svl95-2s skid steer -- my ordeal with DEF error codes....

[whitetiger]

The dealer mechanic worked on my SVL95 middle of June, told me he has no idea what is wrong with it after charging me over $600 bucks for his service, then told me he will submit all data he collected and images of the internals of the DEF injection module to Kubota. That was the last time I talked to him. I left him a message last Wed, but no response so far

You need to find a competent dealer.
We have sold several hundred SVL's in the last few years; probably 40%-45% were SVL95's and SVL97's.
Most units went to businesses and are great machines; many run a good share of the time with a forestry mulcher on them.

Occasionally there is a problem with one, but using KOBD ACE, they are fairly simple to diagnose.

 

[Mak65]

I’d call the dealer every day until they reply. This machine provides part of your income. As someone said above, Kubota should have responded to the dealer by now. Assuming the dealer sent the information on.

 

[whitetiger]

Walk into the dealership, ask them to show you the case they filed. It shows all communications, including the date and time.

 

[tomic]

You need to find a competent dealer.
We have sold several hundred SVL's in the last few years; probably 40%-45% were SVL95's and SVL97's.
Most units went to businesses and are great machines; many run a good share of the time with a forestry mulcher on them.

Occasionally there is a problem with one, but using KOBD ACE, they are fairly simple to diagnose.

That's good to hear you had good luck with the SVLs. Mine ran great as well until this nightmarish E9518 code started plaguing me. I also thought the diagnosis would be a simple matter, but the dealer mechanic ran a number of tests ( regens I believe ) with his laptop plugged into it, and said that the data makes no sense to him at all. He came back again a few days later, and ran another newer test, but that test apparently never completed so he got nothing new. He then performed a DEF injector spray test, and that apparently passed just fine. He then took the DEF injector tube apart, inspected both NOX sensors and the inside of the injector tube and said it all looked OK to him. He said he will send the data to Kubota and let me know -- that was over 2 months ago. I probably need to load up the SVL on a trailer and drive it to another dealer -- but that is over 2 hours away. its just frustrating paying over $600 for diagnosis and getting "don't know what's wrong" answer from that dealership.

 

[tomic]

I’d call the dealer every day until they reply. This machine provides part of your income. As someone said above, Kubota should have responded to the dealer by now. Assuming the dealer sent the information on.

Thank you for the tip -- I pigned them a week ago and if I don't hear back in the next few days I'll start doing so... i ineed that machine running this winter/spring

 

[tomic]

Walk into the dealership, ask them to show you the case they filed. It shows all communications, including the date and time.

Thank you for the tip, if I don't hear from them soon I will do exactly that.

 

[whitetiger]

Your problem appears to be more a dealer problem than a machine problem.
If your problem is with an emissions component, those are still covered under the emissions warranty for a few more years.

 

[tomic]

Your problem appears to be more a dealer problem than a machine problem.
If your problem is with an emissions component, those are still covered under the emissions warranty for a few more years.

Whitetiger, you may be correct that the issues I'm having with my SVL95 are more dealer related than machine related. I'm not so sure though, as I read a number of other posts describing similar issues to what I'm seeing and other dealers being equally stumped. As far as I could tell the dealer mechanic that I worked with was experienced and knowledgible, however he was forced to interpret complex NOX sensor graphs which seemed all over the place. I would think that Kubota would make this process easier somehow. But this was just my impression while watching the guy struggle to debug this issue, it is possible he might have missed something, I just don't know

 

[tomic]

I have an update, and a possible fix for this issues that I am seeing. The dealer finally got back to me with some interesting info. He said that they submitted all the data to Kubota and finally got an answer. The corporate service thinks that somehow the SCR tube in my skid is defective. For those who are not familar, this is that huge tube that sits on top of the engine, just under the turbo intercooler. Inside the SCR tube the disel exhaust gets mixed in with DEF fluid and poof -- magic happens -- and exaust gets cleaned up. The delaer mechanic generously offered to replace the SCR tube for a cool 10K plus labor. WOW - talk about a sticker shock. I pressed him a bit for an explanation of why that f#$% tube would fail at only 500 hours. He admitted that it is very possible that the DEF injector is faulty and it is overdosing the system with too much DEF fluid, which in turn caused cristalization inside the SCR tube and subsequent reduction in effectivness and that cursed E9518 code. Ok... so they are telling me that their $1000 faulty DEF injector caused their 10K SCR tube to fail and now I have to pay for that $10K SCR tube plus a new injector plus labor? Wouldn't that be their design issue?? But no. My SVL is out of warranty -- so there is nothing they can do. Pay us for parts and repairs or get lost. To be fair this was just his theory -- so we don't know if this is really the issue -- but it sure sounds quite feasible. In order to validate his theory I would need to pay another $500 or so for him to come up and test the injector. SO I did what I usually do uder these circuimstances, started asking various AI tools if there is a way to clean up SCR tubes. Lo and behold, I found Rislone 4784 DEF additive fluid that claims to do exactly that -- it dissolves crystalization inside the entire DEF system. I also found out that many people successuflly flush and regenerate their SCR tubes with warm distilled water. So..... I added Rislone 4784 to my DEF tank -- and so far so good - no error codes. I will keep doing so for some time, as it may take a while to remove cristalization of that f#$@ tube. If that fails, I'll take the tube off ( pretty straight forward to do ) and flush it with a few gallons of distilled water. I'll post results later. If you like to try any of these remedies please do so at your own risk -- Personally I have nothing to lose at this point. I'm sorry for long winded posts. Perhaps my description of this ordeal will help somone else debug similar issues and/or save them $$$$$$ n dealer recommended repairs....