Dear Hogi,
Sorry to hear that this happened. The exact details of what your dealer is permitted to do does vary somewhat by state. In most states, dealers are permitted to show that customer misuse or abuse caused the issue and therefore exclude warranty repair. However, they have to prove that some action by the customer
caused the issue at hand.
While it is true that gasoline does differ significantly between vendors, even if it comes from the same refinery, it is also definitely true that certain manufacturers (Shell, Chevron) do go to significantly more effort and produce fuels with greater quantities of detergents and anti-wear additives. There was a nice article in Chem. Eng. News on April 6th, 2009 covering this in detail that closed with a quote from a gasoline formulation consultant who admitted that he only bought gasoline from a small number of vendors.
However, all gasoline has to meet minimum federal standards, and are highly unlikely to cause o-ring or gasket issues in three years or thirty hours. Now letting gas stand for six months to a year is asking for trouble as the additives drop out of solution and water and acids creep in, but these are likely to cause clogging of the carburetor, rather than gasket failure.
High alcohol (ethanol) content has nothing to do with it. Ethanol at low concentrations has no major effects on orings and gaskets. At high concentrations (e.g. E85, 85-100%), you need to remove any nylon in the fuel system, but the rubber isn't going to be the part giving you issues. Running pure drigas through your engine may give you wear issues, and fuel in the oil, but that is a different story.
Bottom line: I don't think that the dealer has a leg to stand on, but to get them to admit it may be a long hassle. I would ask them to reconsider, and if they didn't, I would buy the parts elsewhere forever.
If they aren't more helpful, don't forget to b**** to your friends about their poor performance. One unhappy customer does spoil a whole bunch in my book.
As an example, a local car dealer here screwed up pretty much every time that I brought my car in for repair. Two examples: the car was delivered new, with a broken instrument cluster- the temperature gauge didn't work. Second, with about 80,000 miles on the car, while the invoice said that they had drained and flushed my brake lines, the fluid was brown when I picked up the car which suggested that they hadn't actually flushed the lines. When I had a polite discussion with the service manager about the work, and rather than fixing the issue, he said to me "if we do such a lousy job, why do you bring your car in here?" or words to that effect. I felt that he was correct, and I quit going that day, and wrote a letter to the manufacturer detailing the history. Eighteen months later, the dealership was shut down by the manufacturer. (I can't claim credit, but I wasn't unhappy to see them go either.)
I can't comment about the engine itself; I have read enough to know that they have issues. In all fairness, it seems as if almost every other small engine manufacturer also has issues.
I hope that this helps.
All the best,
Peter
My 425 is going on about 3 years with low hours, maybe 30. this weekend it flooded the engine crankcase with fuel. The local dealer (it's still barely under warranty) says it's not their issue because its bad fuel, that causes this. He claims if the fuel isn't purchased from Shell, Chevron or 76 then it's inferior fuel with a high alcohol content that will rot the gaskets and o-rings in the carb. I am skeptical of this, I've talked some old timers about this and they say its B.S., with the exception of one of the three mentioned, all the fuel used in local stations comes out of the same refineries.
Now the questions:
1) Can the dealer refuse to service the engine based on what he thinks caused the problem?
2) Is it even worth the hassle, should I just buy a rebuild kit and do it myself?
3) Is there a difference of fuel from independent stations?
4) Are robin engines worthless pieces of junk or just misunderstood?
