Originally posted by scottike Thanks to everyone for the guidance in this thread. My K30 had developed the aperture solenoid failure, even with AA batteries, so I bought a busted *ist and salvaged the coils. The repair went off without a hitch and my K30 is back in action. There is no way I would have solved this issue without the community's help!
Your first aperture failures started some month ago in April, yes?
So you went for the AA solution which worked for a while but now failed.
Did you use a lot of live-view?
Photographers who do a lot of burst-shooting use usually live-view because the mirror is always open in LV and thus one achieves more shots.
What I'm after is if the question if this continuous release of the horseshoe of the solenoid during LV might add to the problem.
If one studies the way this horseshoe is moved and which forces work on it, it is clear, there is a strong force from the right side which will
tilt the horseshoe slightly. When it moves back into the inside of the housing of the solenoid, it will push against the left-side inner walls, create
more friction onto the plastic there. As I mentioned in previous posts: Investigating the difference of the green versus the white solenoid I noticed
more play with all green solenoids and a smoother sliding of the horseshoe within the housing. This was obvious to me with now quite a few white solenoids versus green solenoids. With the addition of a rougher surface of the material of some green solenoid-horseshoes (two had slight kind of corrosion) this could well be the cause of the problem: Basically cheaper materials plus less presice manufacturing.
Originally posted by scottike Now I'm on the lookout for failed K30/K50's on ebay so I can find a home for the second white solenoid
Well, don't forget, the green solenoid sits also in the K500, K-S1, K-S2 and K70.
We have the first K70's failing in Germany! One person I know personally, but the choice was repair on warranty, which I understand. I even had offered to repair it for free because I could then present photos.