I purchased a Troybilt mower with a Briggs & Stratton engine on 4/29/09. I followed the instruction manual to the letter in assembling the mower. I used it four times without incident. On the fifth use, it would not start. I took it to a service center and they tell me it is "broken beyond repair".
The cause? As they tell me, and as the B&S reps tell me on the phone, "You didn't put enough oil in the mower"... And yet, I followed the instruction manual verbatim in this regard. Further, I checked the oil level in the mower before three of the five uses... So how can this be the case?
So when I read the instruction manual back to the B&S rep (and the Lawn Mower servicing reps) and I relay the story of my lawn mower use and assembly to them, they say, "well, you should have put the whole canister of oil in the mower" (that came with the product). That seems easy enough, but then why don't the instruction clearly say that??? For example:
"Fill the crankcase with all 18oz of oil provided before use"
That is a clear instruction and I would have followed it. But instead the manual tells you to essentially put oil in the crankcase and keep checking the oil level with the dipstick, being careful not to overfill. At no point does the manual tell you to add all 18oz of oil in the engine.instead (I will summarize so I do not violate any copyright issues with their manual), it gives you a list of tasks to follow without the knowledge of how much oil you should actually be putting in the mower and with the added instruction "do not overfill" stated. It seems that the instructions rely on the oil being poured into the mower at a precise rate so it will settle in the crankcase at the proper level for a subsequent series of dipstick readings.
Wouldn't it be easier to just say "add 18oz of oil"? Plus, if they send me 18oz of oil with the lawn mower, and that is exactly the amount of oil I am supposed to put in the mower, then how is it logically possible to overfill the mower with oil during my initial use? I suppose this is only conceivable if you fail to say exactly how much oil to add in the first place, right? So this "instruction" now leads the consumer to believe they should put in less than all of the oil provided, because the last thing they want to do is overfill...
The manual then informs you that if you start the engine without oil it will be damaged beyond repair and will not be covered under warranty. Did I start the engine without oil? No. Am I being denied coverage under warranty? So far.
Again, I put oil in the engine (about 12oz initially and I refilled it twice to the full level... Being mindful not to overfill) and yet, I am presently being denied warranty coverage (unless of course I take the next step and pay to ship the mower from the authorized warranty service center to B&S Headquarters for another warranty inspection... But look, at this point, how much more time and money do I need to pay for this non-working mower?)
Therefore, this is yet another reason for this posting on usacomplaints.com.
1) the instruction manual is poorly written and does not tell you exactly how much oil to put into the mower.
2) the cause of engine failure, "not enough oil in the engine" and the parameters of the warranty coverage "if you start with engine without oil" differ, therefore it is possible (and factual in my case) to follow the instruction manual, have engine failure, be within the stated parameters of their warranty coverage (having put oil in the engine), but yet be told by B&S reps that your issue is not covered by their warranty.
3) The next-steps for me, according to the B&S reps, would be to ship the mower to their HQ for further inspection. I would incur further expense in doing so and given the response thus far, I am not confident that this is a worthwhile investment of time and money. I am hopeful that B&S will fix my issue from here and edit the current manual as suggested above; in doing so I will be glad to give this story a happy ending for future consumers to consider.
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