I purchased an Exmark Commercial 30 in April and our family has used it about 15 times since we purchased it (estimated). It probably ran for about 30-40 hours without doing the break-in oil change. :-(
I should have known. I should have been more thorough. The dealer should have told me. I'm disappointed in myself, but it happened.
The mower is running fine, and it's getting it's first change at the shop now after realizing it.. What type of damage have I done?
I also agree. The 5-hour change was to get the oil most likely to be saturated with metal particles out of the engine. But that job is accomplished by the oil filter. And the filter is rated for 50 to 100 hours. I think you'll get by unscathed, but I certainly wouldn't want to make a habit of it.
Way back when people would pay a reasonable price for a mower, engines go fired up at the end f the assembly line usually witha light flushing oil about 1/2 full.
This got tipped out filtered & reused .
All this cost money so if you were too cheap to pay to have it done for you then you got lumbered with doing the job yourself .
The most impoant thing about an early oil change is doing a full service, checking valve lash , choke operation etc so if there is a warranty claim to be made, it comes in early no after 100 hours when it could rightly be called owner abuse.
