I suspect the issue here is that Socata will never officially announce they have stopped making anything.
It took them about 4 years (2006) to admit they stopped making the TB range. And still they delivered some planes with 2003 paperwork, even some 2004 and I think 1 which was 2005 or 2006 (discussed here) which was actually 2002 but they took it back and regenerated the paperwork.
And until Socata state officially they are out of the parts business, in specific areas, nobody is going to tool up for making the stuff. Airframe parts are often a lot of work.
Such is the beauty of the classic Piper Cub and it’s younger brother the Super Cub. Piper long since stopped making any parts. However you can buy all the bits to make a new Super Cub from Univair and on many parts you have a choice of other suppliers as well. The UK CAA certainly accept these parts without question. The Super Cub is Annex 2
There is more evidence from owners that Socata no longer make or supply major airframe parts e.g. landing gear components.
If you need some of these you either scrap your plane (and part it out) or try to obtain them from another parted-out TB.
It’s not a good situation but probably similar to many other GA types.
A good incentive to look after your plane 
I wrote to Socata to clarify the matters raised in this thread.
Initially they totally denied there is any truth in it, but a later response confirmed the situation, which I will paraphrase as follows:
They have not officially stopped making the parts which they make, but production of those parts stopped almost 10 years ago. Since then they have managed to supply peoples’ requirements from stock and by reprocessing parts from parted-out and crashed aircraft.
This situation is identical to e.g. Cessna who have not officially stopped making any parts but in reality many parts are not ever going to be made again, and IMHO this is the Socata outcome too.
While Socata are taking the path of neither confirming nor denying that parts manufacture has stopped, Cessna’s approach is to quote a (say) 6 month lead time and if you order the part they just keep extending the time frame without actually doing anything to make the part.
This is similar to Socata not confirming TB aircraft manufacture had stopped, till 3 years later – 2005.
Yes but it wasn’t the engine that people bought 
They bought a whole plane.
Thielert went through bankruptcy proceedings so there was no point in suing them. Nobody got anything really.
The problem is, in Europe, generally, you can sue only for economic loss, which limits the options if you are a private owner. American-style class actions are not possible.
This was very “useful” during the original Thielert saga, AIUI. Private owners could not sue (because there was no economic loss), and those who bought via a company (which includes a lot of private owners; you would be amazed how many people buy via a company or even just a business-like name) could not sue anyway because they had no recourse under consumer laws which would have otherwise outlawed the separation of airframe and engine warranties. There is a view that Diamond would not be here today if it wasn’t for these factors.
Shorrick_Mk2 wrote:
Lawsuit on what grounds?
Presumably due to financial damages caused by the TC getting revoked, making perfectly airworthy aircraft suddenly useless. If the TC holder arbitrarily decided to revoke the TB type certificate it would cause significant damages to those who owned the aircraft.
achimha wrote:
I told him I was at the factory last week and asked two of the support/service staff. I initially asked where the TB series jigs/fixtures were and they said they no longer make those parts but keep a stock and coordinate the worldwide service centers. I asked twice to be sure.
Was that conversation in french ?
Is it possible that you might have mis-understood ?
