CK35 HST shattered piston at 400 hours

[Mysfyt]

Ventilation holes? Escape holes is more like it. I was racing a Nissan once when the number three rod decided it was sick and tired of living in the only **** it had ever known. It waited for the right moment and made a break for it. A bunch of oil witnessed the rod making its getaway and after a split-second look-around for the guards decided it was now or never and took off after the rod. It landed on the header collector and it wasn't but a few seconds after that I was making MY escape from the vehicle.

Can't post the link from my iPad, but google 'locomotive piston in house'. Kind of changes the perspective of ventilating a motor.

 

[Mysfyt]

Ventilation holes? Escape holes is more like it. I was racing a Nissan once when the number three rod decided it was sick and tired of living in the only **** it had ever known. It waited for the right moment and made a break for it. A bunch of oil witnessed the rod making its getaway and after a split-second look-around for the guards decided it was now or never and took off after the rod. It landed on the header collector and it wasn't but a few seconds after that I was making MY escape from the vehicle.

Can't post the link from my iPad, but google 'locomotive piston in house'. Kind of changes the perspective of ventilating a motor.

 

[jimmyj]

Thanks everybody for your concern and interest.

Yesterday I was contacted by Kioti customer service via email and also had a phone call from the dealership. Here's the news.

Apparently this matter went all the way back to Daedong in Korea. After careful review, they have decided to replace this engine with a new one, supposedly shipping from the US office in North Carolina, but that's not confirmed. It might have to be sent overseas from Korea. Not sure yet which is correct. Daedong has also stipulated that the dealer will provide the labor for the engine swap. From what I have gleaned through this process, it's my understanding that each dealership is annually rewarded by Kioti with "goodwill" dollars, earned by meeting sales quotas and whatnot. That money is reserved for cases like mine, when they need to pay their own mechanics for this type of in-house work. So, the dealer isn't really out anything here because Kioti provides a kind of safety net through the earned goodwill money. Maybe this is a common practice for all manufacturers; I don't know.

Obviously it's still going to take some time before the CK35 is ready to come home, but you can imagine what a huge relief this is for me. Those of you on this forum who urged me to contact Kioti, and to go back to the dealer, are the ones who are directly responsible for securing this very fortunate turn of events for me. I can't begin to thank you enough. In the beginning when I started this thread, I was ready to write off this tractor and recover what little money out of it that I could get from its broken condition. You folks convinced me to pursue it further. Everything changed in a few hours one afternoon when I spoke to Melissa at Kioti and then drove back to the dealership with hat in hand. That part wasn't easy... I had fired them for ignoring me for eighteen days, and then I had to go back and re-hire them. But, it certainly paid off to do so.

Once again, many thanks to everyone who contributed to this discussion, especially a few key folks here who offered some seriously good advice -- you know who you are. There's still more to follow regarding this issue... if I can figure out how to do it, I'll upload some video of the tractor running before it was diagnosed (before I knew how bad it was) to demonstrate what it sounded like, on the slim outside chance that anyone else ever suffers this problem. Meanwhile, those of you who speculated that Kioti would acquit themselves nicely and take the high road by providing out-of-warranty support were absolutely right, as were those of you who called for engine replacement. I did not expect and certainly could not have asked for a better outcome from Kioti.

Thanks Kioti and especially all you TBN folks.

Great news. I still have a little faith in karma and people doing the right thing so this is wonderful.

 

[ritcheyvs]

It ain't over 'til it's over, but I applaud Kioti/Daedong's decision on this. Kioti sells great tractors; I know, my DK45s is one. And (like all manufacturers) they occasionally make a bad one. So I'm very glad to see them support this customer when that happened. I for one, will repeat this story the nest time a Deere (or Kubota, etc.) snob says Kioti is inferior.

 

[Coyote machine]

A lawsuit here costs $23.50 to file and we have paralegal consumer groups who will help with the paperwork. I think you are (and have been from the start) confused about who the consumer would be suing in Texas courts. You sue the dealer not some Asian company 10,000 miles east of the Alamo. Dealers don't like going to court. It is time consuming. There are no consumer rights groups to help them with the legal briefs and Kioti likely wouldn't completely cover the costs of attorneys if at all.

You have absolutely no clue as to what I know about courts and suits. I'm not confused about anything. Small claims suits filed wherever won't affect Kioti or one of their dealer's. There is NOTHING to sue for, and there never was; get over it, and the whole Texas thing.
Find something else to do other than thinking you know anything about me or what I know about Kioti or lawsuits. Kioti came through, exactly as I predicted, with the exception of doing better by their customer then I had expected.
Let it go.

 

[Teachu2]

You have absolutely no clue as to what I know about courts and suits. I'm not confused about anything. Small claims suits filed wherever won't affect Kioti or one of their dealer's. There is NOTHING to sue for, and there never was; get over it, and the whole Texas thing.
Find something else to do other than thinking you know anything about me or what I know about Kioti or lawsuits. Kioti came through, exactly as I predicted, with the exception of doing better by their customer then I had expected.
Let it go.

I agree - there was no compelling legal basis for a suit, as the machine was clearly out of warranty. That's why the OP needed to make an appeal to the person authorized to approve out-of-warranty repairs, and the toughest part of that is reaching that level of management. Kioti was NOT legally responsible for repairing or replacing this out of warranty engine, but chose to do so to protect and enhance their brand reputation - which is why MANY business decisions are made. Threads like this one will provide more positive advertising for Kioti than they ever could have purchased for the cost of an engine, and they will be able to analyze a real-world failure to determine if it was a fluke, a production error, or a design flaw. All that, almost certainly, factored into the decision to make their customer whole.

Kioti may never determine what caused this failure with absolute certainty, but their best shot is if they have the complete engine. They may decide that this is a rare enough event as to be unworthy of intense investigation, but I doubt it. Engineers love a puzzle, and will do their best to find evidence that places the blame on a supplier or assembly person.

Lots of factors involved, but a lawsuit wasn't a significant risk for Kioti. They weighed the facts as best they could, and came up with a decision that giving excellent customer service is in their best interest as a company. Very honorable on their part, and smart business. An old adage in customer service is "Give a customer great service and they will tell a couple people. Give poor service and they'll tell twenty."

Kioti is getting a lot more than two on this one. And the OP is getting MORE than he hoped for - think he'll recommend Kioti anytime it comes up? It's been 40 years since I first heard that Airstream story, and I still remember it.

You have to wonder what Deere or Kubota would have done. We can't know, but we will know what Kioti did this time. I suspect they made a shrewd investment by doing so.

 

[PILOON]

Very well stated TEACHU2

But with internet the adage "Give a customer great service and they will tell a couple people. Give poor service and they'll tell twenty." may no longer apply.
Just look at the number of hits on this topic.

 

[kiotiken]

Great news. Just found this thread but based on my own experience with Kioti, this outcome isn't a shocker for me. I first owned a nightmare CK30 that I bought new in 2012. The dealer was great servicing all the warranty issues that came up initially, then Kioti itself stepped up when the issues became much larger and more expensive. In the end, Kioti approved a full HST transmission replacement with labour. Then they sent me a couple hats, a Kioti jacket and Kioti hoodie to boot. I was too was more than satisfied with their response to say the least.

As a result, I had no hesitation buying another Kioti or recommending the brand to anybody who would listen. Glad this all worked out for you, even if you're without a tractor for a few months.

 

[Teachu2]

Very well stated TEACHU2

But with internet the adage "Give a customer great service and they will tell a couple people. Give poor service and they'll tell twenty." may no longer apply.
Just look at the number of hits on this topic.

No doubt the Internet spreads the word faster and farther, but the idea still holds true. As far as hits, remember that's hits, not people. Some viewers may hit the thread several times a day.

 

[Mousefield]

No doubt the Internet spreads the word faster and farther, but the idea still holds true. As far as hits, remember that's hits, not people. Some viewers may hit the thread several times a day.

True but still many thousands of people and then the people they tell.