I wonder if anyone else has had their Varia malfunction? Bought mine in '23 and it has worked well until yesterday when it stopped working and wouldn't turn on even though the battery had been fully charged with solid green charging light. I did a hard reset with the power button held for 8 seconds and plugged charger in again with no luck although on a couple occasions it would light up but only while charging (solid green light), unplugged it turned off. Garmin has some sort of exchange program for out of warranty at a price but they don't specify the fee (AI indicates $70 to $90) and I want to use it now rather than send it in so I took it apart not having much to lose since I'd buy another if I couldn't get it to work. Multimeter on the battery terminals read over 4v (3.8v spec battery). When I plugged the battery connector back into the circuit board it went back to working as usual. Not sure what the problem is or was other than guessing that the connection may have been loose. I won't be surprised if it stops working again but I'm hopeful it won't.
Garmin Varia 515 malfunction
- Thread starter EMGX
- Start date
fooferdoggie
Well-Known Member
Yes I have had 2 go bad after years of use. one was replaced with their out of warranty exchange.
Thanks for replying. Can you describe what the problems were with yours? Mine is out of warranty and besides my timeline for use I would have rather paid $150 for a new one than take a chance on a possible refurbished exchange from Garmin for $90 (if that is what they really charge). I also see $75 rear view radar with lights on Amazon with great reviews that I would probably buy instead of Garmin anyway. So far mine is working so I'm happy with that.
fooferdoggie
Well-Known Member
cant remember for sure but I think they would just not turn on.
stompandgo
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
I would buy a new one for $149 or upgrade to the RearVue 820, send yours in for exchange, and sell the exchanged unit.
My RTL510 was working fine before I sold it for $105.00.
My RTL510 was working fine before I sold it for $105.00.
I read that the Garmin out of warranty exchanges are refurbished units, not worth the trouble of trying to sell a refurb that I paid potentially $90 for when new are $149. The 820 looks like a nice higher spec unit but I'm happy with 515 performance so no need for an upgrade. Not to mention that I already disassembled and reassembled my 515 so return for exchange isn't feasible. Besides the possible loose battery connector to the curcuit board (only a guess) there is a tiny BMS on the battery so I wonder if disconnecting the battery from the circuit board allowed for a possible fault in the BMS to reset, again just a wild guess.
