Friday, July 20, 2012

Repairing a Garmin Edge 500

OK - so last Monday on the TNP ride, I got a little crazy. Ended up on the ground. Biggest thing was that when I went down I plainly remember my hand going from the brake lever across the bars and hitting my Garmin. knocking it off the bike. Well.... it came off and still works - but it broke the mounting tabs off the bottom.

The Tabs..


The problem is now it will no longer stay on the bike.. those tiny little tabs are what keep it in place. Turns out this is a more common problem with them the tabs breaking off after I did a Internet search. If your unit is less than a year old and it wasn't wrecked - there is a chance you can get it warrantied. Mine is out of warranty... so after checking around it is $90 in the US to get if fixed. Which consists of sending the unit back and getting a newly refurbished unit back.  Now this is where my cheapness kicked in... if it's $90 to send it back because it broke - I might as well try to fix it first... what am I out - just the time I spend trying to fix it and whatever supplies I buy.

Doing research on Loctite's website for the best adhesive - this is what I used.....

The package says after 24 hours it can be filed, drilled, and worked. So we shall see.

The mix....

And applied to the Garmin...

I let it dry for 24 hours (just... because I had a ride I wanted to use if for that night). I first filed the blobs flat with the round cam... and it filed nicely. Next I filed the tab shapes (a dremel works fine here). Now I had to notch them. The file didn't want to do this to easily - so I took a hack saw blade and made the grooves - then went back with the file and made them a little wider.

The finished product....


I have since used the computer now 5 times over the last 10 days and took it on and off probably 100 times - showing everyone, and I don't transport my bike with it on. Still looks good. Actually when I filed the tabs I kept fitting it into the Garmin bike mount and I made sure to leave it on the tight side, as compared to the factory fit.

 So for $6 at Lowes - you can repair this your self. Get the resin, spend 5 minutes cleaning the Garmin and applying the resin, let it sit 24 hours. File it to fit the mount. Back in business. Worst case is that is still costs $90 to send it back to Garmin as a broken unit.




11 comments:

  1. Nice post. I have the exact same issue. I think I'll give this a try.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would like to know from Fast Freddy how the original repaired unit is holding up.

      Delete
  2. Thank you Fast Freddy!!!
    1. I used the same glue. It was hard to find it locally, Lowes did not have it either. ABC hardware has a glue with their name that looks very similar, however knowing that Loctite is excellent I ordered it through Amazon at a very good price.
    2. The cleaning of the surface is key. I used brake cleaning fluid (you can get it in any autopart store), removes grease, drys pretty fast and leaves no residue. Alcohol is OK but not as good. I used a cotton tip to do the work
    3. I did all the work with a Dremel with a cut off wheel. You can do the groove and the notch with one of the small grinding bits.
    4. Have in front of you the mounting plate so you can use it to test it as you mold it. I had the k-edge that requires only one notch.

    The edge 500 now looks and works great. Thanks again Fast Freddy, you save me $250. I would have never had the present one fix it for $90 and no extended warranty, I would have bought a new one and have one year warranty. BTW this is the second broken (the first was covered by the warranty). Great computer with a major flaw that Fast Freddy has helped us to solve.

    -=terry=-

    ReplyDelete
  3. I just broke one of two mounting tabs. Your solution looks nice! I will give it a try. THANKS!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Update, I came across some extra garmin shells to replace the broken ones with, email me if interested. Fastfreddyfour at yahoo dot com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Freddy, This just happened to my son. The Garmin still works great but they want to charge us $89 to replace the whole unit....but we only need the back mount. Please let me know where I can buy a Garmin shell. we use it for a few different bikes so we wanted a fix that brings it back to original ...incase we decided to sell it :)
      thanks!

      Delete
    2. Hi Freddy,
      Same thing happened to my Edge 500 today. Can you e-mail me at mcnally.ed@gmail.com and let me know where I can get my hands on a replacement shell?

      Cheers, Ed

      P.s. Impressive handy-work with the epoxy.

      Delete
  5. Hi Freddy, can you email me a cmcoote at gmail dot com ? I need a shell and can't find any :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Just done the exact same thing - will give this a try. Also interested in the extra shelks though, will drop you a mail. Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  7. Use these guys www.dogearsgps.com.. its a aluminum plate that replaces platic tabs

    ReplyDelete