Doubling Stihl warranty not apply to pro saws?

[JRM]

Good luck getting them to actually warranty anything past the first year. Doesn't matter if echo gives a 5 year warranty. They will and do guve the same customers fault excuses everyone else does.

Unfortunately I've heard this a few times RE Echo warranty from people with first hand experience.

 

[wildwes]

And Stihl is not denying the warranty based on the use of their oil or not. You get the standard warranty regardless of whether you purchase their oil or not. But if you buy their oil, you get an extended warranty. In essence, you are purchasing the extended warranty by buying the oil. I just wish I could find something useful to do with my Stihl oil. I sure as heck will not put it in my chainsaw!

Write "personal lubricant" on the bottle in sharpie
Find a local gay bar
Drop the oil off outside the door.

 

[sean donato]

And Stihl is not denying the warranty based on the use of their oil or not. You get the standard warranty regardless of whether you purchase their oil or not. But if you buy their oil, you get an extended warranty. In essence, you are purchasing the extended warranty by buying the oil. I just wish I could find something useful to do with my Stihl oil. I sure as heck will not put it in my chainsaw!

I gave mine away when I bought the ms400. One of the guys I work with bleeds stihl Creamsicle. Was the easiest time I had giving away expensive garbage.

 

[OM617YOTA]

You can use Stihl Ultra in your saw without hurting anything, just dump it in the bar oil tank.

If you have an old school mechanical diesel, burn it in that. The injectors and injection pump will thank you for the extra lube.

 

[Sidecarflip]

Good luck getting them to actually warranty anything past the first year. Doesn't matter if echo gives a 5 year warranty. They will and do guve the same customers fault excuses everyone else does.

Sean... I will say that I've never had a warranty issue on any of my saws or brush cutters for that matter. For me, the 'warranty' is just window dressing anyway. Far as getting crappy with warranty claims, I think that depends on the quality of the dealer you bought it from more than anything else. No one wants to do warranty work on anything, anyway simply because warranty work is predicated on the applicable flat rate manual that applies to the particular piece of equipment and most, if not all flat rate manuals allow no leeway whatsoever in my experience.

I'm very familiar with Kubota flat rate charges as I work for a Kubota dealer part time nd none of the techs that work there can complete a warranty repair in the apportioned time.

 

[sean donato]

Yeah, I did quite a bit of warranty work when I worked heavy duty diesel. It really depends on the oe, if they will work with you or not. Never had an issue getting a legit claim covered or getting my time covered if it took longer then expected. Seems it's quite a bit different when your at a shop though.

 

[Sidecarflip]

eah, I did quite a bit of warranty work when I worked heavy duty diesel.

So did I. 30 years at a Western Star dealership. I retired jus after the T4 crap came about but I have a good friend that still works there and he told me a good 65% of their warranty repairs comes from emissons component failures.

 

[sean donato]

It was real bad during it4, by tier 4 most mfg had the systems figured out. Besides Scania having constant issues our biggest problem was Def tank placement and guys idling machines for extended periods. One of the crusher mfg put the Def tank next to the hydraulic oil tank. Once the operators got accustomed to how rhe new systems worked we had a lot less issues. Still more then tier 3 engines ever had, but less.

 

[Sidecarflip]

I know nothing about Scania or Vo-Mack because we were only an authorized repair facility for... just DDEC and Cummins Diesel and to a lesser extent Caterpillar because they exited the on road engine market after having spent millions on the failed 3406E engine with the 'furnace' in the exhaust gas stream, that was problematic and hard to repair.

I do know that there are lots of truck owners out there that are basically stuck with inferior engines, not the engines themselves, but with inferior T4 components. Only exception to that was Cummins fuel pump issue with the ceramic cam followers that fell apart and destroyed a lot of engines. Something about ceramic bits floating around inside an engine that causes them to self destruct. Usually they just lock up but I did see one where the con rod went through the block.

 

[jhellwig]

If I recall correctly the extended warranty thing when buying a pack of ultra started because of the 4mix engines. They either gunked up in pro use or homeowner use. Don't remember which.

Since when did everyone start hating stihl ultra? Everyone used to cream their wheaties over it.

 

[sean donato]

I know nothing about Scania or Vo-Mack because we were only an authorized repair facility for... just DDEC and Cummins Diesel and to a lesser extent Caterpillar because they exited the on road engine market after having spent millions on the failed 3406E engine with the 'furnace' in the exhaust gas stream, that was problematic and hard to repair.

I do know that there are lots of truck owners out there that are basically stuck with inferior engines, not the engines themselves, but with inferior T4 components. Only exception to that was Cummins fuel pump issue with the ceramic cam followers that fell apart and destroyed a lot of engines. Something about ceramic bits floating around inside an engine that causes them to self destruct. Usually they just lock up but I did see one where the con rod went through the block.

Volvo did similar with their 12,13 and 16l engines with the rollers on the cam. Swapped back and forth from ceramic to steel. The problem was actually guys not adjusting the valves correctly or often enough. The ceramic couldn't take being "bounced" so to speak against the cam and would fail. Replaced loads of cams and followers under a warranty campaign. Even units with quite a bit of time on then got replaced. Kept us busy for the better part of 2 years.
I must have missed the cummins cam issues, but we didn't see many of them in heavy equipment and we weren't a cummins dealer, but it doesn't surprise me they had issues.
Cat had more issues then most and not just limited to the c15 acert on road engines, the c13 twin turbo acert was a tragedy of the highest degree. One of the few truck engines I worked on. Delval concrete was across the street. We rebuilt quite a many of them. Stupid design. Really made me miss the old c12 engine amd 3406c models. Really the 3406e wasn't a bad engine till they hit the c15 designation and added the emissions components. Had a few guys running 6nz engines making 1000hp at the wheels.

 

[sean donato]

If I recall correctly the extended warranty thing when buying a pack of ultra started because of the 4mix engines. They either gunked up in pro use or homeowner use. Don't remember which.

Since when did everyone start hating stihl ultra? Everyone used to cream their wheaties over it.

They gunk up in both situations.

 

[ZeroJunk]

If I recall correctly the extended warranty thing when buying a pack of ultra started because of the 4mix engines. They either gunked up in pro use or homeowner use. Don't remember which.

Since when did everyone start hating stihl ultra? Everyone used to cream their wheaties over it.

I think in reality it was a money maker for them. Majority of stuff they sell will never use a six pack of anything.

 

[stihltech]

If it is a legit warranty issue, I will go to bat for the customer. If it is no maintenance or abuse, no. Stihl has worked well with me on warranty issues.

 

[ZeroJunk]

If it is a legit warranty issue, I will go to bat for the customer. If it is no maintenance or abuse, no. Stihl has worked well with me on warranty issues.

I have only actually worked for a dealer a couple of years and done maybe 20 warranty repairs. Not turned down yet.
As far as if it is under warranty, if the paperwork was done the way it is supposed to be we know who bought it, when , and where.

 

[Sidecarflip]

Had a few guys running 6nz engines making 1000hp at the wheels.

The NZ engines were arguably the best Cat ever produced (besides their 1693's. The NZ engines are in great demand today even as a take out. Had a buddy with an older Pete that sold it and all the buyer wanted was the NZ, not the Pete. All the Accert engines had issues, from spacer plate failure to turbo issues as well as breaking exhaust manifold studs off. I have a 3406 mechanically injected Cat in my International Eagle conventional that gets run infrequently Mostly stays in the barn unless it's harvest time and then it pulls a 42 foot Timpte hopper bottom grain trailer. Always liked the 'Barnyard Buicks'. Long hood and lots of leg room inside and I also like the flat dash instead of the more modern wrap around. I don't much care for the new Eagle conventionals, way too much shiny chrome plated plastic on the hood.. They look to me like a bird beak.

Cummins has a pile of engines that got destroyed with the ceramic fuel pump followers coming apart. Once the came apart, only took one, the engine was toast.

Sort of like the DEEC fiasco where extended life coolant was mixing with lube oil and turning into gooey paste. We literally had a graveyard of them sitting on engine stands in the shop, waiting for Detroit to pick them up and I presume scrap them.

DDEC started out trying the just short block them with us removing all the external parts and putting them on new short blocks but that didn't work out well as the external parts were also loaded with goo, so DDEEC finally decided to just replace all the bad ones with dressed engines.

The way it transpired was, the cooling systems got full of goo and at that point the over temp sensors could not function properly, so the engines ran until the puked.

To this day I will not use 'extended life' orange coolant. I stick with conventional Ethlyene Glycol (green) coolant.

 

[sean donato]

If it is a legit warranty issue, I will go to bat for the customer. If it is no maintenance or abuse, no. Stihl has worked well with me on warranty issues.

You're one of the few in that case. 90% of my experience with warranty on saws or power equipment is the opposite. It's always your fault, fuel issue, mis treated, ran too hard.

 

[Sidecarflip]

I will say that I've only had ONE warranty issue and it wasn't saw related either, The flywheel on our Zero turn mower shed a couple magnets and destroyed the stator as well and my dealer got a new flywheel and stator for me and I installed it and gave him the broken parts back. Never had a saw warranty issue, ever so have never experienced that denial deal.

 

[ZeroJunk]

You're one of the few in that case. 90% of my experience with warranty on saws or power equipment is the opposite. It's always your fault, fuel issue, mis treated, ran too hard.

Really doesn't make any sense to me. Stihl pays us for parts and labor. I get paid the same.

 

[OM617YOTA]

Really doesn't make any sense to me. Stihl pays us for parts and labor. I get paid the same.

I've highlighted why Stihl would have an issue. Fault or not, that's why they deny you.

Maybe I'm jaded. Just got off the phone after going back and forth with my health insurance company, trying to get them to pay for an expensive medication for myself, and am in a "to hell with it all, burn it all down" type of mood. When IRS agents graduate to the next level of evil, and decide they want to cause pain, suffering, and death in addition to screwing people out of their hard earned $$$$, they go to work for health insurance companies. This same insurance company tried to kill my girlfriend instead of paying for an MRI, too. No surprise they don't want to pay for my med.

I have no idea why people think large companies have any kind of honor, integrity, human empathy, or that they will honor any contract or written warranty, if they can possibly find a way to get out of it, without being sued and costing them more $$$$. They will 100% look you in the eye, tell you bad fuel killed your saw even if you were burning their own company's fresh premix the entire time, and dare you to sue them for it. You really going to sue over a chainsaw? Nope, not worth the hassle, and they know it.

Ironic, as I'm the one who started this thread, and went through a bunch of BS to get an extended warranty on a saw I barely use. To hell with it all, burn it all down.