Is a MTH TIU worth repairing?

We very much live in a disposable society these days.  The TIU has a $200 MSRP, and large dealers typically sell them for $160-$170. 

Perhaps figure $75-$100 in labor costs, then you're left with parts.  Plus shipping if you can't get it fixed locally.  Not sure how readily parts would be available for fixing it.  Maybe the MTH tech guys here on the forum could provide better insight.

If you need to get a TIU up and running quickly, I'd bite the bullet and buy a new one.

David

One other thing to add to Rocky Mopuntaineer's post, if you have an older version TIU, there are some new added benefits to the latest version REV L units. One more thing to consider when thinking about repairs, especially if you were having any problems with the older units that could possibly be eliminated with the new REV L's.

I believe forum member GGG (and possibly others) repairs TIU's, maybe they will see this and comment.

It depends on what's wrong with it.  There are common parts that can be easily replaced.  I also do MTH repairs.

Good to know, I didn't realize you were doing repairs for others from the forum now?

The answer could differ depending on whether these are original issue Rev G's that were not in under warranty for a component upgrade, or recent Rev L's, or where in between.  If one of mine (2 original issue upgraded Rev G and 1 Rev H) had a problem that could be fixed for $45-$50, I'd get it repaired.   If the fix were $135, I'd replace it.

Well its obvious if the repair cost would be well over $100 to repair it's just better to replace, but has anyone actually had one repaired to tell us what the usually cost might be, or what the worst case scenerio would cost? I think that this is going to be a big thing in the future as just in our area I know several different people with problem TIUs who replaced with new, but are interested in repairing the old ones to use as a spare. Also who besides MTH repairs them, our local MTH repair center, just says buy a new one, they don't repair them.

GGG, are you sure you were addressing that comment to me?  My lone post was addressed to the question in the subject. 

If even one of my original Rev G's went bad and could be fixed for $45-50, I'd get it repaired.

RJR, I think GGG was referring to the post by algomafan85.

algomafan85, there are 2 good tech's (also good forum members here) in this thread who stated they both repair TIU's, see above. I think your comment on purchasing a new one and repairing an older one for back-up is a good idea. I have a current Rev L TIU, but might just consider that myself if mine ever needs repair.

Speaking as someone who HAS had a TIU repair, I can attest that, at least in my case, it WAS worth it.  My repair came to $50.  They aren't expensive to ship, and MTH turned it around in around a week.    Unless it's completely trashed (which is doubtful), I suspect around $50-60.  

I also took the opportunity to by a second one (LNIB) because when they do fail, at least in my case, my layout is a static display.  Mine failed around the holidays, when every hobby shop and MTH get jammed up with repairs.

Maybe time to buy a new one, club stuff gets a lot of use.

last night I turned my layout on and nothing no lights on the tiu. under the table I went noticed the MTH wire feeding #1 constant was alittle melted mind you only power feed I have at the moment. tapped the tiu it came on. looks like something heated up and separated inside the tiu. replaced the melted wires. pulled the 2nd and 3rd level off of the feeds for the layout coming from #1 going to run them off of #2 constant separating them out. I might have been pulling too many amps on just one power source.   need to get it fixed now

 312 ft of track

Hard to say what went wrong with it, but melting a wire going to one channel sure sounds like more than 10 amps!  What size was the wire?

here's what I was using only melted the ground side at the connector . in all honesty probably my fault. 4 passenger trains on the layout no LED's and the yard with about 6 engines sitting on but not running. I bet it happened when I tried to run a lashup of 3 engines 2 sd90's and a sd40t2 they kept kicking the breaker on my 135 watt brick.

I was to lazy to separate the layout into different channels all I had to do was move one piece of track and disconnect a few drops and move them to the other channel. I have a 180 watt brick for that channel like I said my fault

Well, there's no way of knowing exactly what the situation is without looking at it.

here's my thoughts buy a new one send this one out to get fixed then I have a way to separate it out to even more channels. I need to figure out how to be able to switch the whole layout to be conventional too. and need to get the yard isolated and the sidings isolated so that the passenger train cars are not on all the time . doing the yard is a matter of pulling out the dremel and cutting the center rail as I have the drops already ran for them .

Remove TIU cover and check to see if the nuts holding the internal wires are loose.  You may have generated a hot spot besides the high current you were running.

Interesting that the 180 did not trip.  G

maybe time for John's LED conversions LOL but $454.00 for the conversion is out of my budget right now to do all 26 cars and that doesn't include the passenger train on the shelves

Cheaper if you do your own wiring and don't buy the complete kits, just the lighting modules.   You could do the 26 cars for less than $300.  If you do more soldering, you can actually wire the LED's for much less, the component parts for one car only cost about $3.

The PH135 should have tripped before wires melted, it has a 7 amp breaker.  It's not a super-fast breaker, but on a massive overload it should go.