Narrative:

I flew the aircraft [where] the right reverser was deferred for an elb (electronic log book) item 'amber rev light illuminated'. I flew the same aircraft a month before; and the right reverser was already deferred (I do not recall now how long it had been deferred at that time). En route; the 'amber rev unlocked' light illuminated; which caused me to submit an elb item 'rev unlocked light' since that indication should not have been present with the MEL used at that time.in between those two flights; I flew this aircraft once more; with the right reverser deferred. (I tried to save the differed information from that flight but my company electronic flight bag-efb decided to erase my saved flights). The maintenance action on clearly shows that the mechanic has worked on this problem multiple times and is frustrated by the lack of progress. I believe that this deferral must have been cleared at least a couple of times. My concern is that the aircraft routers think that this is like a simulator and it becomes 'new day; new airplane' with no mechanism to flag a chronic problem until conditions exist that force an aircraft refusal. I want to reiterate that I believe that maintenance has been doing everything in their power to fix this problem when the aircraft routers have allowed them the time to work on it.as an aside: due to the weather; this aircraft spent more than 24 hours on the ground in with no maintenance work performed: if only there were boeing experts in the area! A contributing factor is the lack of a mechanism to flag chronic issues:• nine of the 20 history items that I could see yesterday were related to inflight entertainment. • Three were 'aircraft released from repair station' and the action listed [in a term]; which is not defined either in the flight operation manual or the flight manual.• one was routine oil service.therefore; only seven of the 20 history even had a chance to be safety of flight related which effectively eliminates the captain as a possible solution. To summarize; this same write up has been on this aircraft for over a month and our current system either cannot or does not 'flag' this to have the issue properly addressed.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B757 Captain reported that an engine reverser has been deferred for an extended period. The Captain also stated the deferred issue reoccurs quite often despite maintenance action.

Narrative: I flew the Aircraft [where] the right reverser was deferred for an ELB (Electronic Log Book) item 'Amber REV light illuminated'. I flew the same Aircraft a month before; and the right reverser was already deferred (I do not recall now how long it had been deferred at that time). En route; the 'Amber REV Unlocked' light illuminated; which caused me to submit an ELB item 'REV unlocked light' since that indication should not have been present with the MEL used at that time.In between those two flights; I flew this Aircraft once more; with the right reverser deferred. (I tried to save the differed information from that flight but my company Electronic Flight Bag-EFB decided to erase my saved flights). The Maintenance action on clearly shows that the mechanic has worked on this problem multiple times and is frustrated by the lack of progress. I believe that this deferral must have been cleared at least a couple of times. My concern is that the aircraft routers think that this is like a simulator and it becomes 'new day; new airplane' with no mechanism to flag a chronic problem until conditions exist that force an aircraft refusal. I want to reiterate that I believe that maintenance has been doing everything in their power to fix this problem when the aircraft routers have allowed them the time to work on it.As an aside: due to the weather; this aircraft spent more than 24 hours on the ground in with no maintenance work performed: if only there were Boeing experts in the area! A contributing factor is the lack of a mechanism to flag chronic issues:• Nine of the 20 history items that I could see yesterday were related to inflight entertainment. • Three were 'Aircraft released from repair station' and the action listed [in a term]; which is not defined either in the Flight Operation Manual or the Flight Manual.• One was routine oil service.Therefore; only seven of the 20 history even had a chance to be safety of flight related which effectively eliminates the Captain as a possible solution. To summarize; this same write up has been on this aircraft for over a month and our current system either cannot or does not 'flag' this to have the issue properly addressed.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.