Help!! Mower maintenance gone wrong!

[lm002]

Hello all,
I own a small mobile mower maintanence buisness (there's only 2 of us). We had gotten pretty buisy so rather than doing the maintanence at the owners house, we picked it up and did it in the shop. We didn't start it up in front of him. :mur: When we got it to the shop I couldn't get it to start no matter what I tried. At one point I had the air filter off and forgot to replace it before starting, and it started up and ran perfectly. I then placed and removed the filter while it was running, I figured out that the filter was completely choking off the engine. So I then did the Maintenance as I normally would: spark plug, oil change, new air filter, sharpened the blade, and cleaned it up a little. Then I used it a little and it worked perfect. Then I returned it, and was paid in full. Then today I got a text that said this, "Hi. Mowed for the 2 nd time since you tuned up my mower. 1st mowing was very slow and sputtered. Tonight the mower died. I took of the cap to the air filter an it's severely frayed. After mowing the front yard I was already out of gas. Had to refill a second time. In past Yard only takes 1 fill to mow entire space." He then said " and now it smokes, which it never used to do." This sounds pretty fishy to me. First of all, how could he have used it at all before the service? How could anything I had done make it run like this, especially when it had worked great before we returned it?
Any help will be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

[Rivets]

This does happen to all of us. Do you have the engine number so we know what you are talking about. Can you get the mower back to do an inspection to find the problem.

 

[Brucebotti]

I wonder if it's a problem with the mower or the operator (trying to pull a fast one on you)...:thumbdown:
Bruce

 

[MowGuy]

Hmm yea sounds fishy operator. i do electrical machine maintenance at a manufacturing plant so i hear it all haha. "Oh i dont know how it happened it just took off all by itself and ran into the fence":confused2:

But i had a lawnboy once the guy said he couldnt get it started, i even tried in front of him and it did nothing but had compression and i could smell fuel so i knew it was gettin gas. Take it home check for spark had none. thinking well coil must have died as there isnt much else it could be. replaced the $60 coil same sparkplug and fired right up and ran perfectly. cleaned it up and got it back to them, next weekend i get a call saying it wont start again. i tell them im sorry and i can come over as soon as i can. i go check it out and the coil died again! so i go back to the mower parts place and they say well thers no returns on electrical parts. I tell them yes i know but this lasted one mow job and it died again i just want another one on exchange as this one is defective. So after a bit of arguing i get a replacement from them and put it on and runs great again and havent heard anything from the people for over a year now.

so just because parts are new doesnt mean thier good. But in the OP's case i would get the mower back check for anything suspicious (big nicks outa the blade etc)

 

[ThaxtexGM]

I get this a lot one mower came back with half a tank of water! In it, Yep it's there petrol can when posable get them to bring there petrol can with them and you clean it out.

Look the guy in the eyes when talking to him you will know if he is lying to you, what I would do is give him he's money back and tell him not to come back, you will be amazed with how quick he will change

Not all people are nice I have turned work away if I feel it's going to turn in to a nightmare.

 

[mistermowerman]

I get this a lot one mower came back with half a tank of water! In it, Yep it's there petrol can when posable get them to bring there petrol can with them and you clean it out.

Look the guy in the eyes when talking to him you will know if he is lying to you, what I would do is give him he's money back and tell him not to come back, you will be amazed with how quick he will change

Not all people are nice I have turned work away if I feel it's going to turn in to a nightmare.

Hello ,one of my customers contacted me because nether of her mowers would start , both where full of water along with the fuel can .Turns out her son was taking the petrol and filling the can with water hoping she would not notice Gary :smile:

 

[ThaxtexGM]

LOL no that's cool

One customer rang and said my mower is smoking all the time ask them to bring it in and I will have a look.

It had two stroke mix in the petrol