The worst customer support I have ever experienced!

[Modifiedmark]

Speaking from a dealer's point of view. Warranty only covers manufacturing defects in the material and craftsmanship of the product regardless who manufactured the product. Power equipment manufacturers and power equipment dealers have absolutely no control over the manufacturing of fuel. We have no control over fuel stations increasing the gasoline/ethanol mix ratio to make a few extra pennies either. I haven't seen any Dolmar, Stihl, Husqvarna/Jonsered gas stations around. Have you? We have no control over Joe Homeowners 30 year old rusty gas can he decides to mix his fuel in either. We have absolutely no control over what the EPA decides to force/mandate. The EPA mandates every piece of power equipment to be screaming lean, creating excessive heat and rpm issues.

A dealer must always error on the side of caution everytime someone comes in with warranty issues. Most of the time they are looking to get something for nothing. They are not afraid to lie/cheat to the dealers face to get it. Manufacturers, dealers, and their employees are not stupid. If a warranty claim get rejected by the manufacturer, guess what? The dealer gets to pay for it out of his pocket. That mean's less money make payroll, less money to pay bills/insurance/taxes, and less money to take care of his family. Yep, dealership owner's and their employees have families to support too. Dealerships can also be investigated, hauled to court, and fined if the manufacturer suspects you're passing frivolous warranty claims. So THINK before you whine and cry to your dealer over a rejected warranty.

I just finished repairing 3 month old Dolmar PS-5100 S w/a leaky intake boot, scored piston and cylinder. The customer was also running mix fuel out of his pontoon boat from last summer. So a combination of an air leak, excessive rpm, excessive heat, and rancid improperly mixed fuel destroyed his saw. We were able to warranty the leaky intake boot and some of the labor.

Old fuel burns at a much higher temperature. Old fuel also burns very inefficiently, causing starting trouble, idle trouble, power trouble, excessive carbon build up, and can ultimately destroy your equipment. Manufacturer's and dealer's will automatically reject a warranty if old fuel is suspected. If your fuel is older than about 3-4 weeks it's junk. Plain and simple. Mark your fuel cans with a purchase date and a 3-4 week expiration date. Always use a quality name brand mix oil. Remember, your air cooled saw engine runs 2-3 times the rpm your liquid cooled car/truck does at full throttle. Saw engines operate at much higher temperatures than you car/truck does. Fresh fuel, quality mix oil, proper carb adjustments, and air flow are all that keep your saw from burning up.


Nick

You really believe that fuel is junk after 3-4 weeks?

Bull crap.

 

[roncoinc]

[QUOTE Get another stihl and see if it fails. It wont, have a tie breaker. Stihl will win!!][/QUOTE]

You are probly correct,,until another saw comes along.then the odds change again !

Fact is a chainsaw loosing a cylinder, no matter the cause is no big deal. All saws regardless of brand loose a cylinder from time to time.

That is so true and why i dont go along with all this one brand better than the other and "this" brand fails more etc..
it has been discussed at length an mentioned many times even in this thread about sending saws out to lean..
Dolmar does NOT have a dealer set up like some brands,,thats thier fault i guess but joe shmo trying to make a buck out of his used car dealership is not set up as well as others to take care of customers so the result is to the end user sometimes less than satisfactory..
it is all to bad for the reputation of a really fine piece of equipment too..
my favorite brand ?? i like em all !! ( but my dollys get preferance

 

[roncoinc]

Saw engines operate at much higher temperatures than you car/truck does

So what temp DOe'S a saw operate at ??
i been playing with an infared temp guage and find with that they are not as hot as you think.. next step is the thermister on my fluke mounted inside muffler to measur exhaust gas temp..
all this started to find what paint i could use on a muffler..

 

[roncoinc]

I'm reading that out of eight saws, you got three that run. Hope your luck is better at the card table. REJ2

Like the problems you were "reading" into the dolmars you are again "reading" improperly..


note:

got 3 husky's, two have needed new piston kits,3rd needed a new carb.. so 3 out of 3 = %100 failure rate..
got two stihl's,only one needed fixing =%50 failure rate..
got 3 dolmars,one needed fixing,, =%33.3 failure rate..

notice what the saws needed? (past tense)..that meens they are fixed and all running fine...
i only have 14 saws and they ALL run nicely,,oopps,,13 now,gave away a stihl this evening..
with all the dolmars that blow up i wish i could find one to work on but i cant

 

[Trigger Man]

I think its safe to say that most of the issues with the 5100's is that there leaving dealers shelves unadjusted (set up to lean) Maybe dolmar should be more cautious as to who they allow to sell there products? Has Dolmar ever released a service update to dealers to make sure the 5100 series saws being sold should be checked before being sold?
But what I would like to know is what was the issue with the OP's saw because that looks like something other than running lean.

 

[JT78]

After recently working on a 5100 I think the problem is coming from where the boot connects to the intake of the cylinder it just has a little spring to hold it tight to the cylinder and could see a huge problem there with airleaks. That mixed with the fact that they set them so lean at the dealer is probably the reason so many are burning up.

 

[THALL10326]

I think its safe to say that most of the issues with the 5100's is that there leaving dealers shelves unadjusted (set up to lean) Maybe dolmar should be more cautious as to who they allow to sell there products?
But what I would like to know is what was the issue with the OP's saw because that looks like something other than running lean.

No kidding, me too. That piston does not look like any lean running scoring I've ever seen. It looks more like something sheered the left side of the piston. 3/4 of what you can see through the exhaust looks like new. I see no way possible 3/4 of the piston was cooler than that 1/4 part thats runined. My guess and its only a guess is maybe the piston pin clip came off and got wedged between the piston and cylinder. If you look closely the line where the new looking part stops and the torn up part begins is a striaght up and down line.

 

[roncoinc]

Madsaw Here is the pics of the dead 5100 I have here. I have not pulled the saw apart to check over the other piston yet. Want to pressure vac test it first
Bob

after a new piston in mine the press/vac test showed a leak on bottom of intake boot..
took it off and inspected and looked fine..gave everything a wipe and back together and no leak..be interesting to know if others have found the same thing..

 

[spacemule]

Mine's bigger than you guyses. opcorn:

Oh yeah, Stihl sucks.

 

[THALL10326]

Mine's bigger than you guyses. opcorn:

Oh yeah, Stihl sucks.

Hey Space good to see you pop in. Since ya here look at that piston and tell me what you think happened to it. No, I'm not paying a retainer upfront before you state your opinion either,hehehe

 

[spacemule]

Hey Space good to see you pop in. Since ya here look at that piston and tell me what you think happened to it. No, I'm not paying a retainer upfront before you state your opinion either,hehehe

Looks to me like a Stihl head sabotaged it. How else would a dolmar score a piston?

 

[Trigger Man]

Something had to have scored that cylinder other than a lean condition, If I was the op i would ask dolmar to inspect it for piece of mind.

 

[spacemule]

Something had to have scored that cylinder other than a lean condition, If I was the op i would ask dolmar to inspect it for piece of mind.

I wouldn't think a piece of mind would be hard enough to score it? They're pretty squishy.

 

[rbmopar]

You really believe that fuel is junk after 3-4 weeks?

Bull crap.

I Agree. I would be willing to bet that most of the non-oxegenated fuel that I buy is that old straight out of the pump. It is a low demand product, and they don't move that much of it.

 

[Trigger Man]

LOL I don't know some of the as members heads are pretty thick.

 

[THALL10326]

Looks to me like a Stihl head sabotaged it. How else would a dolmar score a piston?

Naaaaaaaaa hell we only sabotage Husky, you know that and we do it dayumm good too,LOLOLOL

 

[THALL10326]

Speaking from a dealer's point of view. Warranty only covers manufacturing defects in the material and craftsmanship of the product regardless who manufactured the product. Power equipment manufacturers and power equipment dealers have absolutely no control over the manufacturing of fuel. We have no control over fuel stations increasing the gasoline/ethanol mix ratio to make a few extra pennies either. I haven't seen any Dolmar, Stihl, Husqvarna/Jonsered gas stations around. Have you? We have no control over Joe Homeowners 30 year old rusty gas can he decides to mix his fuel in either. We have absolutely no control over what the EPA decides to force/mandate. The EPA mandates every piece of power equipment to be screaming lean, creating excessive heat and rpm issues.

A dealer must always error on the side of caution everytime someone comes in with warranty issues. Most of the time they are looking to get something for nothing. They are not afraid to lie/cheat to the dealers face to get it. Manufacturers, dealers, and their employees are not stupid. If a warranty claim get rejected by the manufacturer, guess what? The dealer gets to pay for it out of his pocket. That mean's less money make payroll, less money to pay bills/insurance/taxes, and less money to take care of his family. Yep, dealership owner's and their employees have families to support too. Dealerships can also be investigated, hauled to court, and fined if the manufacturer suspects you're passing frivolous warranty claims. So THINK before you whine and cry to your dealer over a rejected warranty.I just finished repairing 3 month old Dolmar PS-5100 S w/a leaky intake boot, scored piston and cylinder. The customer was also running mix fuel out of his pontoon boat from last summer. So a combination of an air leak, excessive rpm, excessive heat, and rancid improperly mixed fuel destroyed his saw. We were able to warranty the leaky intake boot and some of the labor.

Old fuel burns at a much higher temperature. Old fuel also burns very inefficiently, causing starting trouble, idle trouble, power trouble, excessive carbon build up, and can ultimately destroy your equipment. Manufacturer's and dealer's will automatically reject a warranty if old fuel is suspected. If your fuel is older than about 3-4 weeks it's junk. Plain and simple. Mark your fuel cans with a purchase date and a 3-4 week expiration date. Always use a quality name brand mix oil. Remember, your air cooled saw engine runs 2-3 times the rpm your liquid cooled car/truck does at full throttle. Saw engines operate at much higher temperatures than you car/truck does. Fresh fuel, quality mix oil, proper carb adjustments, and air flow are all that keep your saw from burning up.


Nick

Alot of your post there is correct but what I put in bold is wrong 100%. That post does show a awful lot of attitude on you. You shouldn't feel every customer with a problem is out to screw you, some problems are the manufacturer's defects and need to be address without accusing the buyer.

None of that post excuses the fact Dale's dealer did a piss poor job of finding the the true fault with his saw. He also did not whine, he merely wanted his saw repaired. That long post does not excuse his dealer of saying bad gas when it was the dealers own gas they put in it and then later said it was bad fuel. As you can see Dolmar took a different view than the dealer and made it right.

 

[Madsaw]

No kidding, me too. That piston does not look like any lean running scoring I've ever seen. It looks more like something sheered the left side of the piston. 3/4 of what you can see through the exhaust looks like new. I see no way possible 3/4 of the piston was cooler than that 1/4 part thats runined. My guess and its only a guess is maybe the piston pin clip came off and got wedged between the piston and cylinder. If you look closely the line where the new looking part stops and the torn up part begins is a striaght up and down line.

Thall
The dealer that pulled the saw down that I got said everything was where it should have been. No clips missing or nothing.
I am thinking one of 3 things would cause this. Air leak on the base gasket. It will take time to develop scoring to cause a twisting of the piston during travel due to more friction on the piston. Or bad bearings causing miss alingment of piston in bore. Or bent rod or crank.
As you can see in my pics the majority of the scoreing is just left of the exhaust port. thus causing drag on that side making the piston not proper lined up in the bore. Also the machine marks are gone and the surface is shiny above the ring on the clutch side. As to the flywheel side being carbon deposits and machine marks. This also shows that the piston was traveling crooked. The more I look at it I would really expect to find some sort of air leak at the base gasket. I saw where the base gasket leaked on a 261 husky and caused scoreing like this.

Bob

 

[Taxmantoo]

LOL I don't know some of the as members heads are pretty thick.

 

[Kemper]

This thread has gone kinda wild with alot of what if's and you should this and that. I say Dale should just let em fix the saw and go from there. No need for anymore finger pointing and should have's or could have's and on and on.

Fact is a chainsaw loosing a cylinder, no matter the cause is no big deal. All saws regardless of brand loose a cylinder from time to time.

The big deal pointed out goes back to sqaure one, service after the sale. In Dale's case service after the sale failed much more so than the saw. He by no means should have had to go through all that to merely get his saw repaired. Dolmar's fault, not really, dealer's fault, 100%. No manufacturer can police every dealer for every dispute that flares up. In most cases the manufacturer never even hears about these disputes at all. There are going to be disputes regardless of brand. From what I read Dolmar took the dispute and resolved it witihin 1 hour after talking to Dale. Far as I'm concerned Dolmar did good. One phone call and they took care of it, can't ask for much more than that.

The saw in this thread got a bad rap because a poor dealer. This is how most saws get a bad rap. No matter the brand or model if you got a bad dealer standing behind it and a problem does come up the saw brand gets the bad rap, thats just the way it is...

Very well said!!