Shady Dealer?

Mission said:

View attachment 28429View attachment 28429I think I have attached the photo of the piston.

I am ready to shame the dealer now - Prospect Equipment in Mission, BC. It is there policy to not repair anything that has scoring, as it might only last a few minutes and they may look bad. But, charging $45 for doing nothing and when I brought it home and put the old plug in it fired on the first pull. I guess in their opinion that doesn't make them look bad. I had the choke on when I did the compression test, compression is actually 115psi.

It still isn't running great, I think the carb needs cleaning, which is what I took it to them in the first place for. Are there any links to cleaning the carb, or is it pretty straight forward?

Thanks again guys. Wish I would've found this site first.

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Not the best photo but from what I can see you do have scoriing and significant blow by.
So if it was in my shop you would be up for piston & rings or I would not take on the repair.
Again it is the warrantee problem.
Down here if I fixed it , any proble it came back with I would be obliged to repair and I can leagally only charge for parts on a warrantee job.
Don't know what sort of consummer protection legislation you have over there.

There are heaps of U-tube videos out there on cleaning cube carbs.
Taryl fixes All
Donny Boy
E-fix it
Joe Pace ( Husqvarna service school )

Are all recommended.

Just remember because some idiot with no idea what they are doing but a massive ego got shown by a monkey how to video himself and load it onto U - Tube does not mean you should follow his advice.
99% of what is out there is ego fodder for the ignorant.
Anything linked to an omline retailer is usually good as they have a real business and reputation to protect.
Any one who prattles on about checking pop off pressures is best avoided.
Any one who looks at a gasket and says "that looks OK so it can go back in is a hillbilly and best avoided.

get the gasket kit, not the full rebuild kit as they cost near the replacement cost of the carb.
If you know some one with an ultrasonic cleaner they are about to become your second best friend.
A jewelry one more than good enough for a carb.

Finally they are made is a surgically sterile factory because the tiniest bit of dust can cause big problems.
So clean , clean clean is the magic word.
If you have to leave the carb make sure you cover it or place it is a clean container with a lid.

Most times there will be no more crud in there other than what you see on the internal filter.
Varnish blockages are the only thing that requires a full strip down . but a dip in ultrasonic cleaner will generally fix it.

My success rate is only about 75% so don't worry if you can not fix it.

Before you tear into the carb do all the tests that Joe Pace shows you.
you can do a lot of damage fixing problems that were never there in the first place.

Shall not do it again.

I would remove the name, but I can't see where I can edit posts. The fact of the matter is, I took in a running machine and was given something back that didn't run and told that it wouldn't run for them and was told it was garbage. It then started first pull when I got it home.

I popped off the carb, sprayed it with carb cleaner, topped off fuel, quick tune and now it runs fine. I'm not expecting another 20 years out of it, but that is what I expected the dealer to do.

Oddly enough, the customer in front of me was also offered to have his equipment recycled.

Mission said:

I popped off the carb, sprayed it with carb cleaner, topped off fuel, quick tune and now it runs fine. I'm not expecting another 20 years out of it, but that is what I expected the dealer to do.

Oddly enough, the customer in front of me was also offered to have his equipment recycled.

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Great! I'm glad to hear that!:thumbsup:

reynoldston said:

Get your mower and run from that dealer. Just how do you inspect a cylinder through the intake or exhaust? I never heard such a BS story. How nice of them to recycle your old mower? resell it? I don't know what why will charge you but its a complete rip off what ever it will be. A :thumbdown: on that dealer.

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My father took a chain saw in and he got the same B.S that you did from our friendly Stihl Dealer. They didn't return the saw to him and just basically told him it was junk, not worth fixing. I went back to the dealer about a week later to retrieve the broken/junk saw that they kept and they wanted to know why I wanted it, what was I going to do with. Geez man some/a lot of these dealers will rip you off without a secound thought. After speaking with my father about his experience, lol they tried their hardest to sell him a new one and luckily he was in a cheap mood that day! Not to crap on Dealers, but I've been burnt more than once by Elite Stihl Dealers. Old thread but hopefully it may save someone some money and hassle one day. Hope it worked out for you!

I wonder why you can't name the business on this forum?

I understand there are probably lots of legitimate, reputable business that can not please a customer no matter what, but there is probably an equal number of scumbags too (This dealer definitely sounded like a scumbag).

Another recourse in the Better Business Bureau and local TV news stations usually take on customer complaints (if legitimate).

Regards

Jeff

Nobody cares about the BBB anymore; their rankings are pretty much useless these days. I've had customers and even neighbors of customers threaten to report me to the BBB. One was a neighbor of a customer this summer because she claimed I was breaking the law eating my lunch in my truck with it idling and I refused to turn it off. :laughing:

In any case it's hard to say whether a dealer is trying to rip you off or giving and honest opinion on whether it's time to scrap a machine. "Not worth fixing" is a judgement call. They don't make much on small equipment... on the order of 20%...they usually stand to make more on parts and service.

There is a very simple way to handle these dealers. Contact Stihl directly with your problem, and let them know you will be contacting the local TV investigators who love these type of situations, if they don’t get back to you. It is against the law for the dealer not to return your equipment back to you, although it may be in a basket, due to tear down to find a problem. If the dealer does as you said, yours will not be the first time they have heard a complaint. These guys give all dealers, no matter the brand a bad name, even though the only make up 5% of the industry. Complaining here will sooth you nerves, but really never solves the problem.