16-50mm f2.8 with a AF focus issue

I've been quoted £180, assuming it involves replacing the SDM motor but thought I'd ask y'all about selling it as is.

The AF doesn't work until I manually focus a little whilst half pressing the shutter to AF. Then it kicks in and is fine. Don't know if it stays functioning, like the chap described in a similar fault here in the forum about his 50-135mm.

The lens is otherwise in good nick, I take care of my equipment, and manual focusing works great.

I haven't been able to find someone who could do the "screw drive conversion", which might be cheaper?

Just wondering your thoughts about pricing it or if you know someone who can do the screw drive conversion for a fee. I've meanwhile bought another, as I used this a lot for jobs. It also doesn't seem worth fixing to then sell, as they go for under £300 nowadays anyway, right? thanks in advance for any help

Sounds too much to me. I ended up manually focussing my DA 16-50 most of the time.....with better results.

Both my 16-50mm and 50-135mm do exactly the same thing and I had the motor on the 50-135mm replaced about 14 months before it started doing it again. I don't find it a real problem waking the lenses up before use (they awake much faster if you use liveview for some reason) but if you want then converted to screwdrive then I believe Haris was offering the service at one time ... Link

Must admit I have thought about contacting him about it before but never got round to it.

Thanks Mike-P - I'll drop Harris a note now. and pschlute - that's an option too, but I do think I need AF, especially at the widest angles
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Follow-up for Mike-P - I did indeed get in touch with Haris link
What a nice chap, only asked for postage and converted my non-working lens to screw drive. I just got it back from him and it's like a new lens.
Faster AF than it's ever been. I didn't realise it was just a software thing, thought it involved taking the lens apart. Anyway, another forum success story.

Glad you got it sorted David - and Yes, Haris is indeed a helpful and nice guy, he's offered me help and advice on several occasions

I did mine a few months back and it's so nice to have it back to good working order - this lens gets quite a lot of stick and some quite unfavourable reviews, but I've always been really pleased with the results from mine

Hi
He did my 50-135 for the price of the postage
And a bit extra for his time
Neil

Glad you got it sorted