off to hospital yesterday

[australian pete]

over the last couple of months my C16 CAT engine in my vermeer horizontal grinder has been using a lot more fuel and has a slight miss under heavy load, it has done 800 hours. still under warranty. called local cat dealer who sent a guy out, hooked up laptop while we loaded timber in grinder, found a slight miss in number 3 cylinder, came out again next day with another guy, did some more anaylisis with laptop while under load, pulled off turbo, found damage, suggested i float machine to dealer who is only 40 minutes away, loaded grinder and headed to CAT HOSPITAL, there they pulled off head, found a piece of metal they say has been in there since engine was assembled, floated around for approx 750 hours then tried to exit cylinder via valve, got chopped by valve and piece went in to turbo while other piece got hammered under valve, patient expected to make full recovery, service manager told me this arvo patient should be discharged from hospital saturday around mid day.

 

[Steve Frazier]

Was there any damage to the cylinder or head?

 

[Heavyduty]

Has to be some sort of cylinder bore damage with that metal flying around for 750+ hours. I would demand another motor because it was the factorys fault. Good luck.

 

[australian pete]

Was there any damage to the cylinder or head?

none to the bore, some damage to head, not sure how much, service manager said head was being serviced.

 

[australian pete]

Has to be some sort of cylinder bore damage with that metal flying around for 750+ hours. I would demand another motor because it was the factorys fault. Good luck.

dont think they would entertain a new engine, should be ok with the head being serviced.

 

[Heavyduty]

See if they will extend the warrenty in case something being damaged that you don't know about.:usa

 

[australian pete]

See if they will extend the warrenty in case something being damaged that you don't know about.:usa

i have a 2 year warranty which goes to next april.

 

[oversize]

Must have been a Friday motor or some one got put off at the factory the day that one was put together

 

[John C.]

Warranties and how they work might be a good topic on another thread.

For now, warranties have specific time periods usually influenced or directly controlled by state laws. Contrary to popular belief they are not put on a product to prove how good they are. The sole purpose is to limit liabilty. I can say with absolue certainty that the manufacturer will not extend a warranty without some kind of payment for that service.

The current warranty repaired the manufacturer's defect in workmanship. Now lets say the engine develops another problem two weeks after the warranty period runs out, the manufacturer would not be required to cover the repair because the component is past the limit of liability. In other words a problem repaired during a warranty period does not extend the warranty period.

Having said all this doom and gloom, the major manufacturers and dealers have programs in place that may take care of issues like this should they occur. The customer will not know they exist until the situation comes up and many times the type of relationship the customer has with the dealer will determine whether or not the dealer will invoke one of those programs.

Bottom line is a jerk of a customer may receive a similar type of response to problems that occur.

I'm glad to hear the unit was repaired in quick time.

 

[australian pete]

Warranties and how they work might be a good topic on another thread.

For now, warranties have specific time periods usually influenced or directly controlled by state laws. Contrary to popular belief they are not put on a product to prove how good they are. The sole purpose is to limit liabilty. I can say with absolue certainty that the manufacturer will not extend a warranty without some kind of payment for that service.

The current warranty repaired the manufacturer's defect in workmanship. Now lets say the engine develops another problem two weeks after the warranty period runs out, the manufacturer would not be required to cover the repair because the component is past the limit of liability. In other words a problem repaired during a warranty period does not extend the warranty period.
Having said all this doom and gloom, the major manufacturers and dealers have programs in place that may take care of issues like this should they occur. The customer will not know they exist until the situation comes up and many times the type of relationship the customer has with the dealer will determine whether or not the dealer will invoke one of those programs.

Bottom line is a jerk of a customer may receive a similar type of response to problems that occur.

I'm glad to hear the unit was repaired in quick time.

you are 100 % correct john, when i first called the cat dealer they thought it only had 1 year warranty which would have meant it finished in april, they were not interested, after confirming with vermeer it was 2 years they were very cooperative, i am picking it up tomorrow and hopefully all will be ok.

 

[australian pete]

Must have been a Friday motor or some one got put off at the factory the day that one was put together

you are probably correct oversize. some one was having a bad day.

 

[oversize]

Good to here it will be all fixed and going again,

 

[Deere John]

Just curious and a little confused - did the chunk of metal reside in the head itself for 750 hours, or was it dancing with the piston for that length of time?

 

[australian pete]

Just curious and a little confused - did the chunk of metal reside in the head itself for 750 hours, or was it dancing with the piston for that length of time?

the mechanic from CAT said he thought the piece of metal was sitting somewhere in the head and finally fell down in to the cylinder.

 

[Iron Horse]

I'd be looking at the intake side very carefully for something that has been sucked in past an intake valve . Sounds unlikely to me that something was left in there in the first place and very unlikely that it has been in there for that length of time without more damage being done to the liner , piston etc . Does it have an intake heater ? Ive seen these BiMetal elements fatigue and end up in the cylinder . Are there any marks on the compressor wheel ? Just concerned you will have more downtime if something upstream has failed .

 

[australian pete]

I'd be looking at the intake side very carefully for something that has been sucked in past an intake valve . Sounds unlikely to me that something was left in there in the first place and very unlikely that it has been in there for that length of time without more damage being done to the liner , piston etc . Does it have an intake heater ? Ive seen these BiMetal elements fatigue and end up in the cylinder . Are there any marks on the compressor wheel ? Just concerned you will have more downtime if something upstream has failed .

it is all beyond me reg, i have 2 years warranty on the engine which lasts till may next year so hopefully if there any other problems they will appear before the warranty runs out, since they put on the new head and turbo and the 6 new injectors all seems well.