K-30 Aperture failure- Pentax step up to the plate

My K30 failed with the aperture motor problem last month - about 6 weeks outside my 2 year warranty that I received from Clifton Cameras who are a Pentax Pro dealer. After a sympathetic phone call to Clifton Cameras, I sent it back to them at my expense, pointing out that this was a known problem and that I felt Pentax had a moral obligation to repair it . Clifton Cameras sent it to Johnsons with a covering letter/e mail and chased Johnsons up by phone on my behalf. It was repaired free of charge, returned to Clifton, who then returned it to me free of charge within 3 weeks. Can't speak highly enough of Clifton Cameras and impressed by Pentax's response.

Great result. Since getting my K30 repaired it's been back to its excellent self! Shame this problem has marred Pentax and the K30 which apart from that has been a brilliant camera.

Hi everyone,
I'm really excited because I've found a fix which worked in my case:
My camera also developed this fault with about 4000 shutter releases.
Basically it's not the motor failing, but the aperture control lever to the lens which gets magnetically charged by the magnet which controls it.
I didn't want to shell out €200 in repair, and I wasn't too happy about taking my camera aprt either, so I tried this:
Set the camera to M mode, shutter speed 1/100 (not really important).
Set the camera to rapid sequence shots, then press that shutter button and keep it pressed!
Every now and then, change the aperture setting between min and max (depends on the lens you have attached), and keep shooting!
I went through a few hundred shots, but the forced rapid motion seemed to solve the problem, my aperture control is working again!!!!!
Note: it seems to be related to periods of non-use or lower use, some suggest removing the battery in such a situation as this might contribute to the problem.
I will make a point of taking a few rapid shot sequences every now and then to keep things unstuck!

Hope it helps you too!

Unfortunately, other threads on this forum suggest that this method/'solution' only provides a short term 'fix'.

The burst rate trick will get you going during the failure period, right up until it doesn't.

Best we can tell, and with no official word at all from Pentax, this looks like a component quality control issue. It's the same piece on that consumer level of camera for many models, so the design is sound, but has issues on the K-30/K-50 and lesser reports on the K-S1 etc.

Best non official solution seems to be saucing the part from an earlier model. I'm not sure if anyone has found a supplier of a new part, but it's common to electronics and was used in Walkman tape players ( I think it was) at one stage also.