I'm intending to assist a LAME to change the door seal in my aircraft and I've just bought a "genuine" seal.

Are there any traps we should be aware of?

Is it necessary/desirable to remove the door to do the job?

It has occurred to the old adhesive might be difficult to remove and the underlying paint might be unduly damaged if we try too hard to remove it.

Any traps?

Thanks.

Hi Everyone,

I've just been through an interesting trouble shooting period to work out why my CO Guardian has been giving an alarm indication on takeoff. (This has been occurring since I first had it installed!).

As the exhaust system checked out OK I presumed the fault was with the CO detector. Wrong. The problem got worse. Luckily my LAME had a sophisticated hand-held air analyser and he measured 40PPM of CO on takeoff today, with a reduction of oxygen to 19%

The door seal was changed and this has stopped the CO detector from alarming. A subsequent flight test showed no CO entering the cabin.

The lessons:

(1) Believe your CO alarm, even though you can't smell the CO and you don't become unconscious(!)
http://www.guardianavionics.com/products.html

(2) It seems normal (for Ovations anyway) to be subject to exhaust flows near the cabin door due to the flow pattern around the fuselage. I believe the air pressure in the cabin may be less than ambient, at least at some stages of flight (I can't prove this though).

(3) Buy a genuine Mooney replacement door seal (I bought mine from LASAR in California for $144.) The first one I bought from Aircraft Spruce was unsuitable because it fitted to the door sill, not the door.

(4) It seems my door seal became unserviceable after about 7- 8 years. It had lost it's elasticity and had become compressed and hardened which allowed exhaust gas to enter through the door at the front hinge. Use a clean tissue to "swab" around the door sill to check for a "grey" exhaust deposit.See if you can pull a sheet of paper through the gap in the seal.

How's your seal?