I swear this thing has me so mad, I'm going to just get a case of dynamite and blow this thing up... After years of having wal-mart **** mowers, i the fall of 2017 (16 months ago) I finally broke down and decided to buy a John Deere ZTrack M535 zero-turn mower. Bought it directly from John Deere - not a retail outlet.
Paid a boatload of money for it.
... and now, with only 62 hours on it (16 months later), it runs like a piece of ****.
About every other time I go out, it will start run for 3 hours or so. But after a while, it will start sputtering and then die - acting like it's not getting any gas. I check and the gas tank is still 1/2 full. But I dutifully fill it up the rest of the way - the mower will eventually start, run for a few minutes (cycling between running then dying), then die again after just 1 or 2 minutes.
I have drained the gas tank, thinking maybe some water got in the tank.
I have replaced the fuel filter.
I have replaced the air filter.
I buy premium gas 93-octane... and that's when I can't find ethanol free gas.
If I leave it sitting for a week, we can repeat the process - including it running for 2-3 hours. Which tells me it is NOT simply "bad gas".
I have had the mower into a repair shop 3 times this spring. He drains the tank - fills it up, and it runs for 10 minutes and he calls and says it's fixed.
What in the @$&BO*(&)*@#@ is wrong with this thing?
The longer this goes on, the more I am convinced this is a design defect in this mower. I am quickly becoming one of the worst PR spokesmen for John Deere they have had in this area.
Paid a boatload of money for it.
... and now, with only 62 hours on it (16 months later), it runs like a piece of ****.
About every other time I go out, it will start run for 3 hours or so. But after a while, it will start sputtering and then die - acting like it's not getting any gas. I check and the gas tank is still 1/2 full. But I dutifully fill it up the rest of the way - the mower will eventually start, run for a few minutes (cycling between running then dying), then die again after just 1 or 2 minutes.
I have drained the gas tank, thinking maybe some water got in the tank.
I have replaced the fuel filter.
I have replaced the air filter.
I buy premium gas 93-octane... and that's when I can't find ethanol free gas.
If I leave it sitting for a week, we can repeat the process - including it running for 2-3 hours. Which tells me it is NOT simply "bad gas".
I have had the mower into a repair shop 3 times this spring. He drains the tank - fills it up, and it runs for 10 minutes and he calls and says it's fixed.
What in the @$&BO*(&)*@#@ is wrong with this thing?
The longer this goes on, the more I am convinced this is a design defect in this mower. I am quickly becoming one of the worst PR spokesmen for John Deere they have had in this area.