7520 problems AGAIN...

[BobG_in_VA]

....I like the tractor but I'm just weary of all the problems. It seems a new one surfaces each time I pull it out of the barn to work. I just did not expect to have this number of problems out of a new tractor after spending almost 30 grand on it.
Where will I be when all the warranty runs out and these kinds of things are still happening? I don't even want to think about it.

Cuz: I have to ask:::How many tractors have you owned/been associated with in your life???If more than the current machine, how many of those never needed any work?? Reason I'm asking is you either have a real problem machine or you have no tool box. May I ask, what maintenance have you (yourself) done to the machine while you've had it??/ Please, I'm not trying to be nasty here, but I've not noted in your posts that you have tried to fix any issues that you've had....Am I wrong here??/ If so, I profusely appologize...BobG in Va

 

[DonWorrell]

Cuz: I have to ask:::How many tractors have you owned/been associated with in your life???If more than the current machine, how many of those never needed any work?? Reason I'm asking is you either have a real problem machine or you have no tool box. May I ask, what maintenance have you (yourself) done to the machine while you've had it??/ Please, I'm not trying to be nasty here, but I've not noted in your posts that you have tried to fix any issues that you've had....Am I wrong here??/ If so, I profusely appologize...BobG in Va

BobG, i copied this rom Cuz Pat's origional post.
"05-01-2007, 03:06 AM #1 (permalink)
CuzPat62
Member

Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Alabama
Posts: 30
Cuz-Pat: My Mahindra 7520...I am sick of it!!!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It has been nothing but one problem right after another since I bought it new in late August 2006. I now have 95 hours on it and have had more problems. Tonight I loaded it back up on my trailer and hauled it 36 miles to my dealer and left it in his parking lot."

Continuing on BobG, please don't miss understand what I am going to say. But, if Cuz Pat bought this tractor in August 2006, less than a year ago and it only had 95 hours on it in May of 2007, as his original post said, then maintenance is not his problem!

I own a Mahindra and love it. But I was in the car business for many years and sold in my lifetime hundreds if not thousands of cars both new and used. I can tell you one thing as a fact, some of them were just pure no good. Actually in most states today there are "Lemon Laws" for cars like the one I described. Now I am not saying Mahindra builds bad tractors, because in my mind they build great tractors. But they are all made my man and sometimes man makes mistakes. Maybe a defective switch or something was installed.

Maintenance might be the problem if the machine had hundreds of hours on it. But as long as he kept oil in it, it should of given him trouble free use for far more than 10 months or 100 or so hours he used it. Oh by the way I never would suggest a person try to fix something under warranty. It often VOID THE WARRANTY.

Just my two cents worth.

Don

 

[CuzPat62]

Bob,
I have owned 2 John Deere tractors before purchasing this Mahindra. One of them I bought used, it was an 80 h.p tractor. The other one was bought new by my wife's grandfather here on our farm and I later bought it from the farm to use here. It was a 1966 John Deere 2010. I have turned plenty of wrenches on it and things went wrong with it as well as the 80 h.p JD. BUT neither one of them cost me almost $30,000.00 and neither one was under warranty. I have worked many times on both of these previously owned tractors of mine, doing repairs and regular maintenance on them..

Contrary to how my posts may have appeared, I am not a "disgruntled, wet behind the ears" punk kid posting about his tractor woes. I am 45 years old and have been living on my farm since I was 20 years old and for the last 25 years I have done about everything a man can do on a tractor. I am not a rookie when it comes to tractors.

I spent almost 2 years researching tractors, saving my money, pinching pennies, and trying to make the best possible investment I could in the purchase of a new tractor. I am not a rich man, I work hard for my money and I try to make wise purchasing decisions.

Do you think I am out of line, after spending the kind of money I have on this tractor, to expect to have a quality product that gives me great service? Am I wrong to complain when it fails to do so? I work in the automotive industry, as well as farm, and we'd be out of business at our plant if our quality was on par with the quality I have experienced in my Mahindra product.

Yes, I have a tool box and I do my own maintenance work. None of these problems that I have had from day one have been related to maintenance issues. They have all been warranty issues that Mahindra and the dealer is responsible for. I now hope you have a different opinion of me and these problems I have had with this tractor since I have given you a little background.

By the way, my tractor now has 148.5 hours on it. I have had it 10 months. The reason it has had no more hours put on it that it has is because I have had 3 foot surgeries in the last 10 months and I have not been able to use it that much.

Regards,
Cuz-Pat

 

[RedRiver]

Pat, hope your foot is healing well.

Could I ask one favor of you, would you mind just giving us a brief list of the warranty issues you've had so far?

I remember you recently having the issue with the KSB timer.

Thanks!

 

[Keith_B]

Pat, the problems you have had seem pretty minor, and are not at all unusual for a tractor of any make. Hydraulic leaks on new machines are pretty common. After a tractor has been used for several hours a faulty seal may rear its ugly head, where it doesn't during the early days of ownership. Electrical parts are going to be more prone to failure during this time.

Any weak link will generally show during the warranty period.

 

[BobG_in_VA]

Cuz, no harm, no foul. Just when I read about the hyd leak, I think I'd have checked if it had a loose fitting first. Hope your foot gets better. I do understand those sorts of things after back disk surgery about 10 years ago, and knee (miniscus) surgery just a few months ago ....Be well and run the heck out of that Mahindra. BobG in VA

 

[michellesc7]

Good Discussion Guys. Yeah I keep running into guys that are injured too. Except mine are more emotionally injured. We all work hard for our money. I did the research on Mahindra also. I am impressed with my 6500. So much I am seriously considering selling my JD 1050 that is in the shop again for another engine rebuild- will get it fixed right, painted and sold. I will take the money it will bring and put it down as a down payment on a new 3525 for my bushhogging/gardening/keep the hours down on the 6500- tractor. I figure if I get stuck I could use the 6500 to pull it out. Cuz Pat - life is full of surprises, emotional traps. Give it a little more time. If you need to sell it because of life cycle costs concerns - do so. Life is too short. If you need a good running tractor - give it some time, your problems are minor and you must admit you could'nt get any better support from other folks than you get on this forum, as well as, some of the dealer advice. Order some Mahindra paraphenilia and soak it in. I believe things will get better for you on this tractor. We are all for you!

 

[CuzPat62]

I am going to post a list of all the problems I have had out of my Mahindra product since I purchased it, per the request of RedRiver.

But first of all, I want everyone on this forum to know and understand that I have never a single time bashed the Mahindra 7520 tractor as a whole. I am not saying that they are all problem tractors. From many of you who have posted, I understand that ya'll have had good service and reliability from them. When I speak of the Mahindra 7520 and it's problems, I am referring specifically to my personal tractor and the problems associated with it. I have no idea whether or not these issues are common to all the 7520's. I just know what I have experienced with mine.

Here's the list:

1.) One weekend my brother in law borrowed my tractor to pick up some pallets of centipede sod. We put the pallet forks on the loader (ML275) and the loader would not pick up a pallet of the sod. We had to unload half the sod off of a pallet before the loader would pick it up. This loader has a 3900 lb. lift capacity. Surely that pallet of sod weighed less than that. After calling the sod farm we found out that the pallets of sod were dry sod and weighed only 2000 lb's. The dealer checked the relief valve pressure and it was 2500 psi, book says it should be 2450 psi. Still do not know why it would not lift the pallet of sod.


(2.) I had a severe leak on the cylinder or the fittings on the hydrostatic steering. It would leak a 10 inch puddle of power steering fluid each night when it was parked. Dealer found it was leaking fluid at the banjo coupling on the hydrostatic power steering line, replaced and tightened up fitting.

(3.) Fuel guage was not working properly and would give inaccurate readings. Dealer determined the sending unit was faulty and installed a new sending unit in the fuel tank.

(4.) Left front headlamp bursted internally. Dealer installed a new headlamp.

(5.) Steering wheel upside down. With the tractor running and parked I can turn the steering wheel 360 degrees and never turn the front wheels in either direction. Drive it straight down the road and one minute the steering wheel is right side up and the next it's upside down and I haven't even made a turn. I was told by the dealer that this was the nature of the beast (hydrostatic steering). Still does this today but according to dealer is normal.

(6.) Park brake would not hold tractor on even a slight incline when it is engaged. Dealer had to adjust the parking brake so that it would hold.

(7.) Bad hydraulic leak at rear couplers. Dealer removed coupler and retaped the threads on fittings and re-installed coupler.

(8.) Loader operations (lifting, rollback, dumping, etc.) are very slow. Have been from day one. Nothing has been resolved on this issue to this very day. I still have a tractor with a slow operating loader.

All of the above problems ocurred during the first 20 hours put on the tractor.

(9.) Discovered that the nuts on the battery hold down rods in the battery box had worked loose and the rods fell off the tractor and were lost.

(10.) The nuts on the slide knobs on the lift control and draft control both worked loose and the knobs fell off the tractor and were lost.

(11.) When the weather turned cold my tractor started smoking and when it did it, it was pretty bad. The smoke was a bluish gray color. It did not do it on a continuous basis. It would smoke a while and then clear up and run without smoking. Then it would start back up to smoking again. If you let it sit and idle it would smoke really bad. It seemed to do it worse when it was cold. After contacting the dealer about this problem, he stated to me that they had recieved several complaints on this issue from other Mahindra owners. He said it had something to do with the Intake manifold heater for starting in cold weather (KSB timer). I went down to the dealership and he gave me the KSB timer and jumper wire to install on my tractor. After arriving home I discover my tractor already has a KSB timer and jumper wire on it. Dealer tells me not to install it because something else is wrong with the tractor. Dealer sends tech out to adjust timing on the pump to fix smoking problem.

(12.) Both rubber boots on the steering tie rod ends burst and dealer had to replace.

(13.) Take tractor to hunting club to work a full day. Tractor smokes horribly bad all day long. I call dealer and he says bring it to them. That evening when I get the tractor to them it is smoking extremely bad and will now hardly run. It misses extremly bad. Sounds like it is running on 2 cylinders. I make post on Mahindra forum expressing my dissatisfaction with tractor. Dealer determines that the tech got the injector pump out of time when he adjusted on it. Re-set the timing on pump. Also now replaces the original KSB timer and jumper wire. Do not know yet if the original smoking problem is corrected. I won't know for sure until cold weather returns as that is when it first surfaced.

(14.) New leak on rear of tractor in the vicinity of the hydraulic couplings. It is determined to be loose connection on a line going to the couplings.

(15.) Tractor will not start after shutting it down to talk to a neighbor while mowing hay. Finally call dealer and we get it started by moving the PTO on/off lever back and forth while holding key in the start posistion. Dealer determines PTO safety switch is going bad and will have to be replaced. On this past Saturday I had the baler hooked up all ready to go to the field to bale the hay I cut on Wednesday and the tractor would not start at all. Did not matter how much you moved the PTO lever back and forth. I wound up having to BORRY a neighbors Kubota tractor to run my baler and bale my hay on Saturday while my $30,000.00 Mahindra sat at home unable to start. Today dealer installed a new PTO safety switch and got the tractor back going.

As of right now, this tractor has 148.8 hours on it and I have had it 10 months.

I bought a new tractor so that I would not have to keep working on my old tractor every so often. I see no reason for me to be working on a new tractor, under warranty, that is experiencing manufactorer and dealer responsible issues.

 

[VistanTN]

Cuz Pat --- I think you have a right to be upset -- and I would be too if I had anywhere near that much trouble with my 6500 4WD (1 year, 120 hrs, so about the same as yours). But I also do have a couple of comments on your items:
#5 -- Hydro steering does allow the wheel to "wander" into various positions when the wheels are straight ahead, BUT, it should still turn the front wheels when you move it stopped.
#6 -- Most parking brakes on MANY vehicles, not just tractors, are set WAY too soft -- mine too was only able to hold my tractor in a light wind on level ground, BUT the adjustment is just a twist on the top of the handle (if it's like the 6500). Reset mine at 2.7 hours and it's been solid ever since.
#9 -- Every vehicle I have ever purchased new has had some nuts/bolts insufficiently tightened -- and yes, a thorough pre-delivery check by the dealer should have found them -- I went over my 6500 when delivered and didn't find those loose, but see #10.
#10 -- These are meant to be adjustable while working -- and if left untouched, can loosen up -- mine were too loose when delivered, but I have to check 'em on my weekly operator checklist.

Meanwhile, lean on your dealer AND Mahindra. They make good machines and they don't need one lemon souring even one customer, much less a bunch.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

CuzPat62, so sorry about all the problems that you have had. I know that I had highly recommended this tractor. it does seam odd some of the troubles that you have had or continue to have. Maybe it is time to get rid of this problem tractor and move on. I know, it's not a big 3 tractor and you will take a hit on resale, but just how annoying is it? I too bought my new tractor so that I would not have to work on the tractor, but with the tractor. Most of my other equipment is old and it gets old always having to do something on one of them.

Have you timed your loader, wondering how slow is slow? The steering, well that is just weird, and it is not right. When I turn my steering wheel, my wheels turn, rolling or stopped. As far as lifting that sod, it should have, can not tell for sure without having been there. Mine lifts plenty, it would be nice if it lifted more, but that costs lots more $$$$$.