M-Tronic - Avoid? Or Acquire?

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Doesn`t matter, a dealer is a dealer, to be avoided at all cost.
i have a " Stihl dealer" 3 minutes from the house. My saw shop is 45 min. one way. It's a place i can go and go through old parts drawers,old manuals or go upstairs and look for parts off of old saws instead of them selling me new. I feel i'm one of the lucky ones to have a place like this.
 
This is a great thread, just as good as some of the oil/gas mix ones. Seems to be a stand between people who love new technology and are telling us to get onboard with it as it is inevitable and rarely fails, on the other side are old school like me who like to keep things as simple as possible and see some of the new technology as being an unnecessary complication with potential high repair costs. I drive a corvette with some mind boggling complexity that doesn't improve anything, just makes it more difficult to repair and gets added to the list of just another thing that could fail. Anyone who thinks all new technology is super reliable should visit a car dealership in the morning and talk to drivers who are there because their "check engine" light is on.
 
I waited 34 years before I bought a fuel injected truck, my carbed truck did anything my newer fuel injected truck did or does. 34 years without a breakdown or stupid trouble light coming on, could fix anything on that truck myself. This new truck I can change oil, stupid TPS light has been on since it was 8 months old....LOL
 
You guys make m-tronic and auto-tune sound like some type of black magic, while you use a computer controlled truck or car, personal computer, calculator or cell phone daily. All have been out for years and work well.
It is black magic

Do not forget that you don’t have the right to repair the modules, they can only be accessed with proprietary dealer hardware and software. This is a foot in the door for husky and stihl to make more money at the cost of customer convenience and money. If you swap out a fuel module and or ignition module you just have the firmware updated.
They are experimenting with how people react to this and in my opinion will eventually make more parts that require a computer interface.

If all of this stuff was plug and play and came with a disc and a USB cable I would be very excited for this kind of change to computer controlled. But it very much isn’t.
As a consumer we are at the edge of a beginning of being ****ed for doing our own repairs. Make no mistake
 
It is black magic

Do not forget that you don’t have the right to repair the modules, they can only be accessed with proprietary dealer hardware and software. This is a foot in the door for husky and stihl to make more money at the cost of customer convenience and money. If you swap out a fuel module and or ignition module you just have the firmware updated.
They are experimenting with how people react to this and in my opinion will eventually make more parts that require a computer interface.

If all of this stuff was plug and play and came with a disc and a USB cable I would be very excited for this kind of change to computer controlled. But it very much isn’t.
As a consumer we are at the edge of a beginning of being ****ed for doing our own repairs. Make no mistake

It's merely a matter of time before the aftermarket comes out with a hand held module OR simply a phone application and a cord to access the computer on the saws. The motorcycle world is FULL of manufacturers trying to keep their hardware/software under wraps and every single one has been broken by smart people.

Just like OBDII...at first, nobody but dealers and high end shops had the tooling to diagnose....now you can get a scanner on Amazon for $30
 
I waited 34 years before I bought a fuel injected truck, my carbed truck did anything my newer fuel injected truck did or does. 34 years without a breakdown or stupid trouble light coming on, could fix anything on that truck myself. This new truck I can change oil, stupid TPS light has been on since it was 8 months old....LOL

I have 2 carb'd trucks. The bigger PITA is firing up in winter after pumping/cranking a while and it SEEMS to be running ok, so head back in.
Come out 15mins later, expecting a thawed out truck, nope... it stalled at some point and it's still a popsicle.
 
I have 2 carb'd trucks. The bigger PITA is firing up in winter after pumping/cranking a while and it SEEMS to be running ok, so head back in.
Come out 15mins later, expecting a thawed out truck, nope... it stalled at some point and it's still a popsicle.
Never had that problem myself, I could build and set those Rochester 4 barrels up to run any way I wanted them to. A slight tweak on the automatic choke , proper working accelerator pump and a top notch battery, old truck fired up and ran sweet summer or winter.
 
I have 2 carb'd trucks. The bigger PITA is firing up in winter after pumping/cranking a while and it SEEMS to be running ok, so head back in.
Come out 15mins later, expecting a thawed out truck, nope... it stalled at some point and it's still a popsicle.
Yup, lots of people forget about carbs in cold weather. They're a massive pain.

No way would I give up FI for carb now-days.
 
Never had that problem myself, I could build and set those Rochester 4 barrels up to run any way I wanted them to. A slight tweak on the automatic choke , proper working accelerator pump and a top notch battery, old truck fired up and ran sweet summer or winter.

My truck fires up and runs sweet no matter the weather or season as well....and at 250k miles on it...I never had to touch the fueling system at all.
 
I'm sure if everything is 100% as it should it'd be fine, but that's the thing, a carb needs tuning for temp changes, altitude, etc.
Most of the time it's setup "good enough"

My brown truck, it's real fussy around 30-40*
-35*, runs fine, 65*, fine.

FI isn't that complicated. IMO it's less "magical rainbows and pixies" than a carb.
 
This is a great thread, just as good as some of the oil/gas mix ones. Seems to be a stand between people who love new technology and are telling us to get onboard with it as it is inevitable and rarely fails, on the other side are old school like me who like to keep things as simple as possible and see some of the new technology as being an unnecessary complication with potential high repair costs. I drive a corvette with some mind boggling complexity that doesn't improve anything, just makes it more difficult to repair and gets added to the list of just another thing that could fail. Anyone who thinks all new technology is super reliable should visit a car dealership in the morning and talk to drivers who are there because their "check engine" light is on.
I don't feel I'm on either side, but I recognize that a certain segment of buyers will see little benefit from the mtronic setup. For a guy making money with a saw then who cares, buy a bunch and try them all.
The OP says money doesnt matter, but its more of a relitive statement because if it didnt why is he asking in the first place, buy them all and try them yourself and you'll know for yourself, thats what I do and I've learned a lot by doing it.
The truth is not everyone will have the same experience with a dealer, with a saw, or be in the same circumstance as I am so there really is no simple solution that will work for each individual, but each individual will have to figure out what works best in their location and circumstances and go with that, it may or may not look like what I would choose to do on the surface, but if I was in their situation I may decide to do what they did.
At the end of the day we all have to make the best decision we can based on what knowledge we have at the time.
 
So why isn't everyone still using one or two man cross cut saws, less moving parts, not worrying about oil and fuel quality, mixing, straight gassing, few break down. Technology, get on board or miss out. You guys sound like my grandfather did. :buttkick::cheers:
Who you talking to.
How many mtronic saws you got, oh wait, how many autotune saws you got lol.
Big storm just went through, dropped power and internet service. Thought I had gotten banned. Checked site on my phone and nope still here, little disappointed. Actually like them all, just worked on an 045, replaced coil and flywheel from an 056. Gentleman wanted to get his fathers saw working again and set it on his shelf. Nice, had no interest in cutting with it, just wanted to have it in running order.
Good thing the powers back on, now you can go get your updates :laugh:.
 
Who you talking to.
How many mtronic saws you got, oh wait, how many autotune saws you got lol.

Good thing the powers back on, now you can go get your updates :laugh:.
550,562,572 and a 390 carb (yuck) . Rebuilt several and super easy to reset carbs, just plug them in. Look at total hours on saw, time at idle, number of starts, fuel quality and more showing how people abuse those saws. People complain about bogging and have never removed and cleaned air filter. M-tronic who would own those :laughing: Power is still out, people come to cabins on Higgins lake (million plus dollar homes) turn on ac and overloads power grid.
 
I'm not sure how to put a price on the fact that I'm smelling less exhaust fumes from the only M-tronic saw I have, a 241C.

Being two feet from a running gasoline engine has got to have long term effects on lungs, etc.
Have you run a 250, 251 and the 241 to give an estimate as to the emission improvements of the stratified charge system by itself (251) and the stratified charge system and M-tronic?

I had to wonder when they came out with low sulfur diesel and the guys in a trench with a diesel plate or jumping compactor running off road.
 
Back
Top