Stihl M-Tronic problems

[OpenCanopyTree]

Anyone else out there having problems with their M-Tronic carbs?
My 201 t-c recently started acting up. At idle the chain would still be spinning quite quickly, and nothing I could do would remedy the issue. I brought my saw into the dealership on December 12th, and they still haven't gotten an answer out of Stihl. Pretty inconvenient considering it is my only top handle, and I'm a climber.


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[deelgaarddevil]

I am not familiar with m tronic carbs, but a friend of my had almost the same problem and he gave the carb a good old punch with a hand and it worked [emoji23].....

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[Firemoore98]

I have the exact same saw as yours and zero issue. Wish I could help, heck if you lived closer I'd let you borrow my ms201TCM

Keep us posted on what they come up with, I always like to know common problems for a model I own.

Jason


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[Conquistador3]

I will ask my Stihl dealership this week if they ever had a similar problem. Honestly the only problem I've had with M-Tronic so far is the much advertised "fuel savings" only exist on paper but I am OK with it if this means the saw runs a little richer.

 

[deelgaarddevil]

But if the chain is spinning quickly at idle its pretty dangerous if you are high up in a tree... well then you have to master the chainbrake[emoji6]

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[RiesePING]

nothing I could do would remedy the issue.


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What did you try to do to fix it?

 

[CR500]

Did you try your summer/ winter shutter?

This happened on my 441 one night when it was about10-15 out.

I moved the shutter to the winter position and it stopped the chain spinning at idle.

In the summer position in the summer I had no issues

Sent from my non internal combustion device.

 

[newforest]

On November 20th I gave a saw back to my local dealer. It was running rich since the day I bought it. I managed to put about 50 hours of use on it before it would just foul a new plug in about 20 minutes or so. Still no word back from the dealer, the distributor, or Stihl.

 

[Firemoore98]

On November 20th I gave a saw back to my local dealer. It was running rich since the day I bought it. I managed to put about 50 hours of use on it before it would just foul a new plug in about 20 minutes or so. Still no word back from the dealer, the distributor, or Stihl.

Sorry to hear about that, darn long time to be down a saw.

What model was it? M-tronic?

Jason


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[svk]

If your dealer cannot figure out the problem in a reasonable amount of time then your only option is to find a different dealer who can. If you drop the coin on a pro saw and rely on it to put food on the table they shouldn't be sitting on it for weeks.

 

[newforest]

It was a model rarely sold in the USA, a 560 C-M clearing saw (M = M-Tronic). I am working in Virginia this winter and am a little tempted to walk in the front door of Stihl USA and ask a few questions. Though I asked around my hometown about this dealer (my first purchase from them) and had good feedback about them, it is pretty clear to me that they aren't qualified to handle M-Tronic questions. At one point the owner said he had to get a new laptop to operate the M-Tronic diagnostic software - about 3 weeks ago.

I learned fuel injection systems owning a 1980s vehicle and it was sometimes kind of nice to discover how simple things like cleaning a ground point could cure problems in those early systems. So sometimes I am optimistic that it will prove to be a easy fix.

But at this point I know I am just unlucky to have purchased from a dealer with too low of a volume selling for professional use. When I noted that they wouldn't even stock an MS 261 due to no demand, I should have walked out and found a more experienced dealer. But those are hard to come by in a business that mostly caters to weekend warriors. Imo. That and the 3 tier system Stihl uses seems to possibly create a game of pass-the-buck amongst the three businesses one actually purchases a piece of Stihl equipment from: local dealer - distributor - Stihl USA. The 'distributor rep' always seems to be unavailable for a week or more at a time, for one.

Though I have had much better luck with 2 Auto-Tune saws, I know that one bad saw does not make M-Tronic a bad system. Nor does a local dealer without much experience with M-Tronic saws make for a bad manufacturer network. My closest local Husqvarna dealer won't even sell an Auto-Tune saw, or service one.

 

[svk]

After owning both I think MT seem to tune a little better than AT.

In my experience, many Stihl dealers don't even know their entire saw pro lineup so that doesn't give me much faith in their ability to fix MT issues. And we've certainly seen enough cases on here of some Husky dealers being totally in the dark when it comes to diagnosing AT issues.

 

[Ozhoo]

The beauty of m-tronic is in it's simplicity. There's only 3 parts... a flywheel, control unit and carb. Worst comes to worst, you swap em out. No software to load or update... nothing.

I would be holding that dealer's feet to the fire. There's no excuse to not have it fixed.

 

[newforest]

Sure there is an excuse - which of the 3 businesses will pay for the swapped out part? It should be simple, yes.

My ultimate goal is to re-build a small fleet of these saws, coming from owning several similar non-AT / non-MT saws. I like the idea of modular components, just switch out and go back to work. I can't say I am leaning towards using the Stihl version for that, right now. Or spending another dollar at this particular dealer. But I know A-T and M-T are the future, and it has already arrived.

I sometimes wish the manufacturers of "Pro" grade equipment would identify which of their dealers are "Pro" grade.

 

[svk]

Sure there is an excuse - which of the 3 businesses will pay for the swapped out part? It should be simple, yes.

My ultimate goal is to re-build a small fleet of these saws, coming from owning several similar non-AT / non-MT saws. I like the idea of modular components, just switch out and go back to work. I can't say I am leaning towards using the Stihl version for that, right now. Or spending another dollar at this particular dealer. But I know A-T and M-T are the future, and it has already arrived.

I sometimes wish the manufacturers of "Pro" grade equipment would identify which of their dealers are "Pro" grade.

Stihl has some type of designation for better dealers. I believe it's bronze, silver, gold, and platinum?

 

[hedge hog]

My dealer is platinum and my 441 c m trough him and I for loop
Running poorly,dying in the cut
Had hooked to the laptop 3 different times
every part passed the test
But would fail the completed test
So he sent the results to Germany and they had no idea what was wrong
They told him replace all three parts to make sure
But didn't help

After the third time home and it was still acting funny but not all time
So I did a very good cleaning on it one night and seen carbon build up around the decompression hole and showed him the next day
He plugged it because I never use it
It has never missed a lick since


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[OpenCanopyTree]

The beauty of m-tronic is in it's simplicity. There's only 3 parts... a flywheel, control unit and carb. Worst comes to worst, you swap em out. No software to load or update... nothing.

I would be holding that dealer's feet to the fire. There's no excuse to not have it fixed.

I've realized now that I brought it to the wrong dealership to fix it. Going on a month now, and they're trying to tell me Stihl has no answer for them, and that the saw may need to be sent to Edmonton (250kms away) to be analyzed. Thank god it's winter, and I'm not using the thing every day!


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[OpenCanopyTree]

Did you try your summer/ winter shutter?

This happened on my 441 one night when it was about10-15 out.

I moved the shutter to the winter position and it stopped the chain spinning at idle.

In the summer position in the summer I had no issues

Sent from my non internal combustion device.

Yes, tried that along with a few other things. Only thing that would slow the chain down was the brake!


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[OpenCanopyTree]

What did you try to do to fix it?

Tried to recalibrate it by following the 5 cut instructions in the manual. Then took apart the saw to see if there was any way to manually adjust the carb. No luck there so went to throttle cable, with no luck. This new M-Tronic system gives us no way to tweak the carb.


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[newforest]

I think carbon build-up might be a problem in my saw. Or, it is definitely a problem and it creates worsening feedback effects. It plugged the muffler screen before a gallon of fuel had been run through it, starting with Stihl MotoMix. I suspect the carb jet diameter might be a tad bigger than M-Tronic thinks it is. I ran it with no screen until it wouldn't run.

I don't think the M-Tronic system has anything analogous to an O2 sensor on a vehicle engine, which gives the injector controller some data on the results of controlling the fuel/air mix. In my very un-learned opinion, this means all of the hardware has to perform perfectly, like the software is assuming it does. I could also be totally wrong on my hunch.

I know there is an altitude sensor of some sort in the M-Tronic controller but I don't know which other data it 'senses'. One bad sensor changes everything.

The idea of individual parts passing the diagnostic software tests but not the whole system concerns me.

My saw also has a winter/summer hard setting that I never tried. I never ran it in below freezing temps, though some in relatively 'cool' weather = 40º F


I like that the software keeps track of run-time, I had not heard that before. I would like to access that data myself.


I am on work that doesn't need a clearing saw, until probably June, so I'm not pushing any buttons on trying to get the saw fixed fast. That would just get me more pointless declarations of "we know that model well." Maybe my saw is in Dayton or Virginia Beach by now, who knows. I tried to give it back to the dealer the morning after I bought it; they insisted it was fine.