I have no experience with construction equipment other than renting a mini ex three times and the 28 hours I've put on this mini track loader. Somewhere around 15 hours or so, on occasion, I'd start it and it would die about five seconds later. Then I'd start again and no issues so I didn't think too much about it. Then around 20 hours it started to happen a bit more. Then at around 26 or 27 hours it would not start. So I kept the key in the on position and let it wait for a minute to bleed any air that might be in the fuel lines, and it would start. But it would only run for a minute or so and then die. That then became not starting and I have to let air bleed (not sure if that's an issue or not) for a 3 minute period before it would start. At around 27 hours when trying to start it I began to get the DPF light for the first time. Mind you during all of this there have been absolutely not error codes or error lights. The DPF will not complete a cycle though as the engine won't continue to run long enough. I checked for water in the fuel and the fuel is fine and no water is shown and none drains out. Checked the air filter and it's clean. I have no idea why this machine is acting this way and not giving me error codes. Any thoughts?
You might get more input if the mods can put this in the right place. I am not sure the mini skid steer column gets a lot of attention.
Warranty!
Apologies if I put it in this wrong forum. Will call Kubota to see if they can send somebody out, but didn't want to overlook something easy I may have messed up. Bought this thing because we heard Kubota was bulletproof. Of course with my extremely limited experience it may well be something I did. But I read the manual and there aren't any error codes so I'm at a loss.
On my SVL75 & SVL75-2, there is no filler neck strainer. If you leave your fuel nozzle laying in the bed of a dirty landscaper's truck, and then use that dirty nozzle to fuel up, that debris will clog the water separator filter inlet elbow. Took 400 hrs to plug on my SVL75. I've since placed screen over the tank inlet, under the filler neck hose.
Thank you, that could certainly point to the issue. I've only filled up the machine twice since I've owned it but it was a real pain with the location of the filler. I used a funnel with a filter to fill it up but it's possible something got in there since it was much more of an effort than I was expecting to add diesel. Sometimes it dies within 5 seconds, usually it dies after a minute or two. Then I have to let it sit with the key in run for three minutes before it will start up again.
Did you change the fuel filter? A restriction of fuel isn't going to throw a code.
I have not done anything with the fuel filter. That's a great suggestion though, I'll see if I can find it and check it and perhaps see if it's gunked up.
It's a brand new machine you spent tens of thousands of dollars on. It has less than 50 hours on it, CALL the dealer to come and fix it or bring you another one. You shouldn't have to do anything other than put fuel in it, grease it and turn the key. If the dealer has to come out multiple times, it's their problem not yours.
Thanks Dave. We called the dealer and they have us going through some troubleshooting and if that doesn't work then we're going to ask them to come out and fix it. We have only added fuel to it twice, we have greased it (we bought a lithium powered greaser that makes it pretty easy) and I've definitely been turning the key a lot (while not going over 10 seconds to prevent damaging the starter and battery).
Don't ask, TELL THE DEALER TO COME AND FIX IT OR BRING YOU ANOTHER MACHINE PRONTO! IT IS NOT YOUR PROBLEM. If it was ran out of fuel or something like that, then you could try and correct it yourself. I'm sure other brands would have been happy to take your money.
I hear you loud and clear and agree completely.
Well at least it sounds like it's easy on fuel when it is running. Hopefully it's something simple but if the problem persists tell them you want a different machine. You didn't pay all that money to have a dead machine holding up a job.
Will do. Once I figure out the issue I'll update the thread.
I would say its cheap on fuel, three tanks (assuming the dealer gave you tank when you bought it) at 50 hours. As for the no start issue, it should take about 2 min. for the dealer to be assured you haven't done something stupid and a service truck should have been enroute. It might be time to tighten up that dealer, hard to believe that is necessary within the first 50 hours of ownership.
I haven't asked for service yet, was hoping to fix it myself with some guidance. We're about five hour drive from our dealer and in the sticks. We'll try our last bit of troubleshooting tomorrow and if that doesn't work we'll tell the dealer we need them to send somebody out. I'll update on how that all goes.
I wouldn't care if a tech. had to charter a private jet come from Japan and you were 10,000 miles away. It's THEIR problem not yours. There are some customers that would tell the dealer to come and pick up their POS machine and give them their money back or bring another machine (that works). I'd guess the machine was over $50K. Tell them you want it fixed yesterday!!! Quit screwing around. You shouldn't have to ask them to come and fix it. They should have sent someone out within 24 hours. I would also except some free service, parts credit and/or extra filters etc. for your troubles. Sometimes you need to be hard nosed with the dealer. This is definitely one of those times. Tell the dealer you want a free loaner machine if your machine has issues that they need to take it to their shop and fix. Also a free loaner for any future problems. Let the dealer find exactly what is wrong so you don't have some recurring nightmare not knowing exactly what is causing it.
Keep in mind that by you doing the troubleshooting yourself, you are risking your warranty to be voided. Too many times I have seen this same scenario...…...the customer thinking he is going to fix something when a machine is under warranty, and by doing so the warranty is voided completely. Manufacturer's warranty's are VERY specific about who turns the wrenches on something they are responsible for. Don't think they wont void a warranty because of your messing with the machine......they will look to do so and leave you hanging. I suggest you stop anything you are doing/have done and call your dealer. If the dealer is asking you to check things for them, then that's just irresponsible and unprofessional.
With my machinery, road calls travel time is NOT covered by the warranty, unless it is proven to be a manufacturing defect and the machine is not movable, like when cellophane plugged the fuel inlet screen on my 15 hour Kobelco blade runner.
The dealer had no trouble taking his money when he's 5 hours away. This a brand new machine with about 30 hours on it and doesn't sound like the owner did anything other than try to start it.
So the dealer asked us to undo the hose from the low pressure pump and hook up a pressure gauge and put the machine key to run to see the pressure of fuel in order to determine if there is a possible fuel pump malfunction or a blockage. I remember during the first 5 hours of machine operation or so, finding my fuel cap on my return trip back to my place on the property. It had just fallen off but I had never messed with it or put fuel in it (after I put it back on it fell off again, I think it's broken but I was able to get it to stay finally). So it's very possible that sticks and such got into the fuel because I worked with it for several hours before realizing the cap fell off. But then it ran just fine for some time after that before the start issues started to become noticed and got progressively worse. So I don't know. At any rate, the wife talked with the dealer on the phone today and said we're beyond our depth here and so we asked for them to come out. They wanted us to bring it in but we said we can't do that. Not only will it not start and stay running for more than a minute now, we are located in the sticks and can't get a vehicle up here (we drive a 6x6 ATV one mile to get to our place from the nearest dirt road). We don't own a trailer or a truck that could haul it anyway. Dealer told the wife to let him think on it, said he's busy these days, but he'll get back to us.
So we got off the phone with the dealer. He said that if it's a bug or some other object in the fuel system (even if that happened because the fuel cap fell off of the new machine without me messing with it or ever fueling it) that it would not be covered by warranty by Kubota in his estimation. And he says the cost will be $125 an hour including each hour of travel time (about ten hours driving). I asked him about the voiding of the warranty for us troubleshooting for him or hiring somebody local to work on it and he said common sense would dictate that us following their instructions would be covered. We hung up as we try to decide what to do. That's a huge amount of money for a machine that seems to be defective in my view (whether from the fuel cap falling off and something being introduced or if it's a fuel pump or whatever). He also said that if the fuel pump had dirt on it that wouldn't be covered by the warranty because foreign objects. Thanks for any advice or thoughts.
I have seen a lot of stuff online about their fuel caps falling off. I wonder if anybody else has gone down a similar road from stuff getting into their fuel system after the cap fell off (I don't know if that's the issue or not but if their fuel caps are this bad then maybe).
I think we'll call him back and tell him to send the truck and hope that they find it was a warranty issue, which I would think they would because we haven't done anything out of the ordinary with this machine and the weather conditions have been good and we've only owned it for a few months. But I guess we'll see. We need this machine because we have a lot of work to do. We live in a tent, we drive an ATV a mile to get here, we don't yet have running water, and we're trying to build our home. Tons of work needs done before the wife divorces me!
I would request a replacement machine or my money back if I were you. If either of those options don't come through, it sounds like you are going to get screwed to me. Where are you at and who is this dealer?
I agree with Vetech63. I just replaced the fuel cap on my skid steer. Highly doubt missing a fuel cap for a couple hours is causing the issue but the fuel cap falling off is definitely an issue and if debris got in the tank because of a faulty fuel cap is a warranty issue. QUIT being nice with this dealer!!! Tell them to bring another machine out and if they can't fix all the issues with yours as well as the fuel cap falling off give you the other machine. I said before, don't ask... DEMAND the dealer come out ASAP and fix your machine, replace it or refund all of your money. Who ever you talked to sounds like an idiot. The dealer should be bending over backwards for you instead of bending you over. You paid them a ton of money for a new machine. What would do if you bought a new truck and it left you stranded on the road 5 hours from nowhere. Spend 3 days playing phone tag with the dealer hoping they can tell you how to fix it? Stop payment if you can in the mean time. The dealer is not looking after you at all!
I have forgot to put the cap back on my SSL and CTL, lucky CASE puts cable on it so you cant actually lose. I am sure my employees have done it as well. I have never had an issue surface as a result, but in certainly is possible depending on what your doing, and the fill location would be important in whether or debris could get inside. Mine is located in the engine compartment. Dust and rain could get in, but nothing of any size. I would be concerned, $125 an hour travel time will get expensive, plus the time it takes to diagnose and fix the problem if it is not warranty issue. If were me I would make sure you don't have any debris causing an obstruction, at least to limits of your ability to turn a wrench. It will likely be at least $2000. Honestly I don't think the dealer is doing you wrong in giving you a heads up on your being on the hook if it is not a warranty issue. Whether or not the cap is defective would be an issue, but short of that. The dealer cant travel 10 hours, fix the machine and not get paid for it, from someone. Kubota nor anyone else will cover a repair that resulted from operator error. That aside, your story is intriguing to me. You have to drive a UTV a mile to get to your tent and future home location, damn. I am dying to know how your building a house a mile from a real road? I doubt your building a road with a Kubota 65....
Did you buy this from the dealer that won't service it? If you have to take a atv to get to where the loader is, be prepared to haul the mechanic back and forth to his truck several times, he isn't walking a mile each way to work on it. Well maybe some mechanics would. Most aren't looking for extra exercise. If you worked the machine several hours in dusty dirty conditions in the woods, with no cap on the fuel tank, likely it has crud in the tank. It should be caught by the fuel filter. You can't just "clean" the fuel filter, I imagine that doesn't have a old clear glass sediment bowl on it. It will require a new fuel filter.
Well building the house is gonna be another challenge. Lots of hauling stuff up. We hired a chopper to bring stuff in initially to build the tent (it's a yurt, but really it's just a nice tent) and to haul up the 6x6 and wood stove and such. But since then we built the ATV trail renting an excavator and we're not going to build a road because we can't afford even a gravel road. We're going to rent a track crawler to bring in supplies for our actual home since that will haul a lot up the trail.
We did buy from that dealer. We're ready with the 6x6 to haul him and his stuff as required. I worked the machine for a whole day in dusty dirty conditions in the woods without the cap (it fell off without my knowledge and I had never touched it before). But then it worked fine without any of these issues for another 10-15 hours. Maybe as the fuel level got lower the crud became an issue? I'm not sure but it's certainly feasible that is the problem.
The fuel cap coming off should be a warranty issue as something is defective that it fell off on its own. 99% of people wouldn't notice a missing fuel cap unless they were in a position to look right at it. One simple thing to check (because I recently went through it with a new cap) see if the machine will start without the fuel cap off. I bought a replacement that didn't vent properly and created a vacuum where the machine would fire but not keep running. If the machine was running it would keep running but I noticed it the next day when I went to start the machine. I took the cap off and you could hear the air pressure equalize. Started fine without the cap. Got a name brand cap and all was good.
Proving the cap is/was defective may be a challenge. I too have had one that wouldn't vent, the machine would run but it would collapse the plastic fuel tank. I have never heard of one that would not stay on, usually that would be evident when you fill the first time. This could turn into a battle. Hopefully Kubota and the dealer rise to the occasion.
I didn't realize the fuel cap was supposed to vent. The cap ended up breaking when I was trying to remove it. The top part that spins broke off, I wonder if that is somehow preventing venting?
I misspoke above but I think you understood. Try start the machine without a fuel cap. When did the fuel cap break and what did you do for a fuel cap after that? My machine started fine when I first put the new fuel cap on and kept running. It wasn't till the next day when I went to start it that it wouldn't keep running. There was enough vacuum in the tank the cap was harder to turn to remove. Took the cap off and it started up and kept running. Took that cap back to Napa and went to another place and got a name brand cap (Stant). Twice the money at $16 but no more problems. If it is the fuel cap it's odd it would work for 20 some hours but maybe something blocked it up. It sure sounds similar to what my machine would do, start firing and release key would run about 4 seconds, try again and same thing, third try wouldn't fire. Took cap off and started up normal. Odd thing with mine is I couldn't find the original fuel cap when I realized I forgot to put it back on. It was sitting on the fender of the machine and you would think it would fall off within a few feet of driving but I couldn't find it anywhere. Probably buried in the sand I spread out.
When my fuel cap broke it was just the top part of it that broke, the bottom part that seals the fuel filler still works so I just twisted it to stay in place. So very possible this is the issue. I'll go take the cap off here in a bit and try to start the machine and see if it stays running!
Took the fuel cap off (in a nice clear area with no debris) and tried starting after waiting 3 minutes in run (no dice). Waited another 3 minutes and it started but, as per the new usual, died after a minute to a minute and a half of running. I put the fuel cap back on. Left a message with the dealer earlier about getting service and we're waiting to hear back from them.
It sounds fuel related but I think the fact it did start and run would indicate it doesn't need bleeding from having a faulty fuel cap. Was it running properly for the 1-1/2 minutes it ran? Did you try it at full throttle? I don't know what all electronic junk is on your machine that may be casing a fault. The dealer should be looking at it under warranty.
It does run full throttle during that short period. I turned it up to full RPM and it's the same as being at low RPM.
Just gave the dealership a piece of my mind. He started off saying that he couldn't get out here, said it was impossible. I asked him how it was impossible and he had nothing to say other than we could bring it to him. So I told him he's been quibbling from the beginning and looking for every excuse to not do his job, and that we'll talk to Kubota ourselves. If they don't want to fix this, we'll stop paying for the loan on the machine and they can come repo it. We financed it through Kubota so it's their call. We knew this dealer had horrible reviews before we bought, but they're the only game in town. Perhaps Kubota will be interested in turning this dealership around since they're so awful. We tried to troubleshoot it ourselves to save them the trip, we offered to buy them a plane ticket to cut down on driving costs, and they still won't come out. We said we'd pay their exorbitant travel rate, they're not interested in coming to fix our machine with 28 hours. So Kubota can fix it or come get their machine. We have no issues with our credit score taking a hit.
I think one of the experienced mechanics on here could guide you better than I could but I'd have the dealer figure it out if it was my 50K.
Offering to pay for their plane ticket or any travelling charge on a new machine worth over 50K??? Impossible to come out??? It sure wasn't impossible for them to sell it to you. Post the name of dealer if you don't get satisfaction. It was a long ugly post in every way but look in the archives under D6C loss of oil pressure. Basically dealer tried to screw customer, Cat got involved, customers machine got fixed. I'm sure Kubota must have standards for their dealers. If you have listings of other bad reviews keep them for reference. You might be surprised how fast a bad reputation gets around. Contact Kubota directly and stop payment if you don't get satisfaction. Don't wait around, do it immediately!
I would love to do that, but when the dealer tells us to **** off, I really don't know where to go from there. We called Kubota and they said dealers are able to make their own policies of if they will service in the field or if they require somebody to bring the machine to them. It's obvious that this dealer does do service in the field when they want to, although they're trying to change their tune now and say it's impossible which it's most certainly not. We aren't interested in wasting any more time on this though. We told Kubota if they don't fix it we will stop paying for the machine and they will be forced to repo it. We'll see how impossible it is at that point. Kubota said they will contact the dealer and get back to us.
We will certainly change our tone regarding this dealer if they don't fix this issue and we'll share every detail.
The dealer told you to eff off... after spending over 50K? Wow! I wouldn't think Kubota wants their reputation tarnished because of a legitimate complaint. Call Kubota back everyday if you have to. Where's the next closest dealer? Maybe they would prefer you as a customer? Keep track of all your transactions with the dealer with names, dates and times. I'm sure if it comes to stopping payment they will take it a little more seriously but don't wait a couple month's if it comes to that. I'd give them a week at the most. The other thing you could do if they refuse to help you is have a lawyer draft a letter and see how they respond. It would cost a bit but might make them take you more seriously.
The next nearest dealer is six hours further away and owned by the same dealership.
All the more reason they should be looking after you. With social media in abundance it can be amazing how fast bad reviews get around. Maybe your municipality or local news has a consumer watchdog that helps with customer complaints?
I'll save our post-come-repo-it plan until later. But we will go to great lengths to try to ensure they don't get away with it.
You really should name the dealer and the area you are in. It would be appreciated by others that may deal with them in the future.
You are certainly in a bind. If you could get it under a trailer where it is parked you could rent a pickup and trailer from Uhaul. They are half tons but certainly capable of hauling a small machine like that. Get it to a dealer, get it fixed and decide what to do after that. Kubota in my view is sketchy on their ability to resolve customer issues, personally I doubt they care one bit about how shady your dealer is. Even if they do take some sort of action, it will likely be months away. You will likely have to decide on whether to keep your end of the agreement on making the payment much sooner than that. A lot of Kubota dealers are dealers who are about convenience, they carry Kubota products because it works with their rental business or lawn products division or whatever, but they are not about doing the heavy lifting that goes with selling equipment like this. The issues with the Dash 2 machines makes this evident. Some Kubota dealers are certainly professionals and we hear about them from time to time on this site. Many however are not professionals. OP you don't seem to interested in telling us what State your in, which is fine but someone here might be able to help, if you were in their area. Turning the machine back while trying to build a house, doesn't sound like a great decision, but perhaps that is what your down to. Maybe finding an independent mechanic to look at it is an option. Cat uses Kubota motors, BC used to use them, certainly there are mechanics that know that motor. Get it fixed and hopefully get reimbursed from Kubota itself if it turns out to be defective. It would be hard not to trade that machine in for something else. No way would I give Kubota one cent after this fiasco. Good luck.
We have a machine that won't run for more than a minute or so. It is located on our property that is accessible only by ATV through a one mile ATV trail. We don't own a trailer nor a truck that could haul this thing though we could rent one were we able to get a truck up to it, but that isn't happening. We'd be fine hiring a third party, but we're concerned about the warranty being voided. If Kubota gives us the green light we'll do that. From talking with the dealer, I'm under the impression they'd void the warranty as soon as they possibly could. If Kubota won't honor their warranty (they won't even come out despite us paying for it in the unlikely case it's not a warranty issue) then we have no issues stopping payment and watching them come get it. It's up to them. The dealer does service calls, they can certainly do one here, if they choose not to then Kubota can have their machine back.
As to their location, we're planning on doing a YouTube video review of our brand new Kubota SVL65-2. There aren't many on YouTube yet. We had a video camera recording every hour of operation in this thing and we also filmed us doing the required maintenance checks. Once we hear back from Kubota on if they're going to make good on their product or not, we'll create the video and name the dealer. We just want to be fair when we do it.
wow
Hopefully Kubota corporate steps up to the plate. Make sure you talk with as high up as you can. It's good to see you are changing your tune from, we will ask the dealer to help to being rightfully pizzed off at them. Fair??? Do you think the dealer is being fair with you? I saw one online for $54,000. The dealer should have an obligation to look after you when you spend that kind of money.
Try a Kubota Corp. contact for help Jeff Jacobsmeyer - Product Manager (he introduced this machine ) 1000 Kubota Drive, Grapevine, TX 76051 (888) 458-2682 Sometimes a personal touch does wonders.
Perfect!
Thank you, we'll give Mr. Jacobsmeyer a call. Much appreciated!
So we just called that number and tried to talk to Mr. Jacobsmeyer, but we ended up getting a general person from that number and they would not put us through to Mr. Jacobsmeyer. So they pulled up our case number and apparently they had talked to the dealer already as they said they would do yesterday (but did not think to inform us of that fact). Kubota came to the conclusion that they cannot make the dealer provide a service call (even though the dealer initially said they would provide a service call for $125 an hour and we said yes to that, then they changed their mind). So Kubota says the best course of action is for us to have it towed (which is not feasible given our location) or have a third party local person come fix it with no guarantee that Kubota won't void the warranty afterward for having a non-Kubota person touch the machine.
So now we're having a lawyer do a review of our warranty before we proceed further with our 28 hour machine.
Kubota just called and left a message while we were on the phone. They said they contacted the dealer to tell the dealer we would accept the $125 an hour to travel to us, but that the dealer decided it doesn't have the manpower to help us but will help us over the phone to try to get it running to get it to a road to have somebody truck it to them (of course if it gets running, then we don't have an issue with it). Kubota said it was our responsibility to get the machine to the dealer.
Just got quoted on a 262d3...saw this.
We haven't owned ours for six months yet and we're getting a legal review of our documents. I'll let you know what the lawyer says. But we told the dealer we'd pay their $125 an hour and they just simply refused to service us after making us the offer to service us for $125 that we accepted.
Demand your money back...…..that usually gets something happening.........…..like it or not.
Like I said before they had no problem selling it to you. Did they deliver it? Demand your money back and if you get the run around STOP Payment. It sounds fuel related but with all this new technology and DPF etc. who knows what could be wrong. Tell them Cat has 6 month's travel time and mileage in their warranty and they either come and fix it or pay to have a local mechanic fix it with the warranty still in place. All you want is a proper running machine which isn't asking for much when you spend 50K on a new machine. If they refuse ask them if they really want to go through the process to repossess it because you WILL stop payment and buy from a dealer that actually cares about their customers. By what you said it would be a real PIA for them to repossess it. No sense paying for something you can't use. I wouldn't be surprised if a carefully worded letter from your lawyer wakes them up. I had the engine in my Cat rebuilt and it lost oil pressure after 16.5 hours. Talked to the shop and they arranged for a mechanic to come out and look at it a couple days later. I was about an hour away. Mechanic did some tests and confirmed there was no oil pressure. I pulled the engine out again. A couple gear teeth on the oil pump sheared off. Later when it was using too much oil mechanic came out again. He came out to investigate and then came out a 3rd time with another rebuilt cylinder head. I made what I thought was a joke about if the engine had to come out a 3rd time they would do it. Guess what, it had to come out again. Still using way too much oil but no smoke at all. They said they would pull it if I could get it to them. Through a contact was able to get a low boy to haul it there and back (when fixed) on weekends for $300. Pay for the driver and fuel. It was better than pulling it myself but the shop looked after me. I paid about 7K and at least the machine ran to load it on the trailer. If I had paid 50K for a brand new machine, I'd be livid with that dealer.
That is about what I expected from Kubota. Kubota could care less what Cat or anyone else has in THEIR warranty. You bought a Kubota and they apparently don't make house calls in the first 6 months. I don't think the thought of repossessing the machine is going to be a big motivator for Kubota to do anything. They will likely have some third party repossess the machine and whatever that costs will be added to the default amount on the machine. I doubt that really matters to them, if someone repossesses the machine with a medium lift helicopter, so be it. If your default amount is 50K on the machine, it will be come 65K after the machine is flown out. No skin off them. I very much doubt a letter from a lawyer will move Kubota either. Are you going to sue Kubota for breach of contract? The short version of the contract is they agree to sell the machine. You have a warranty period and it is your responsibility to provide the machine to them (the dealer) for any work. The selling dealer isn't obligated to go to you to fix it, even though that is a service typically offered in the industry, they are not under obligation to provide that service, even when paid to travel. The poor reviews of the dealer were justified, you took the time to research that, but didn't heed what you learned. My suggestion would be to have the machine fixed. Forget you have a warranty, because in your case, you really don't. Your breaking your own heart trying to extract help from the dealer or the OEM. Have it repaired third party and get the machine back to work. When you have the ability, trade it on something else. Why wont you share what dealer this is?
With all due respect KSSS you don't own a Kubota so how would know how they would react? I'm sure people have had issues with Case dealers as well. Kubota can't be that much different than any other manufacturer. Look at the ugly D6C thread and how getting corporate involved after lots of prodding turned a dealer around. Apparently this Kubota dealer refused to come out even if the buyer said they would pay them to come out. I think the best case would be if a local mechanic could fix it relatively easy and get Kubota to pay some or all of it. Without seeing the actual contract and warranty statement it is anybody's guess what it actually says. There may be a legal requirement for the manufacturer when you buy a new machine and it dies in 28 hours. If you bought a new truck and it died in 200 miles, you for darn sure wouldn't be footing the bill to have it towed to the dealer. The machine won't run and there is no way to even get a winch truck near it to load it.
This isn't near southwest PA by chance, is it? I'd throw some gear in a bag and come take a look see.
I knew Kubota Corp. wouldn't be of help because they haven't shown a desire to provided much help to their SCR machines with issues that are provided to the dealer to be fixed. I wish I would have been wrong, but I wasn't, at least not yet.....unfortunately. This has nothing to do with CASE or CAT or any other OEM, this is Kubota and what matters is what Kubota will do. Your right that we don't know the exact wording, but it is pretty clear that the verbiage doesn't obligate the dealer to respond to the customer to repair the machine. Kubota Corp. itself doesn't have the ability or obiligation to go fix it themselves and they are not able to compel a dealer to go fix it. Change the narrative, provide the machine to the dealer and they still refuse, that would be different and you would have legal footing, but with the machine sitting in a "geographical anomaly" they don't have to go to it's location to fix it. If it was a new pickup, that would likely be different since most have road side assistance for 36K miles. Dave we agree on one thing and that is getting the machine fixed without the help of Kubota is likely the best solution. If Kubota helped with the bill all the better, but I would not plan on that happening.
I think the least Kubota and/or the dealer could do is pay for a local mechanic to hopefully fix it and not void the warranty if it is a licensed mechanic. If it does have to go to the dealer, the best option may be to hire someone local to take it to the dealer or rent a trailer if possible to take it there. Not sure how the machine was originally delivered? Would have to get a tractor or other machine to pull it out so it could be loaded on the trailer. Perhaps a local contractor with another machine and trailer could haul it if required. Then the other problem is if it has provisions to be towed out of the woods a mile to the trailer. Depending on the location maybe someone on this forum like heymcall would offer to take look at it. It may be something simple but not being a mechanic would be very frustrating trying to diagnose it. Maybe Kubota corporate will step up to the plate. If they do nothing social media can be pretty powerful if words get out. Someone goes online to look at reviews of the machine and see's how the dealer and Kubota failed this customer and they may decide they don't want a Kubota. A local AG or construction dealer might be a good option for a mechanic. It's not their machine but they probably have similar issues and could gain a customer in the mean time.
We are waiting on the legal review of the warranty to see what our options are. KSSS is right, we didn't heed the warnings from the poor reviews of the dealer. We gambled on the reputation we had heard of Kubota machines being reliable, and it was a 60K mistake on our part. One we get our review back we'll decide if we're going to stop payment and let them get their machine (don't care about the black credit mark) or if we will hire a third party knowing that Kubota may very well void the warranty because of it (the warranty seems pretty worthless at this point anyway). We will update as we know more.
No sir. Thanks for the offer though.
I think some key information has not been answered, When it was purchased was it discussed that it would be used outside the dealer's service territory. Living remotely has a lot of costs and I don't find it unreasonable that the dealer will not travel 10+ hours. How was the machine delivered, did the dealer deliver it? was there an extra charge for delivery? If it runs for a few minutes at a time can you slowly make your way out to a road?
We didn't discuss servicing outside their area. I did know they sent service calls out, but I didn't discuss ours with them specifically. I just assumed which obviously was a poor choice. They're the closest dealer (4.5 hour drive away from us) and the next closest dealer owned by the same company is twice as far away. The machine was dropped off at the nearest road by a third party shipper (cost us $800 to have it shipped), we drove it up the one mile ATV trail from the road to our place. The town we live in has an airport with daily flights to where the dealer is but that isn't an option due to the equipment they'd need to bring apparently.
We'll know more when we get the legal review. If we decide to have a third party fix the machine we have options in our town. Plenty of heavy equipment here and a couple places that rent them out. We're just trying to keep from voiding the warranty but then again the warranty isn't proving to have any value so far.
These are good questions. The best option I think is to try and get Kubota to pay a local mechanic to fix it. The dealer likely didn't want to mention you are on your own should you require warranty. If asked most dealers would probably say not to worry, you won't have any problems. If a local dealer has machines with Kubota engines would be ideal. They may go to bat for you depending on the problem. A good dealer can make a huge difference when dealing with warranty issues.
Having someone else repair, or even evaluate, the machine would not void the warranty. If that were the case, I'd never have any warranty coverage, or dealer goodwill coverage. Do you like the machine? If so, shirley someone around you, if not you, is mechanically inclined enough to evaluate what I believe is a fuel supply problem. While paying out of pocket for the repair may suck, it appears to be the only option. Reimbursement can be had, even on my Kubotas. Sometimes it takes a while. Cummins took two years on one DOC reimbursement, but most were handled within 6 months or less.
First, I want this line removed, and lowered to the frame. Does fuel freely run out?
Depending on the results (flows a lot), then I want this assembly removed and dissected. Special attention is to be paid to the inlet elbow for obstruction.
This is excellent! Hopefully with pics. heymccall can walk you through what may be the problem.
So the contract we signed, and State laws, means Kubota could come after us for the full value of the machine and just leave it with us. They wouldn't have to repossess it, they could have a court require us to pay the balance of the loan off. So that options won't work and bad on us for not getting a guarantee that the dealer would service us. But if warranty isn't voided by third party work, no big deal (I'd hate to test that, I do not trust Kubota to do the right thing). We've hired somebody in the town we live in who works on these machines and he's gonna come up and show us how to replace the fuel filter and we'll see what happens. We'll also go over the diagrams provided here and give that a go. More than likely, we're guessing, it's some gunk that got into the fuel after Kubota's untouched brand new fuel cap fell off without me noticing (because the dealer didn't put it on right, or because it was defective). Thanks all for all the assistance.
So what is the name of the Kubota dealer that won't support you properly ?
As it turns out they did support me as far as they were agreed. I thought the warranty required them to support me remotely, but it didn't.
Hopefully it is something simple but I'd still be trying to get Kubota to cover the cost of hiring the mechanic and should supply you with a functional fuel cap although that's minor. The dealer did nothing for you except take your money and tell you off when you had a problem. Time to post the dealer name to warn others about their complete lack of customer service. Not posting their name is saying you're OK with it. They can't come after you for posting about their lack of customer service if you're worried about that. At the very least they should have offered to pay for a local mechanic to evaluate the machine and see if they could fix it reasonably. If it was more extensive then look at trying to get it to the dealer. Hopefully it's a couple hour repair or less.
So did you find out what the problem was and get it fixed?
I think the OP "dropped the mike". I too would really like to hear how this is going.
Did you get your scooter back up and running??
Just got the machine working about thirty minutes ago. We simply pulled out the tube that goes to the fuel filter, it had some bark gunk in its tiny diameter, blew on the fuel filler hole to make it squirt out the tube, put the tube back and it hums. Ran and completed its first DPF cycle and drove it back to our place without issue. So the issue appears to be that the first day I used the machine for about 8 hours then drove it back and noticed my fuel cap in front of me (and realized I had just did about 8 hours in the woods without a fuel cap on) resulted in it getting bark gunk in the fuel system. I hadn't even tough the fuel filler cap or put fuel in it or anything, it came straight from the dealer brand new and the fuel filler cap fell off (which it did days later again after I put the cap back on). Guy we hired to come take a look at it charged us $85 an hour and billed us three hours. All is well that ends well! I expect this will likely happen again at some point, so hopefully we'll just repeat the fix this time and it will be good. I imagine there must be much more bark still in the fuel system.
Soooo, back in post #5, I mentioned that I took the filler neck off the tank and put a piece of window screen across the mouth, pushed the hose back on, and then reclamped the hose.
And as I mentioned, this was a brand new machine and I had not even touched the fuel filler cap ever, and this happened within the first three hours of having the machine. So I hadn't yet gotten to the point of thinking that I should have to modify my brand new machine in case the fuel filler cap fell off unlike every other machine out there that has a fuel cap.
Sorry. Meant no sarcasm. Seriously. Just saying that you need to modify your machine now.
Glad to hear you got it going, bummer when a new machine lets you down....
I'd still be asking the dealer to cover the cost and see if there is an update to the fuel cap. Was the fuel cap not put on properly or just a bad design that it won't stay on? Either way dealer should be offering a fix since it was nothing you did to make it fall off.
Defective? I have an SVL75 and an SVL75-2, neither with a fuel cap problem. My plugged lines come from dirty fuel nozzles (they lay the nozzles loose in the landscaper trucks, even though they have a dock for every nozzle).
Glad you got it running. Flush out the tank, and all the lines, and fill with fresh fuel. Or you will keep fighting the issue. If it was mine, the tank would come out and get totally cleaned out. Evidently, you live on the backside of beyond, so you're going to have to learn to work on this stuff yourself, time to be a little more self sufficient. You know there's a problem, fix it before it leaves you stranded in the woods again. I don't think the fuel cap is a warranty deal, learn how to check over your machine before you run it. If the cap keeps falling off, cut the fill neck off and install a different style neck with a different style cap. Put a mesh screen on it like heymccall suggests. You know now, that warranty service is a six hour truck trip away, so warranty means nothing. Its your machine, READ the owners manual. BUY a shop manual if its available. LOOK over the machine before you run it. The dealer isn't going to come and do your "preoperational" checks. The dealer is going to do nothing for you.
I'm not sure. It made a four hour trip from the dealer to us with the cap on, then drove a mile up a trail to our place, then I did a couple hours of work before it fell off. I put it back on after I saw it on my return trip in front of me, and I thought I put it back on but it fell off again. Eventually while messing with it after that I broke it and now I like it. The twisting top part with the key slot is broken off and it's just the back half that plugs the hole. I just twist it on and it stays on. I twist it off and it comes off. Minus not being able to "lock" the flimsy thing that anybody could break if they wanted to, it works great now. We bought a new one but I'm happy with it the way it is now because it stays on.
Yup. I've got a steep learning curve ahead of me to try to avoid this in the future. I gotta think there is much more bark waiting to repeat this fiasco in the future. The piece of bark that came out of the tube was like the size of again of rice. There must be a bunch more waiting. I'm not going to be taking the tank out of this thing up here where I'm at, I don't think, given our lack of infrastructure and tools and such but I could drive it a mile down to the road and hire somebody to haul it to a shop to do that. Think that would be worth doing?
See if the tank has a drain. Then you could flush it out a few times with solvent. You could also access the fuel tank through the sending unit for the gauge or the filler to put a suction line in to clean it out. Block the machine so the liquid goes to one corner that is closest to where you access the tank. I think using an air compressor to make a vacuum would work.
Post 4 here HeavyEquipmentForums Lists the changes made to my svl machines. And, on my SVL75, the comes out in less than an hour, unlike my TL150s.
How’s the machine running?
Went and serviced my SVL75-2 the other day. Grabbed a picture. Right arrow is a clear inline screen. Left arrow is FM100 assembly in place of the water bowl. The inline screen let's me see what's coming out of the tank and prevents plugging of the inlet elbow of the water separator from Bark, etc. I currently didn't have the water bowl for that FM100.