Warranty issue dispute with Kubota - Advice anyone

[shooterdon]

Good job CR.

Glad you helped the fellow out.

 

[Takman]

I have seen countless tractors from all different brands come in with a full overflow tank and an empty radiator! They are set up to keep coolant from hitting the ground in an overheat situation. It's really a overflow catch not a real coolant reservoir. If you don't open the actual radiator cap a person has zero idea what's really going on.

 

[RickB]

OP should have gotten
high gauge / alarms
View attachment 643988

Wrong. No liquid around the sender, no signal. Hot air will not affect the sending unit. Typical, generally universal situation with liquid cooled engines.

 

[RickB]

1. How old is it? 1,200 hrs could be a 2014 or 2020.
2. How did it get a hole in the tube? And where in the tube?

1. I have owned it for two years - Bought it new
2. Dealer says it was in a small tube beneath the engine. Not sure what the tube function is. I assume some sort of return or sensing tube. No idea how it was caused. Could have been a stick hitting it.

Thanks

I do not disagree with you completely. I also understand that most engines work on this premise. However, I do not know a single person that opens their hood on a car or tractor and checks the radiator for fluid prior to operating. If the fluid all leaked out while parked, how would anyone know. We always checked fluids, oil, radiator reservoir etc regularly. No obvious sign of a problem

The critical question is what caused the tube to fail? The causal part will be the tube, the cause of the failure is what determines warranty eligibility.
I had a customer bring in an L3901 because the DPF would not regenerate. Turns out he had run a stick through the radiator which drained it and the water jacket in the engine block. The temp sender would not read air temps, would not allow the regen to proceed due to low coolant temp. Why he did not cook the engine I will never know. His insurance paid the repair, not warranty. In that case and this, a coolant leak amounting to over a gallon of fluid should have been seen or smelled.

Lacking the opportunity to inspect the damaged tube it is impossible to speculate on warranty eligibility.

 

[BrkMstr]

I have seen countless tractors from all different brands come in with a full overflow tank and an empty radiator! They are set up to keep coolant from hitting the ground in an overheat situation. It's really a overflow catch not a real coolant reservoir. If you don't open the actual radiator cap a person has zero idea what's really going on.

Actually it's a catch 22 on the manufactures side, if they tell you to check the fluid level by removing the radiator cap, radiators can remain hot for a long time - if the consumer checks it and it's hot we all know what happens - sorta like the individual that got burnt from coffee and sued / won because she was not told it was "that hot" - to prevent this manufactures on most liquid cooled combustion engines stared directing the consumer to check the fluid via the plastic tank - may not be the right way but it's the liability way - so in essence right or wrong OP may have a case.....

 

[Jstpssng]

Actually it's a catch 22 on the manufactures side, if they tell you to check the fluid level by removing the radiator cap, radiators can remain hot for a long time - if the consumer checks it and it's hot we all know what happens - sorta like the individual that got burnt from coffee and sued / won because she was not told it was "that hot" - to prevent this manufactures on most liquid cooled combustion engines stared directing the consumer to check the fluid via the plastic tank - may not be the right way but it's the liability way - so in essence right or wrong OP may have a case.....

I wish people would stop misconstruing that McDonald's case, as it wasn't as cut and dried as people like to make it seem. She received 3rd degree burns, and originally just asked McDonald's to help with the hospital bills. It wasn't until after they refused that she contacted a lawyer, and the rest is history.


Or perhaps I should say that the rest is an urban legend.

 

[sd455dan]

1. How old is it? 1,200 hrs could be a 2014 or 2020.
2. How did it get a hole in the tube? And where in the tube?

1. I have owned it for two years - Bought it new
2. Dealer says it was in a small tube beneath the engine. Not sure what the tube function is. I assume some sort of return or sensing tube. No idea how it was caused. Could have been a stick hitting it.

Thanks

Any chance you have KTAC insurance? If so would it cover it?

 

[Fallon]

I wish people would stop misconstruing that McDonald's case, as it wasn't as cut and dried as people like to make it seem. She received 3rd degree burns, and originally just asked McDonald's to help with the hospital bills. It wasn't until after they refused that she contacted a lawyer, and the rest is history.


Or perhaps I should say that the rest is an urban legend.

I agree on that lawsuit, McDonnalds paid huge to try & discredit her in the court of public opinion after the fact. That lawsuit was very just due to their repeated negligence.

My read on the previous post is Kubota or manufacturers in general telling users to just pop the radiator cap could be the equivalent of McDonnals serving the dangerous coffee. There are plenty of not super mechanically inclined people that might pop that cap when it's hot & end up in a similar situation. Might not be a stretch to see that manual & design to be echos of the McDonalds coffee thing. And that's not really a bad thing.

 

[ovrszd]

I'm guessing since the OP hasn't offered any answers in regards to this mystery "tube".

I'm guessing it's the tube from the coolant reservoir to the radiator.

When the engine gets hot it expels any excess fluid thru this tube to the reservoir. After you shutoff the engine and it cools it sucks the fluid back into the radiator. Great setup. When everything is working you never have to top off the radiator. It reuses what would normally be spit onto the ground.

If the tube has a hole it will expel the heated fluid onto the ground. When the engine cools it cannot create a vacuum and refill from the reservoir. It only sucks air thru the hole. Eventually an overheat situation will occur. Very possible that the gauge won't reflect this.

My old Fords don't have reservoirs. I check the radiators just as often as I check engine oil.

I'm also guessing many of the readers/posters in this thread are old enough to remember when radiators didn't have a "reservoir". I'm also guessing that many of the readers/posters in this thread have overheated an engine or two out of neglect to check the radiator when cold.

 

[Jstpssng]

My 275 didn't have a tank; it just expelled coolant onto the ground. There was a "whistle" to let you know when it overheated. Until I had the tank cover replaced so that the radiator cap fit properly, it overheated a lot- especially when bush hogging.

Checking the coolant when it's cold won't cause it to blow up in your face. I'm very cautious about that, as I received second degree burns years ago when somebody removed a radiator cap which he though I had vented. (I had tried, but the engine was so overheated that I didn't.) If I hadn't been wearing eyeglasses I'm not sure what it would have done. The cap hit a car which was fueling at the adjacent pump.