Brand new kubota L4701, knocking and pouring out white smoke from exhaust.

Rdrett

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Dec 5, 2017
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Paris Ky
I just purchased a new kubota L4701 for the worst dealer I have ever dealt with and it had 4 hours on it when I bought it and at 10 hours it started pouring out white smoke out the exhaust, to the point that you can’t see your hand in front of your face.
Th exhaust outlet is wet with either oil or unburnt fuel.

Every since it was new it has been knocking and the throttle response is lagging. When you rev up the engine it doesn’t respond right away.

Engine oil OK.
 

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fried1765

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Kubota L48 TLB, Ford 1920 FEL, Ford 8N, SCAG Liberty Z, Gravely Pro.
Nov 14, 2019
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I just purchased a new kubota L4701 for the worst dealer I have ever dealt with and it had 4 hours on it when I bought it and at 10 hours it started pouring out white smoke out the exhaust, to the point that you can’t see your hand in front of your face.
Th exhaust outlet is wet with either oil or unburnt fuel.

Every since it was new it has been knocking and the throttle response is lagging. When you rev up the engine it doesn’t respond right away.

Engine oil OK.
A magnificent looking piece of machinery .....with a very scary situation!
Do you have another Kubota dealer within reasonable range, for warranty work?
 

NCL4701

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Sounds like you need to get it to a dealer for warranty, whether it’s the one you dislike or a different one.
 
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Rdrett

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Paris Ky
The dealer I b
A magnificent looking piece of machinery .....with a very scary situation!
Do you have another Kubota dealer within reasonable range, for warranty work?
The dealer I bought it from is 3 hours away from the farm. They can’t even assemble the tractor properly, missing pieces, removed the fender support for some stupid reason and did all kinds of stuff wrong. They sold me rear tire ballast and the manual says that no rear tire ballast should be in the tires with the backhoe installed, when I asked them about it they said kubota doesn’t know what they are talking about and it “should” be okay.

The closest kubota dealer is an hour away crossing some big mountains.
 
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Rdrett

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Paris Ky
Sounds like you need to get it to a dealer for warranty, whether it’s the one you dislike or a different one.
I talked to the dealer I bought it from and he said it “should be okay“.

knocking noise, throttle response issues and white smoke so bad you can’t see your hand in front of your face all sounds okay to them.

I am going to call the closest dealer to the farm a 2 hour round trip in a car will take me 3 hours pulling the tractor.
A lot of issues with a brand new tractor I only put 6 hours on, most of that was just moving it around, very little work actually done with it.
 

NCL4701

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L4701, T2290, WC68, grapple, BB1572, Farmi W50R, Howes 500, 16kW IMD gen, WG24
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I talked to the dealer I bought it from and he said it “should be okay“.

knocking noise, throttle response issues and white smoke so bad you can’t see your hand in front of your face all sounds okay to them.

I am going to call the closest dealer to the farm a 2 hour round trip in a car will take me 3 hours pulling the tractor.
A lot of issues with a brand new tractor I only put 6 hours on, most of that was just moving it around, very little work actually done with it.
It “should be okay”. Unbelievable. I have about 280 hours on mine. Very thankful I’ve never seen white smoke, knocking, or throttle response issues. Not that I’m saying anything you don’t already know, but there’s nothing normal about any of that and whatever is wrong with it is highly unlikely to magically fix itself.
 

North Idaho Wolfman

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Find another dealer, take all documents with you.
 
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Fordtech86

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removed the fender support for some stupid reason
If its like the smaller Ls with the bh77 the support needs to be removed to clear the seat for the backhoe. I see it has the same tool box relocation as the smaller ones (toolbox was mounted to fender support).
 

Rdrett

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Dec 5, 2017
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Paris Ky
From the time I picked up the tractor the throttle response has been an issue. The owners manuals says when starting the tractor ”Set the throttle lever to about 1/2 way.” And when the engine starts it idles about 2-3 seconds and then takes another 4-5 seconds to get to 1/2 throttle and it is lagging the whole way up.

The engine has been knocking since I picked it up, I don’t know if that is normal, my L2501, I bought new and had for 5 years had a little bit of knocking noise as well but not nearly as bad.

I purchased the tractor and in the 6 hours that I have ran it was mostly between 1,000 and 1,500 rpm.
the highest I have ran the tractor was about 2,200 rpm for about 2 hours playing with the backhoe digging out a little drainage ditch. The rest of the time I was just moving it around and using the pallet forks to move lumber.

I had a load of lumber on the pallet forks and parked the tractor in front of the house and left it running at about 1,200 rpm while I quickly unloaded the lumber, the first thing I noticed was a terrible odor, I thought wow that stinks compared to the L2501 without a DPF filter..

A minute later I was in the house sitting down a pile of 2x4’s and I noticed that the whole house was filling up with smoke, I ran outside and once I got on the porch the smoke was heavy, I jumped on the tractor and started Backing it away from the house and as I was backing it away I revved the engine up to about 1,800 RPM to get it away and that is when it started puking out the white smoke so bad you could not see the front of the tractor. Once I got it away from the house I made sure no lights were illuminated on the dash and there were no lights on. I shut the tractor off.

I had a new SGC1072 grapple on the trailer that still needed unloaded so after letting the tractor sit for about 20 minutes I started the tractor and no smoke for the first couple minutes but and then it started smoking again, not as bad but I didn’t run it long, I tried to unload the grapple as quickly as possible.

I checked the oil and it was a hair over the full line but I don’t know if it was 100% on level ground. The fuel tank was full when I bought the tractor and it still has over 3/4 of a tank.

I thought about draining the fuel to see what that looks like.

I think I will do a full inspection to see if it looks like anything has ever been worked on before I bought the tractor, I thought 3.4 hours was a lot of hours for a brand new tractor.

The dealer told me to run it “hard” for a couple of hours and see if it still smokes. You think I should do that or take it to the closest dealer immediately? I have to drive the tractor about 1/2 a mile up the county road to be able to load it, The gravel county road in front of my house is too steep to pull it up the hill. If the tractor quits moving then there is no way for me to take it in for service. I will have to pay a 4WD tow truck to at least pull it up the hill for me.
 

Rdrett

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Dec 5, 2017
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If its like the smaller Ls with the bh77 the support needs to be removed to clear the seat for the backhoe. I see it has the same tool box relocation as the smaller ones (toolbox was mounted to fender support).
I read the installation manual and it says nothing about removing the support. it says to unbolt the toolbox and SMV sign brackets from the support and that is it, nothing about removing the support. I reinstalled the support bracket myself, when I did I had to spread the fenders apart because it was a tight fit. When they removed they did not spread the fenders apart and not only scratched it really bad but also gouged into the metal, like they pried it out from one side instead of spreading out the fenders and taking it out evenly.

They also filled the rear tires with ballast and the owner manual says not to. It says that the fluid in the tires must be removed with the backhoe installed.
‘They didn’t install the rubber plugs on the end of the third function hoses like the manual says, now I have no dust caps for the connections.
‘The backhoe bucket has about 10 shims in it, don’t know if that is normal or it isn’t the correct bucket.

I wish I would of told them to leave it in the crate and I will assemble it.

They just got in my hydraulic thumb and I don’t know if I should trust them to install it properly, there people don’t know how to read a manual.
 

North Idaho Wolfman

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An emissions tractor should NEVER smoke, you have something seriously wrong with it!
Take it to a different dealer now!
 

sheepfarmer

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If you have run the tractor at mostly low rpm for 6 hours, it has almost certainly needed to do a regen cycle and been unable to do it. If you saw no lights I wonder if something is off here?
 

whitetiger

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I just purchased a new kubota L4701 for the worst dealer I have ever dealt with and it had 4 hours on it when I bought it and at 10 hours it started pouring out white smoke out the exhaust, to the point that you can’t see your hand in front of your face.
Th exhaust outlet is wet with either oil or unburnt fuel.

Every since it was new it has been knocking and the throttle response is lagging. When you rev up the engine it doesn’t respond right away.

Engine oil OK.
Remove the fuel fill cap and smell the fuel, the might have gasoline in the tank.

Check the coolant level in the radiator, not the sure tank, and if it is low. If it is, see if the lower radiator hose is off of the radiator or the block.
 
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Rdrett

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Dec 5, 2017
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Paris Ky
Remove the fuel fill cap and smell the fuel, the might have gasoline in the tank.

Check the coolant level in the radiator, not the sure tank, and if it is low. If it is, see if the lower radiator hose is off of the radiator or the block.
i appreciate the tips, I was hoping for some ideals to check out before my 6 hour round trip back to the dealer. I have decided to take it back to the selling dealer to get my $500 refund for the tire ballast and have them remove it per the manual. I am going to take the manuals and proof of everything they did wrong and make them fix it. I have several hours of work to read the assembly instructions for everything to make sure everything was done properly and do a full inspection to dee if anything has previously been worked on before I take it back. the parts breakdown doesn’t show any shims for the bucket and there is at least 10 shims on it. Black shims on one side and silver o the other.
 

Rdrett

Member
Dec 5, 2017
222
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Paris Ky
If you have run the tractor at mostly low rpm for 6 hours, it has almost certainly needed to do a regen cycle and been unable to do it. If you saw no lights I wonder if something is off here?
I was wandering the same thing but no light on the dash but even if it was going through the first regin wo it blow white smoke that bad?
 

NCL4701

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L4701, T2290, WC68, grapple, BB1572, Farmi W50R, Howes 500, 16kW IMD gen, WG24
Apr 27, 2020
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I was wandering the same thing but no light on the dash but even if it was going through the first regin wo it blow white smoke that bad?
It doesn’t blow white smoke during regen and doesn’t regen without lights on the dash.
 

Nicksacco

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Some checks you can do:
White smoke could be indicator of a bad injector or solenoid - dumping too much fuel. Hopefully that's all it is. The wet exhaust outlet kind of indicates that.
It's a common rail system - right?
10 hours and it started blowing smoke makes me think damaged wiring (possibly a mouse fest) ate something.
Hopefully there is no gasoline in the tank but if you had it since 4 hours I don't think you could've put gasoline in the tank. You could pump out the tank and replace the fuel if you suspect bad fuel.
Engine oil level is good? I think you said it was. That's good.
Cracked head can cause coolant to leak into cylinder(s). As someone suggested - check coolant level and type of coolant (while you're there).
Check fuses too - quite interesting no lights are on...
Hopefully it is only something simple.
 

GreensvilleJay

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I'd suggest that he dealer SWAP the loaded tires for dry ones. It's a simple fast, 'everyone win's ' solution. I don't know what he put in to load them but you'll always have problems,like sticky stuck valve cores.
He should actually give you another tractor or at the very least a free loaner ,while yours is being repaired. When repaired, I'd expect copies of all work done,all the old parts( or pictures), and warranty for EVERYTHING as a new tractor NOT the 30 days parts BS some do.
 

jyoutz

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Some checks you can do:
White smoke could be indicator of a bad injector or solenoid - dumping too much fuel. Hopefully that's all it is. The wet exhaust outlet kind of indicates that.
It's a common rail system - right?
10 hours and it started blowing smoke makes me think damaged wiring (possibly a mouse fest) ate something.
Hopefully there is no gasoline in the tank but if you had it since 4 hours I don't think you could've put gasoline in the tank. You could pump out the tank and replace the fuel if you suspect bad fuel.
Engine oil level is good? I think you said it was. That's good.
Cracked head can cause coolant to leak into cylinder(s). As someone suggested - check coolant level and type of coolant (while you're there).
Check fuses too - quite interesting no lights are on...
Hopefully it is only something simple.
With that few hours I wouldn’t check anything. It would be going to warranty repairs at the dealer.
 
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fried1765

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Kubota L48 TLB, Ford 1920 FEL, Ford 8N, SCAG Liberty Z, Gravely Pro.
Nov 14, 2019
7,843
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113
Eastham, Ma
With that few hours I wouldn’t check anything. It would be going to warranty repairs at the dealer.
"Going to warranty repairs at the dealer"

To the selling dealer?.......Who is very obviously a total moron?