I farm with my dad for a living and grew up using his Stihl Farm Boss. I had some work lined up on the side this winter and felt bad using his saw to make my own money (okay, I was looking for an excuse to buy a better saw), and after reading a lot of threads on this site, I bought a new 372XP X-Torq in late December. The first few tanks of fuel, it ran perfectly. Then it began doing the following: starts as (I think) it should: pull the choke, fires on the second or third pull, push the choke in, starts on the first or second pull. However, if I squeeze the throttle, the saw dies. If I do nothing and let it idle, the saw will die after idling for a few seconds. If I gently squeeze and then blip the throttle, it will die shortly after returning to idle. If I hold the throttle wide open, it will briefly cut out two or three times before returning to max RPM. If I run it WOT for 5-10 seconds, it will usually hold an idle fine after that, but it will still occasionally die if I squeeze the throttle too quickly. Generally the problem disappears after a few cuts.
I brought it to the dealer where I bought it and described the issue. I showed him the spark plug, because it seemed dark to me (I'm not knowledgeable about chainsaws, just through experience with other small engines). He went in the back, showed it to his mechanic, came back, and told me it had been hot and hadn't been getting enough oil--"what kind of oil are you using?" Told him I'd used the 50:1 pre-mix I'd had to buy from him to get the warranty, and after that, I'd mixed Husqvarna brand synthetic oil at 50:1. He said, "did you shake your fuel can before you fueled up every time". No, I've never done that, but it had been sloshing around in the bed of my truck all day, and I went through the can I mixed in a couple days, so it didn't sit long. So he said the problem was phase separation, showed me a measuring cup on his desk with gas and oil separated. Told me to go dump my fuel and mix new. I asked him if it was possible it needed to be tuned. He said no. Asked him if he could have his mechanic take a look at it. He said sure, it'll be a week or two. I had work to do, so I declined to leave it with him.
Dumped my fuel. Mixed more. After reading threads on this site, I used 93 octane and mixed 40:1. Same result.
I've had other problems that aren't as big of a deal. Two of the three machine screws holding the top cover on were gone in the first half hour of running it. I used Lok-tite after that, and another screw recently broke off flush with the bottom housing during normal operation. Today, I pushed the kill switch to run, and it broke clean off.
Did I buy a lemon? Or is this normal. Starting to feel like the dealer had one that fell off the truck set aside for the first dumb young farmer to walk in. My dad's saw cost half as much, is 15 years old, has been run over by a steel-tracked Bobcat, and starts and runs without fail.
If this wasn't the most expensive tool I've ever bought and still under warranty, I'd be playing with the tuning. Any advice appreciated.
I brought it to the dealer where I bought it and described the issue. I showed him the spark plug, because it seemed dark to me (I'm not knowledgeable about chainsaws, just through experience with other small engines). He went in the back, showed it to his mechanic, came back, and told me it had been hot and hadn't been getting enough oil--"what kind of oil are you using?" Told him I'd used the 50:1 pre-mix I'd had to buy from him to get the warranty, and after that, I'd mixed Husqvarna brand synthetic oil at 50:1. He said, "did you shake your fuel can before you fueled up every time". No, I've never done that, but it had been sloshing around in the bed of my truck all day, and I went through the can I mixed in a couple days, so it didn't sit long. So he said the problem was phase separation, showed me a measuring cup on his desk with gas and oil separated. Told me to go dump my fuel and mix new. I asked him if it was possible it needed to be tuned. He said no. Asked him if he could have his mechanic take a look at it. He said sure, it'll be a week or two. I had work to do, so I declined to leave it with him.
Dumped my fuel. Mixed more. After reading threads on this site, I used 93 octane and mixed 40:1. Same result.
I've had other problems that aren't as big of a deal. Two of the three machine screws holding the top cover on were gone in the first half hour of running it. I used Lok-tite after that, and another screw recently broke off flush with the bottom housing during normal operation. Today, I pushed the kill switch to run, and it broke clean off.
Did I buy a lemon? Or is this normal. Starting to feel like the dealer had one that fell off the truck set aside for the first dumb young farmer to walk in. My dad's saw cost half as much, is 15 years old, has been run over by a steel-tracked Bobcat, and starts and runs without fail.
If this wasn't the most expensive tool I've ever bought and still under warranty, I'd be playing with the tuning. Any advice appreciated.