it quit doing it, and once again, when we got back, they could find nothing wrong with the FC, engine, probes, wires, nothing. Right about then the engine was due for a hot section, so we charged Garrett in Augusta, GA with finding out what the hell was wrong, and after tearing down the entire engine, taking out the DEEC and running full diagnostics, changing out the temp probes, they STILL could find absolutely nothing wrong with anything. So we flew it home and sure enough about 4 or 5 flights later, it did it again. By then we just said f-ck it!!! We give up. Turn off the da-n FC when it does it. To this day, I have no idea what caused it, why it did it. It would never do it on takeoff, cruise, decent, landing, or anything. Only on initial climbout, through about 1000 to 4000 feet, good or bad weather, and it would quit doing it after we turned off the FC. And it would only do it once about every 8 or so flights. I don't think I'll ever know what the hell caused that!!! :) :) Weirdest thing I've ever seen.
 
Garrett's Grenade

4,500 flight hours in TFE-731 powered airplanes, 2 inflight failures ...

Lots of time in GE-CF-700, Pratt JTs, PT-6, and RR RB611 ... no other failures.

TransMach
 
When I was flying C-21's in the military, we had roll-backs on the TFE 731-2-2B's all the time. The engines would go to idle at all the most convenient times - during take-off roll, first turn in holding and so forth. After installation of the DEEC's the engines quit rolling back, they just quit instead.

GV
 
Had a 731 roll back on me a few years ago while on a short base in VFR.
Maintenance said it was a fuel controller problem.
 

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