Servicing Oyster Satellite systems - anyone done it themselves?

[Feltwell]

My van has a Oyster Vision satellite system, very rarely used as we're not really telly people when on holiday - it was fitted by a previous owner, no doubt at great expense!

We're hanging onto it though as once or twice, when the weather has been really bad, we've been glad of it to entertain the kids.

However - whilst it works OK it sounds pretty painful when it's moving about, lots of creaking and groaning, worse than me! It sounds like the gears are dry. Makes a noise when turning in one direction, but not the other. Never having been a fan of paying other people to do things I can do without too much pain myself, before I start taking it apart, has anyone else had a go at this or has anyone else got servicing instructions?

Conrad Anderson say this - mine probably needs the full service, but I'm not going to shell out £200 + parts + VAT on something non-essential that I very rarely use!

We recommend the following service intervals for all Oyster systems:

From brand new – If making plastic squeaking noises on elevation – Vaseline on bottom of the black cone on underside of LNB arm and the casing where it rests. This is something you can do yourself.

Oyster Vision LNB Arm with cone resting in track to be vaselined

The rest of the service intervals need to be performed by ourselves or an authorised Oyster dealer.

Up to 3 years old – if it makes grinding noises when spinning or elevating – grease the cogs

Over 3 years old – Annual visual check of the insides to look for broken seals, any damage to cogs and pins. Charged at hourly rate of £54 inc VAT plus any parts that may be required.

Over 5 years old – Full service, change LNB and main bearing check. Price: £200 + parts, based on 4 hours labour.

 

[tonyidle]

I've had one apart. There's nothing in there to frighten you off. You need to remove the dish and arm so note where it's parked then remove the bolts under the black caps. Note which side the spacer falls out of then place the dish to one side. The upper and lower plastic housings are removed after undoing the obvious screws. I'd use a Moly-based grease to lubricate the gears / bearings. Reassembly is, as they say, the reverse of dismantling but take care to tighten the dish pivot bolts only when the dish is positioned as it was when you removed it.. Throughout the process take care not to trap or stretch the coax.

 

[Bailey58]

I've had one apart too when I added a dual LNB and second feed for the Sky+ box. As @tonyidle said, nothing in there to worry you.

 

[Feltwell]

Great - good to hear. The iPad will be in use as usual, it's so useful being able to take pictures as you take something apart to remind you what goes where on re-assembly!

Another question - picture quality has always been a bit mediocre on the system, certainly not as good as a normal terrestrial picture - is this normal? If not, I understand the LNB is the first thing to try changing and they are relatively cheap, is that right?

I'm rather a Luddite with telly - even at home we've just got a normal aerial & freeview, no monster size telly, cable or satellite. There's a sky box in the van but we just pick up whatever channels are free, don't bother with a card. The system only got used for about 2 hours last year - normally we want to get the kids away from screens!

 

[Feltwell]

Well, I took it apart, easy enough job except that someone (the original fitter I suspect) had sealed the main casing down to the baseplate with silicone sealant. Did yours have this? The design makes that look unnecessary.

Gears were pretty dry, the top bearing outer race had popped out and the seal between the top rotating case and bottom fixed case was totally shot, so worth doing. Runs a lot quieter now but still squeals a bit when rotating anti-clockwise - I'll need to have it apart again to put a new seal in anyway so I'll take the motor out next time, see if a bit of lubrication there finally makes it silent.

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