santacruzer
Bronze Member
About a month ago I posted about having a leak in the control valve on a new Kubota BX 2350.
The tractor has been in and out of the dealer's and they made two trips to my house as they tried to fix the problem. The last time it went in it was there for over three weeks...waiting to get parts from Kubota.
So that there will be no misunderstanding, I want to state that the dealership did about everything they could do...I'm real happy with them...the dealership was not part of the problem.
However, the same thing cannot be said for Kubota Corp. ...for a couple of reasons.
I noticed the original leak in the control valve at about 50 hours, +or -. I found the source of the leak to be an "0" ring in one of the control valve ports. At the same time I saw that two other ports had "0" rings starting to show some desintegration. At that time the dealer replaced the "0" rings on all the ports of the control valve.
The dealer felt that possibly the wrong "0" rings had been used when it was assembled at manufacture and replaced all the "0" rings and told me to keep an eye on it.
I was moving a lot of dirt during all this so after the "0" rings were replaced, I again worked the tractor for several hours. It was not leaking when I first started work but after a couple of hours the control valve leaked again via one of the ports that showed an "0" ring starting to show a "ragged edge" at the leaking port.
The dealer picked the tractor up again, tore the control valve out, called Kubota who then told the dealer what the problem was. It seems that the on the hydraulic lines at the point of attachment to the control valve were not machined properly!! So as the "0" rings were not properly seated, the hydraulic fluid was slowly forcing the "0" rings out of the banjo assembly, thus the leak.
This is the interesting part. Kubota knew about this problem already. They said they had "a batch" of those fittings that were not machined properly (is "a batch" five bad fittings,five hundred bad fittings or maybe five thousand bad fittings?...Kubota didn't say). Kubota did say that they went back through their inventory of that particular part and got rid of the defective ones. Great work! Out of the box thinking on Kubota's part!!!
The question I gotta ask is how many BX 2350s, BX 24s and 1850s slipped out of the factory with "that batch" of bad fittings? I know one that did... and I would think that a few others just might have possibly rolled off the line the same day with the same parts. It's hard for me to believe that just one tractor has this defect.
Kubota has the means to track those machines down by date of manufacture and alert those owners of the possible problem. Kubota does know about it!! But it's probably easier to not notify these owners and let the machine go out of warranty and then it's on the owner. Problem solved!
When I read the recent post about the guy who just bought a new Kubota tractor and had all those "little" items that were wrong with his tractor (take the welding on his tractor for example)... it sort of reminds me of the American car builders and how customer oriented they have always been.
Another question might be why did the dealer have to wait three weeks for parts? If Kubota knew about the problem why did they not act proactively and have parts available for that "batch" of bad parts that "slipped through?"
I can understand how a problem like that can occur in manufacture...it's an imperfect world and mistakes are part of the game. However, I can't understand why Kubota would not want to do everything in their power to call attention to this problem. I can only guess that Kubota feels that the BX 2350 I purchased was the "only one like that" or possibly they feel that this problem should be handled only on a "complaint basis"...and let the expired warranty take care of the others.
Paul
The tractor has been in and out of the dealer's and they made two trips to my house as they tried to fix the problem. The last time it went in it was there for over three weeks...waiting to get parts from Kubota.
So that there will be no misunderstanding, I want to state that the dealership did about everything they could do...I'm real happy with them...the dealership was not part of the problem.
However, the same thing cannot be said for Kubota Corp. ...for a couple of reasons.
I noticed the original leak in the control valve at about 50 hours, +or -. I found the source of the leak to be an "0" ring in one of the control valve ports. At the same time I saw that two other ports had "0" rings starting to show some desintegration. At that time the dealer replaced the "0" rings on all the ports of the control valve.
The dealer felt that possibly the wrong "0" rings had been used when it was assembled at manufacture and replaced all the "0" rings and told me to keep an eye on it.
I was moving a lot of dirt during all this so after the "0" rings were replaced, I again worked the tractor for several hours. It was not leaking when I first started work but after a couple of hours the control valve leaked again via one of the ports that showed an "0" ring starting to show a "ragged edge" at the leaking port.
The dealer picked the tractor up again, tore the control valve out, called Kubota who then told the dealer what the problem was. It seems that the on the hydraulic lines at the point of attachment to the control valve were not machined properly!! So as the "0" rings were not properly seated, the hydraulic fluid was slowly forcing the "0" rings out of the banjo assembly, thus the leak.
This is the interesting part. Kubota knew about this problem already. They said they had "a batch" of those fittings that were not machined properly (is "a batch" five bad fittings,five hundred bad fittings or maybe five thousand bad fittings?...Kubota didn't say). Kubota did say that they went back through their inventory of that particular part and got rid of the defective ones. Great work! Out of the box thinking on Kubota's part!!!
The question I gotta ask is how many BX 2350s, BX 24s and 1850s slipped out of the factory with "that batch" of bad fittings? I know one that did... and I would think that a few others just might have possibly rolled off the line the same day with the same parts. It's hard for me to believe that just one tractor has this defect.
Kubota has the means to track those machines down by date of manufacture and alert those owners of the possible problem. Kubota does know about it!! But it's probably easier to not notify these owners and let the machine go out of warranty and then it's on the owner. Problem solved!
When I read the recent post about the guy who just bought a new Kubota tractor and had all those "little" items that were wrong with his tractor (take the welding on his tractor for example)... it sort of reminds me of the American car builders and how customer oriented they have always been.
Another question might be why did the dealer have to wait three weeks for parts? If Kubota knew about the problem why did they not act proactively and have parts available for that "batch" of bad parts that "slipped through?"
I can understand how a problem like that can occur in manufacture...it's an imperfect world and mistakes are part of the game. However, I can't understand why Kubota would not want to do everything in their power to call attention to this problem. I can only guess that Kubota feels that the BX 2350 I purchased was the "only one like that" or possibly they feel that this problem should be handled only on a "complaint basis"...and let the expired warranty take care of the others.
Paul