JD 3120 Engine Bolts Falling Off -How do you talk sense to your dealer?

[RobertN]

Two possible approaches:

- Sell it and get out from under the mess. It was abused before you got it; who knows what else will go wrong. JD, Kubota, New Holland, Kioti... It don't matter, if they are roughly abused, they will all have problems. Hard part for me would be selling it and not being honest about "issues". The other thing is, I'm guessing you are in a limited market for tractors

- Tell the dealer you know it has been beat. As another poster mentioned, have them do a full once over on it(maybe you have?), knowing it has been beat.But don't alienate the dealer in the process. Aint their fault it got beat up. You already said on this web site that it was abused, front axle issues, used like a dozer, so it is not a "otherwise mint condition machine".

When you find another machine, I would have a dealer/mechanic check it out first, even if it costs you some up front cash.

Used stuff can be good, bad, or awful...

I don't know if I got a lemon, or if these are common problems but I have been more then a little disappointed with this model.
250 hours on this machine, was doing some light mowing, did my standard undercarriage check, and noticed an engine mounting bolt sticking out. EVERY SINGLE BOLT ON THE LEFT SIDE WAS FINGER LOOSE! There's like 8 bolts in that line up. What gives John Deere??!!
To add insult to injury I was told by my dealer that this was on the maintenance schedule! What? Oh yeah, right there at 250 hours is "make sure your engine isn't on the ground" ...
A call to JD headquarters informed me that the dealer has all the power to decide whether something is manufacturers defect or not. I don't know who with half a brain could call an engine falling out of a otherwise mint condition machine anything but manufactures defect.

 

[Scotty370]

I'm glad that you can, at least salvage some humor as Crown.."I'll-never-drive-with-a-cup-of-Rogain-in-my-lap" Hoag, stated, and really hope you get this thing straightened out. I've not been 'incident free' myself! With my JD4200, I 'straddled' a stump in a deer plot, broke the hydro casting, and auto-drained all the hydro fluid!! After that $75- part, and $40- in Hydro fluid, said--"Thats a stupid design"! But, It was 'My-Bad', and I'll live with it! Tractors aren't 'bullet-proof', and I suspect that folk stretch them to the limit, but I will say that you've had more than your share of John Deere Scream! Sorry! ~Scotty

 

[Diamondpilot]

Here is my view on this. Manufactures will always put somewhere in fine print that its the responsibility of the owner/operator to check and torque all the bolts.

Example: I had a boat trailer from a well know manufacture nearly lose both axles last season. On the axles there were a total of 8 U-bolts with a total of 16 nuts. The nuts were the locking type with nylon in them. 14 of the 16 I could turn the nuts on by hand. I called the manufacture and raised ____ but they pointed out it was not only in the manual that it was my responsibility but also on a sticker on the tongue of the trailer. They told me they put them on with a impact gun and did not torque them to spec, which is 75 ft lbs.

What a load of crap. What if the gun is going south and loosing power of the course of a month? By the time they find out its too late and they have sent out 100 trailers. The other issue I found out is you can torque the bolts while on a jack and then when you lower it to the ground the springs compress and again the nuts are loose enough to remove by fingers only.

I think this comes down to a quality control issue on both your JD and my trailer. Only word of advise is to go over it yourself with your wrenches and socket set. I have done so on all my equipment and was very surprised.

Chris

 

[Chilly807]

Well, I'd say you should be looking for another dealer, not because this one is no good, but you've likely alienated them badly enough that they're going to be less than eager to help you out, even if they wanted to in the first place. My wife works in the service dept. of a major car dealer. Some customers they simply endure, do the minimum required, exactly what the work order says. Others, who have treated them like the humans they are, get treated a little differently. It's human nature.

Tractors, especially used and abused ones, can be high maintenance items. If the dealer checked everything else when the machine was there for "unrelated repairs", they'd be out of business in no time. There's at least an even chance if you'd taken it to them to be serviced as opposed to repaired that they would have checked the engine mounts. When I have my tires changed, they don't check the oil, and I don't expect them to. If it's down three quarts, that's my business.

99% of the problems you're having probably stem from abuse, nothing can withstand that entirely. If you drove a new machine, or one that was "certified" by the dealer, it wouldn't exhibit the problems yours does. If it did, no one would buy it.

Buying used has it's pitfalls, this is one of them. It is really buyer beware. You pay more up front for new, but you're the only one that has abused it, and you get the best years out of the tractor.

A friend of mine used to manage a Subaru dealership, and had to deal with the occasional irate customer. On a few occasions, he finally said, " Look, I'm sorry you're having problems, we're doing what we can to rectify them, and it IS only just a car".

I'd buy a Deere without hesitation, I got the Kubota because it fit my needs better.

Chilly

 

[Mike Costello]

Here is my view on this. Manufactures will always put somewhere in fine print that its the responsibility of the owner/operator to check and torque all the bolts.

Example: I had a boat trailer from a well know manufacture nearly lose both axles last season. On the axles there were a total of 8 U-bolts with a total of 16 nuts. The nuts were the locking type with nylon in them. 14 of the 16 I could turn the nuts on by hand. I called the manufacture and raised ____ but they pointed out it was not only in the manual that it was my responsibility but also on a sticker on the tongue of the trailer. They told me they put them on with a impact gun and did not torque them to spec, which is 75 ft lbs.

What a load of crap. What if the gun is going south and loosing power of the course of a month? By the time they find out its too late and they have sent out 100 trailers. The other issue I found out is you can torque the bolts while on a jack and then when you lower it to the ground the springs compress and again the nuts are loose enough to remove by fingers only.

I think this comes down to a quality control issue on both your JD and my trailer. Only word of advise is to go over it yourself with your wrenches and socket set. I have done so on all my equipment and was very surprised.

Chris

This story reminds me of a 1979 Ford F350 I received new from the dealer. I drove it straight to my shop, racked it up and did a complete bumper to bumper inspection. I found loose screws tossed into the defroster vents, assembly line coffee cups in the glove box and so on... But the most glaring problem was almost non existant gear oil in the rear axle. So much for dealer prep!
A short time later I decided to have custom wheels installed. The tire/wheel store called me and said I had bad wheel studs on the rear axle. I asked how many--they said all of them on one side. That's because their installer broke all of them because he failed to notice they were left handed studs. I came over, pulled the rear drum, reinstalled new studs and handed them the bill. Good help is indeed hard to find! Mike.