So I was getting some serious hydraulic oil cavitation issues and buzzing and almost grinding snapping noises on the side of the main transmission and the function of the loader and power steering was jerky. The buzzing sound was getting quite concerning so I took it to the Pinnacle Equipment (used to be DLE Avenue Machinery kubota dealer in Abbotsford BC) for repair. They moved into a brand new fancy building and their parking lot seemed to store a few million $ worth of brand new kubota equipment and implements.
Anyhow, having had my tractor at their Surrey BC location and experiencing some hi-low range issues with the HST drive on my tractor previously - which cost me $4000 to repair .... I figured I would take the tractor to their Abbotsford location because they deal a lot with tractors. Surrey was mainly excavators and skid steer machines and possibly lower age mechanics that haven't had enough tractor experience.
As an FYI I had been running https://www.stens.com/770-736-hydraulic-oil oil to save some cash. It was ok but after a couple of years I did notice some lack of performance with accompanying louder than usual main pump wine noises - however this may be due to that pump suction line air leak causing minor cavitation before cavitation because a big problem - so 3 weeks before the cavitation because super noticeable I changed both hydraulic filters - the suction side and high pressure side as well as a complete drain and refill of Premium UDT from the kubota dealer.
The service manager seemed quite knowledgeable and offered a solution which I thought made sense as I was reading online that there may be a suction hose issue in the piping that supplies the hydraulic pump on the right hand side of the engine. After some initial testing they figured it's best to check the hard lines, o-rings, and rubber hose section before the pump. I was told it was less than $100 in parts. Ok I thought that's a nice change vs the $4000 previous repair bill.
I did have some concerns when I walked into their fancy new location with the high end resin floors etc that this repair was going to cost me.
Well they did replace 9 o-rings and a rubber suction hose before the pump. The parts were $80 and the bill was over $1600.... I thought wow that's about $1000 more than I figured. All these parts are external to the engine/trans. The tractor IS fixed though. But over $1200 in labour which on the invoice doesn't show what their hourly rate is or how many hours were spent on the repair.
What's worse is when I dropped it off I needed some parts I ordered a replacement mirror and a tensioner pulley for AC drive belt.... I need to replace both fan belts but I found the kubota pricing a bit much. Not so bad for that pulley and the mirror.
Anyway the mechanic wrote up it needs a mirror, tensioner pulley, etc.... no sh#t (wow I just paid for labour I didn't need inspection on).....
So... at the end of the day, yes it got fixed. But the bill was over twice what I figured. So anyone with cavitation issues, check all the suction side lines, o-rings, hoses. The parts are CHEAP. My life is busy and sometimes I don't have the time so I bring it to a pro.... but I usually get hosed when I do.
Anyhow, having had my tractor at their Surrey BC location and experiencing some hi-low range issues with the HST drive on my tractor previously - which cost me $4000 to repair .... I figured I would take the tractor to their Abbotsford location because they deal a lot with tractors. Surrey was mainly excavators and skid steer machines and possibly lower age mechanics that haven't had enough tractor experience.
As an FYI I had been running https://www.stens.com/770-736-hydraulic-oil oil to save some cash. It was ok but after a couple of years I did notice some lack of performance with accompanying louder than usual main pump wine noises - however this may be due to that pump suction line air leak causing minor cavitation before cavitation because a big problem - so 3 weeks before the cavitation because super noticeable I changed both hydraulic filters - the suction side and high pressure side as well as a complete drain and refill of Premium UDT from the kubota dealer.
The service manager seemed quite knowledgeable and offered a solution which I thought made sense as I was reading online that there may be a suction hose issue in the piping that supplies the hydraulic pump on the right hand side of the engine. After some initial testing they figured it's best to check the hard lines, o-rings, and rubber hose section before the pump. I was told it was less than $100 in parts. Ok I thought that's a nice change vs the $4000 previous repair bill.
I did have some concerns when I walked into their fancy new location with the high end resin floors etc that this repair was going to cost me.
Well they did replace 9 o-rings and a rubber suction hose before the pump. The parts were $80 and the bill was over $1600.... I thought wow that's about $1000 more than I figured. All these parts are external to the engine/trans. The tractor IS fixed though. But over $1200 in labour which on the invoice doesn't show what their hourly rate is or how many hours were spent on the repair.
What's worse is when I dropped it off I needed some parts I ordered a replacement mirror and a tensioner pulley for AC drive belt.... I need to replace both fan belts but I found the kubota pricing a bit much. Not so bad for that pulley and the mirror.
Anyway the mechanic wrote up it needs a mirror, tensioner pulley, etc.... no sh#t (wow I just paid for labour I didn't need inspection on).....
So... at the end of the day, yes it got fixed. But the bill was over twice what I figured. So anyone with cavitation issues, check all the suction side lines, o-rings, hoses. The parts are CHEAP. My life is busy and sometimes I don't have the time so I bring it to a pro.... but I usually get hosed when I do.
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