Leaking braided fuel line.

[DavesTractor]

Just saying, I know what it takes to make a high pressure hose. I have dealt with rubber venders, machine manufacturers, and machine designers, national and international quality people, as well as actually set the machines up to build them. There should have been an active recall and all defective lines replaced before customers had to deal with it! We had a vender send us the wrong rubber compound once. When it was discovered, we pulled everything from the customers vehicles, sent people to change hoses on car lots, everything from the customer back to the rubber vender was scraped! I have one of these tractors with the braided hose, Mahindra knows about it and I have heard nothing except on this forum about it! Just saying, I am probably more versed on hydraulics than most having worked around it my whole life. Good hose's do not leak, at least not for a long while. Seen many last 20 years with no problem.

As a Mahindra dealer it may surprise you that I agree with most of what you say. This was more than a handful of tractors, and it caused no-starts, poor starts, and dropped fuel on the ground. No doubt they were slow on getting this fixed, and now they are on a "fix as fail" instead of being more proactive. So I'll beat them up a little too, and I am one of their volume dealers, but I also look at things objectively. Having said that, I think how they handled this is common in the tractor world, but I'd like to see that change.

What I don't understand is why some issues are "fix as fail" and some are campaigns. Years ago we had a bad batch of loader hoses on one model of loader. They identified the problem, figured out what batch of hose went on what loaders and send a note to all dealers to immediately change those hoses on particular serial numbered loaders. Perfect! And often Mahindra does solve issues just like that, and that is they way to do it. Not sure why the braided fuel hose leaking issue was not handled that way.

But here is what you will appreciate, they hired a guy that is way up the food chain in the quality department that used to work for BMW on the quality side. So he is from the car side, and he knows his stuff, and he understands processes. But it takes a little while to change a culture and to put these processes in place. We see quicker problem resolution on the Korean (reasonably fast on most issues) and Japanese (really fast) models. On the Mahindra built machines, it seems there is a culture of being slower to admit they have an issue. This braided hose deal is the best example.

A reminder, this hose deal affected a small minority of the tractors that Mahindra sold in the USA. It had no effect on the Max, eMax, 15/16/1500, or 10/2500 series, and those models make up the lion's share of sales in the USA.

 

[alafarm]

Dave, I understand all of that very well. I have been through some of that with the car industry years ago. It just seems like the tractor industry is lagging behind by about 15 to 20 years. I am having mine hauled in for several issues and I am going to try and get them to change my lines even though I have not had failure yet. I have had the tractor just quit on me running about 1500 rpm a couple of times and wondering if it has started sucking some air. Could be something electrical? Has been very intermediate.

The domestic auto companies operated like that back in the 70's and 80's and because of public perception, they almost went out of business! They still have a few people in the auto industry they need to fire. The ones that think they can just cover up or ignore problems and no one will notice (example: Takata air bags, Ignition switches, acceleration problems).

Well, at least Mahindra acted like they wanted to sell me something, more than I can say for John Deere! I will see how much they want to keep me happy now. If they will address my issues and go ahead and change the known bad fuel lines out before they strand me, I guess I can live with it. I also, took apart my dash and have the shuttle shifter cable wearing against the tilt mechanism. Hope they will do something about that also. It looks as though it could wear all the way through the cable over time. It wore through the outer covering by the time I had 20 hours on it!

 

[DavesTractor]

..... I am having mine hauled in for several issues and I am going to try and get them to change my lines even though I have not had failure yet. I have had the tractor just quit on me running about 1500 rpm a couple of times and wondering if it has started sucking some air. Could be something electrical? Has been very intermediate.

I would say you do have a fuel line failure. Sucking air and intermittent issues like you are having can very well be due to a bad fuel hose. They will often suck air before they will start leaking. Ask them to swap out the hoses. It will start fast and it won't quit running on you. I can't rule out another issue, but I suspect it is the hoses.

 

[RedFirstGen]

I can speak first hand to the bad fuel line issue. No leaks, no signs at all that they were bad. But I took it on faith from advice from folks like Dave and changed them. Never a problem again after I did. Love my 4035.

 

[DavesTractor]

I can speak first hand to the bad fuel line issue. No leaks, no signs at all that they were bad. But I took it on faith from advice from folks like Dave and changed them. Never a problem again after I did. Love my 4035.

While the tractor is running, some of the braided fuel lines are under vacuum, not pressure. In that situation, air is leaking into the fuel, not the other way around. Once the hose gets really bad, then fuel will leak out as well. But the first symptom is hard starting and intermittent poor running. It is amazing how important it is to not introduce air into the fuel system.

 

[MutzFarm]

I also bought my tractor from them. I live in Elmendorf. I had the same fuel lines. Hauled over there and they fixed under warranty, washed unit, and couple other minor things on their own. All I wanted was the fuel lines. I left it there for a week. Dont remember how long it took, but it was ready in less than a week. That is the only thing I have had go wrong with mine and we use ours a minimum of 5 hrs a week.

Anyways I hate to hear this as the 4025 2wd had been around for a long time and now this 4wd 4025 is really AWESOME!!!

 

[betpman]

I HAVE A NEW Holland tz25DA 135 HRS. The BRAIDED fuel line is spraying fuel out about 1 to 2" past the fuel filter. The line is tight in that spot, as the line goes into the dash and on to the tank. Can I cut 2 to 3" off and somehow join the new line back to the fuel filter outlet?

I also have a 1998 Bolens Iseki 18 horse diesel with the K 120 engine. 630 hours total, and still love it!

New member
Mark Maliniak

St Helena Island, S.C.

 

[DavesTractor]

I HAVE A NEW Holland tz25DA 135 HRS. The BRAIDED fuel line is spraying fuel out about 1 to 2" past the fuel filter. The line is tight in that spot, as the line goes into the dash and on to the tank. Can I cut 2 to 3" off and somehow join the new line back to the fuel filter outlet?

I also have a 1998 Bolens Iseki 18 horse diesel with the K 120 engine. 630 hours total, and still love it!

New member
Mark Maliniak

St Helena Island, S.C.

You can buy barb type fittings at any good auto parts store. Either straight or angled. So you can do this. Just remember that any joint is one more potential leak spot in the future.