SR 20 Question

What upgrades are avialable for older SR20’s that devour vacuum pumps, landing lights and overheat?

For vacuum pumps, try replacing the (failed) Airborne pump with a Champion brand. I believe there is also an STC for a cooling shroud that is supposed to fix the vacuum pump problem, but since replacing the Airborne pump with a Champion, we’ve had no further failures.

Similarly, for the landing light, try a different brand - can’t offer any specific recommendations but I’m told that there are automotive-grade units that will fit. There is also an Service Bulletin for a modified landing-light mounting.

For cooling, if you have a problem (our SR20 doesn’t) there is a Service Bulletin for an optional vented closeout panel which is supposed to reduce oil temps by 4F.

We’ve devoured 6 vac pumps so far without a clearly defined cause. In April we installed the Adroit cooling shroud. It dropped the pump temperature near the outlet port by ~25 degrees C. Airborne indicates this should be helpful.

We’ve installed the service bulletin modified landing light mount. So far we have not had a single bulb failure in 200 hours! A big improvement from the 10-20 hours between failures we were experiencing before.

A Version 2.X SR20 or an SR22 :slight_smile:

You can also get a new lower cowl with an HID landing light (no filament to burn out) located in the center below the prop. Moving the light entirely out of the cowl opening also helps lower temps., so you solve the light and the heating probs at once.

Adroit Aeronautics in Seattle has STC’s for a modified landing light mount and a cooling shroud on the vacuum pump. They’re not as elegant as the new lower cowl, but the two together will cost you less than $1,000. A fellow Cirrus owner is still waiting for a price for the new lower cowl, and doesn’t think it’s going to be cheap.

I have both on my SR20. The landing light mod is terrific, and even produces less glare in the prop than the factory installation. The vacuum pump cooling shroud is fairly new, so I don’t have many hours in hot weather on it. Time will tell.

You can contact Adroit at 253-988-0009 and speak with Vince Roux.

Michael