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Garmin Zumo 550 Repair Parts Source?

kantuckid

New member
I need the rubber piece that also serves as the ON/OFF switch cover/button. As it is there is no seal plus the rubber falls away and cannot turn unit on or off. I may try a quick fix of liquid rubber for now but that's not a good repair. Would like to self-repair with a new part rather than pricey send in to Garmin or buying a dead unit with older rubber too. HELP!!!
 
I would call Garmin and ask if they could sell you the piece you need. They just replaced my 3 year old Zumo for free...:thumb
 
I have read one comment on ADV rider that they were able to trade in their unit,i.e. do an exchange & got the price down while getting new rubber. When I get them to answer , I'll post the results.

I called Garmin(get something to read,etc.,when you do) & got the 1/2 price deal of $75 to exchange my unit for another thats been through their "process" & comes back with same maps installed & 90 day warranty. Couldn't get the girl to say they would sell me a rubber part. I pay shipping to them , they send it back in 10-14 days & instructional email states you usually get a different unit. Mine has 2010 NA maps & they want $50 for 2013 maps-how do you buy a 2013 map? Hard to envision that...
 
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Unless a Garmin unit is somewhat new (don't know what their cutoff is), if you send a GPS to them for "repair", they simply send you a refurbished unit in exchange. Your original unit may at some point get refurbished and added to their pool of refurbished units. All this for a price, of course.
 
A couple years ago I sent in a BMW version of the 550 that had died with the bubbled screen defect caused by a bunch of bad screens used in original manufacture. Got a different refurb back that was like new and has been trouble free since. I wouldn't hesitate to do this again if needed- its a pretty good deal.
 
Below is the link to the zumoforum. This is something everyone that has a Zumo should know about.

http://www.zumoforums.com

The link below is what I did on replacing the on/off button. Found this through the Forum above. Email them and see if they have anymore dummy display Zumo 550.
I order one when my button came off cost was not that much I did not want to spend $150.00 on something that might happen again in a short time. My Zumo was only 2 years old at the time. Before I got the dummy unit I found a rubber bumper that was the same size as the hole and fit snug but would slide in and out easy to turn on and off. The Zumo Forum has other ideas such as pencil eraser being used.

http://www.tvnav.com/

I no longer turn the Zumo use the on/off button unless it is not in the cradle. When in the car cradle I will unplug the charger and let it power down on its own.

The bike cradle is used between two bikes and have modifed the bike power cable. One bike I unplug the power and let it power down. The other is wire in to only have power when the key is on so it will power its self down when off.
 
I read those posts and asked for further info from zumoforum-see my recent post there. A pencil eraser is not to my mind a great fix for sealing an expensive electronic device. I would have siliconed or used liquid rubber to place the old button(which got lost anyway after a day on the truck console) back in the unit before using an eraser-They get hard in the house , let alone in the sun. Either way they have my $75 now. I hate stuff that doesn't fix with parts I install!:banghead
 
I would call Garmin and ask if they could sell you the piece you need. They just replaced my 3 year old Zumo for free...:thumb

Who do you know? I even mentioned my being a KC Royals Fan AND a Chiefs fan to the girl :kiss @ Garmin(they are near there in Lenexa,KS) & it got me not much...
 
Who do you know? I even mentioned my being a KC Royals Fan AND a Chiefs fan to the girl :kiss @ Garmin(they are near there in Lenexa,KS) & it got me not much...

I called Garmin and the guy was trying to to get my unit to work by having me do stuff on the computer. I'm not that computer savoy and he got frustrated and transfered me to a girl. The girl did not understand why he did the transfer, as she did not work in that area. She said I had not been treated fairly and she sent me a newly refurbished unit free. I said thanks...:thumb
 
Well ain't that a fine howdy do! I got to pay $75 because why...?:banghead:banghead:banghead I talked to her for a good while & it was like the $75 (half price) was a good deal & she had to get permission to do it! They need to be consistent!
Somebody @ the Sedalia seminar with Garmin guy there, needs to tell him that parts also need to be available when a rebuild isn't whats needed! These are high priced units & spending more for not much isn't cool!
FWIW: I got my "refurbished unit"(marked as such) back today. It is a different unit than the one I sent and has a new case,new screen, & new rubber on both sides & new serial #. The other thing I noticed immediately when booting it up is that when you are "keying in" letters & numbers for an address(had to put in my home address as its empty except for NA maps) it is a newer/better version that has all the alphabet/numbers on the screen at once, so much faster & convenient! Before you had to move back and forth to access all of them.
 
What you noticed is simply a menu choice in the software. Your old one proably did it too.
One change in the 550 software was that early BMW units (but not the non-BMW version) didn't have XM software as std. Later software updates have it and are easily installed on the early BMW models.

Yes I knew screens were available for about half thecost of getting a Gamin refurb and I've built enough electronics to be comfortable doing that sort of switch - but I could justify using my time, etc etc for the difference. Sure it would be nice if Garmin made small parts more freely available, though.

My major complaint is their too small built in memory despite the current low price of memory chips. At that pirce it ought to have several times as much memory as they install..

Germns have improved a fair amount recently. I've got a car unit bought for less than $200 at Costco that has better nav functions by far than the 550 though it lacks some of the bike specialty bits in the 550. I would prefer it for normal use anyway if it were waterproof. Te forthcoming 350 should have the nav improvments built in but I'm not springing for ny new and expensive bike uint.

I put a 220 on my female riding companions bike- its OK but lacks capability to store enough routes. OK for her since she's not a computer route planner but no where near adequate for me..
 
If the letters/numerals on one screen was a menu choice we never saw it as such & not in the menu on this unit. Why would anyone want them harder to find & requiring you to scroll forever to spell a word? The other choices like whom you want to quarrel with(Karen,etc.) are easily found in the menu.
I've replaced a lap top screen before & my 550 didn't need one but they, in particular are all over the web as a separate part from various sources but I never saw a source for other wearables such as the rubber that degrades from UV. It's a fact that there are cheaper units that do lots but lack weather resistance.
 
I agree with you about the default letters. They claim that as more convenient with gloves on but like you I think its too darn slow. I've got a 550 and a BMW version of the 550 so maybe there is some minor variation other than the original lack of XM on the BMW one.
Other Garmins have similar input issues. For example, I've got a car unit that will only pop up the correct town from a zip code input if thetown is in the state its set for. Not very bright- ought to be able to retrieve from the entire list with no issues. Other than that issue and the fact its not weatherproof its a better general purpose unit than the 550 by a big margin- and a lot cheaper.
 
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