Jay H
New member
Repairing Garmin Etrex Vista
Has anybody either used a third party source to repair a Garmin GPS unit or has done it themselves?
I ask this because awhile ago, on a bike tour, I broke the click-stick of my Vista. I lost the nub thing but the stick itself worked fine. So, after returning home and finding Garmin's $125 flat fee to fix it (which right now is about 45% of the cost of a brand stinking new Vista), I fixed it myself by using a little pin and a hot stove to heat the pin up and stick it into what was left of the plastic nub underneath the rubber click-stick. Fast forward 2 years or so to this past weekend when it fell out the back of my car and the pin and the plastic thing broke off further.
OK, so I'm really thinking if I can figure out how to open the thing up, I might be able to fix it or if a third party would fix it for what it's worth to fix, then I might consider that. Thought I'd ask if anybody has ever tried to MacGuyver one of these things open. Don't care about the lack of waterproofness, if it gets wet or if it gets run over by a semi, I will then just send it back to Garmin in a plastic bag and say "Fix it!"
Jay
Has anybody either used a third party source to repair a Garmin GPS unit or has done it themselves?
I ask this because awhile ago, on a bike tour, I broke the click-stick of my Vista. I lost the nub thing but the stick itself worked fine. So, after returning home and finding Garmin's $125 flat fee to fix it (which right now is about 45% of the cost of a brand stinking new Vista), I fixed it myself by using a little pin and a hot stove to heat the pin up and stick it into what was left of the plastic nub underneath the rubber click-stick. Fast forward 2 years or so to this past weekend when it fell out the back of my car and the pin and the plastic thing broke off further.
OK, so I'm really thinking if I can figure out how to open the thing up, I might be able to fix it or if a third party would fix it for what it's worth to fix, then I might consider that. Thought I'd ask if anybody has ever tried to MacGuyver one of these things open. Don't care about the lack of waterproofness, if it gets wet or if it gets run over by a semi, I will then just send it back to Garmin in a plastic bag and say "Fix it!"
Jay
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