New B3350SU Dead In Field

[vt05461]

I purchased a new B3350SU in late June before knowing that the 3350 series was suffering from DPF issues (guess that's a lesson for me to check discussion boards before shopping). Anyway, I've enjoyed the machine until yesterday morning and 17.1 hours on the machine

Got up Saturday morning, cleaned out the radiator screen and radiator and DPF area with high pressure air, checked the oil and hydraulic fluid, etc, etc, and warmed it up and resumed brush cutting. At 16.7 hrs, the DPF came on. I've been expecting this and just continued to mow. 540 pto, ~2400 RPM. Watched the heat which remained at 3 bars. By 17.1 hours, DPF still on, I could smell the heat. Shortly after that the machine just shut down. No warning, no flashing DPF light, no buzzer, It just shut down. When I tried to restart immediately after it happened. it would not start and all it gave me was a flashing DPF dummy light. It was before noon so I called the Kuboda dealer. The only people immediately available were in parts and knew nothing about tier 4. Asked them to have service contact me Monday. I also left a message on the sales managers answering machine and then went out to do other chores. I did get a call from the sales manager later telling me they just got news of a firmware update Thurs from Kuboda! Later in the day I did go back out to the machine and it turned over and started but there was a fan/blower type noise I've never heard before and the DPF light was flashing and I shut it down immediately. It's out there waiting for Kuboda Service. I replaced my used (and abused by a previous owner unknown to me) JD950 because of maintenance nightmares but I'm afraid I'm going down this road again

 

[Myb3350]

Did you try doing a PARK REGEN. On it, that may get it going ?

 

[vt05461]

No, I did not try parked regen. My thought is that it shouldn't have shut down so I might as well get it on the books with Kuboda that the machine started having issues at 17 hours. I'll be talking with Kuboda service in the morning.

 

[tempforce]

sorry to hear about your new tractor is having issues. if it's having problems. get it in quick and don't put up with repeated service calls. 3rd, 4th time in for the particulate filter regen failure. ask for a full value buy back. if you bought implements, most will work with the B2650.
it took kubota from late june until mid september to exchange my B3350 for a B2650. after 6 months of service calls and trips to the service department. sometimes i only got use of the B3350 for less than 3 hours. before it required and wouldn't regen. other times it would use up to 4 tanks of fuel, then quit performing a regen.

 

[vt05461]

Talked to the dealership today. About the first thing the mechanic said was that shutdowns were normal. No, I don't think so. When I pressed my argument the next retort, was something like "oh yeah, well you should talk to the town garage about all the issues they are having with their new Kabodas and we get a ton of these complaints every week. Just talk to the government" The only half useful explanation I got is that if the presence of unburned fuel in the DPF is sensed during a regen, it shuts down. Not impressed.

Mechanic told me to try a parked regen and call him in the morning. I worked on that tonight. Moved the machine out of the field with inhibit on, put it in neutral, put the brake on, lowered the implements, straightened the wheel, insured the pto was off, lowered the throttle and then took it off inhibit and nothing happened, It idled for 45 minutes with the DPF light on, but the parked regen switch never blinked to signal the system was ready for a parked regen (heat was at 3 bars). I could hear the DPF kick in multiple times. THen the DPF light went out. No idea what it did or didn't do. Guess I get to talk to Kuboda again tomorrow.

 

[Myb3350]

I did a park gen on my b3350 I have two (2) button a auto gen button that is really the inhibit switch mode and a park gen button. you should never have to touch the auto gen button it is set for auto gen if you depress ( light on) it puts the tractor in inhibit mode, you should do the things you did and push in the park gen button, ecu should take over the throttle and perform a regen which takes about 25 min, if this doesn't work take the tractor to your dealer are make him come to you. I know it IS discussing, Kubota has screwed up the operation process on regen and the operation manual is total confusing, one place they tell you one thing then somewhere else it tell you different, and don't count on any help from the dealer are Kubota service rep they WILL NOT RETURN A PHONE CALL and I really don't think they know how it works

 

[vt05461]

I think we have the same vintage. I have a parked regen button (the one with the blower symbol and a circle with a vertical line) and a DPF inhibit button (the one with the blower symbol with a forward slash through it). When the tractor died I was in 3 ft grass so I was not going to do a parked regen there. I switched the inhibit on right after startup and moved the tractor prior to putting the machine in neutral, etc, etc. Step 9 says press the DPF inhibit switch and the light turns off, did that, It goes on to say that when all the conditions to initiate the parked regen are satisfied, the parked regen switch lamp starts flashing and you press that button to initiate the regen, after which the computer throttles the machine up. The parked regen switch never flashed. Could be that the manual is missing a couple pieces of important information.

 

[Myb3350]

Yes the manual is so confusing step 9 if you press the inhibit button it will never do as regen not even a park gen if the inhibit mode is selected, I call a service rep to tell me how to do a regen, he didn't know how to do one, they have had several mods in the regen switched but he promise me he would get me a answer BUT HE NEVER CALL ME BACK from what I understand If the light is on your in the inhibit mode, on my last regen i didn't have to do a thing, it did a auto regen 100% by itself, I never have too push the auto gen when I start my tractor, if all is working you should never have to push any buttons unless you want to do a park gen, I purchased my B3350 used 42 hours I didn't know which mods had been done on the tractor I did call up the service Rep he looked it up by the serial number in Kubota system and he said it had ALL the updates, so you may want to get them to check and see if you have all the updates on your tractor.

 

[NEPA Guy]

Call Kubota customer service and open a case. Its an engineering issue.

310-370-3370 extension 1970

 

[vt05461]

spoke with the sales manager yesterday. What he told me is that Kuboda has stopped ship from the factory on a b3350 that another customer had ordered due to the DPF issue. Has anyone heard of this?

We went through my experience with the parked regen behavior and was going to get back to me with some additional help (not the mechanic I had the less than satisfying conversation with) but have not heard back yet.

As the DPF light is out, I'm wondering if I should take it out in the field and run it some more, just to see what happens.

 

[sheepfarmer]

Vt, this may not be helpful since I have a different model, and my screen is different, but just in case:

The key confusing thing in the manual is that it prints out tne parked regen directions first as if you could do it any time. You can't. The tractor has to be in what tney call "level 2". There are two tables in mine that tell you how to tell what level the tractor is in, and what to do in each PM warning level. One table goes with whether it is in "inhibit mode" and one table for if it is in "auto mode".

On mine it is not at level 2 or 2-1 unless there is both a light flashing AND a buzzer sounding every 5 seconds. If you heard no buzzer (and yours works like mine) you would have to follow the directions in auto regen. However it can't do an auto regen unless it is happy with both the temperature of the exhaust etc AND the engine rpm is above a certain number. So it can't regen until it is warmed up, and apparently it may shut off if it gets too hot, or if there is unburned fuel as mentioned above. It will drop out of regen if the rpm drops below a critical speed even if you are working. Yours has a different regen process than mine, with a reformer and injects extra fuel into the exhaust stream somewhere and mine doesn't so that may be where the extra problems come.

On the one hand you won't hurt it by trying to run it if it is in stages 1 or 2, but if you can't get it to regen it may go into a limp mode and then you can damage the dpf.

See if you have a similar table that tells how to id the stages for yours. Take the manual out and sit on the tractor and make sure you know what it means by the various indicator lights and buttons because both the indicators and the buttons can light solidly or flash. Not an easy system. If you are only in stage 1 or 2 you may be able to get it to regen if needed and go on. Good luck with it. Some folks are getting along fine with their 3350's and some have had no end of troubles no matter how hard everyone tries to fix them. I hope yours behaves.

 

[Myb3350]

Yes that is a good idea, it may have completed the regen, I am in trouble with my B3350, I purchased it use, I talk to the local Kubota dealershio and he said lots if luck you didn't purchase it from me and don't count on much help, he said he would work on it but at his pace, BUT so far my B3350 had been perfect, I hope I don't ever have to take it yo him. That is the way most dealer are if you don't buy from then you get a cold welcome

 

[Thorny]

MYB3350,
While at my dealer the other day I met the local kubota rep. He's the sales guy who covers multiple dealers across a few states. If I were in your shoes I'd find who your local rep is (maybe call Kubota corporate) and ask that rep about how to best work with your local dealer. I suspect there are a few bad apples in your dealer, but there are probably some good folks too, you just need to figure out who they are.