Bobcat Excavator Parts Quality

[diga]

Hi, I own and operate a 2014 Bobcat E35 which was purchased new mid 2014, it had been fairly trouble free up until 8 months ago when the rotary/swivel joint started to leak, told the service tech who was at my home performing a service (this is a requirement here in Australia to get a 3 yr warranty), he noted the fault and it was put into our local Bobcat dealers workshop who did the repair, I was told they replaced the rotary joint with a brand new Bobcat spare part as the original unit was badly pitted internally, this was all done under warranty. Well I had a 750hr service performed this morning by Bobcat again and the rotary joint has failed again (leaking oil), so that's 8 months. The machine still has over 12 months of it's original warranty but have been informed by the dealer that the spare part only has a 6 month warranty.

Does this sound fair coming from Bobcat who did the repair with a genuine Bobcat part which has failed twice in two years!!

 

[murphy777]

i replaced all the seals on my rotary coupler 2 years ago(1600 hrs), on a 2004 bobcat 323 for the tune of about 700.00 USD and that was doing some of the work myself, Bobcat should cover all the work and parts until your warranty is up, especially if the dealer did the work with genuine bobcat parts. replacing a leaky swivel each year gets costly, not to mention its a super pain in the butt. if they hassle you, ask them how much they think the JCB or Cat or Kubota dealers down the road will give you for a trade…..good luck

 

[Anthonycecil]

sounds very poor.....Tony

 

[MX45]

G'day Diga,

Forget the manufacturer say so on warranty. Fact is in Australia an item must be 'fit for purpose'. Businesses have been found responsible for computer fails within three years even without extended warranty paid for as the item is expected 'reasonably' to last the distance of at least three years given the original cost and expected lifetime. I cannot imagine Bobcat winning in Fair Trading that the spare part was fit for purpose with such a short lifetime in the expected lifetime of the machine in hours or time of ownership. Overall sounds like poor quality parts and/or design. Ring Fair Trading or mention to your dealer - they should jump to attention then. If not then at their own peril. Pretty sure you will have a win. Be aware they might try to blame your use or not being serviced properly or other when things get down and dirty!

Good luck,

MX45

 

[diga]

Hi MX45, I actually contacted "fair trading" here in QLD after your post and they pretty much said I would have a case to argue regarding this 6 mth warranty rubbish given the dealer fitted the part which was a "genuine part" and the machine is still under the 3yr warranty, and also touched on the part not being "fit for the purpose that it's designed for" !
So I contacted the dealer again (Clark Equipment) and strangely they have had a change of heart and are now going to do the Rotary Joint repair/replacement under warranty again.
I had already sent an email to the Bobcat factory stating my concerns about the quality of this component but seems to have fallen on "deaf ears", mind you my dealer had received a copy of that email within hours of me sending it and apparently was not impressed about me contacting Bobcat USA, they all seem to forget it's the poor old customer that's left with a broken down machine at the end of it all.

Unfortunately I have been here before with Takeuchi and Hitachi and did not get a whole lot of satisfaction from either, it seems as though any of the Asian owned companies are very slow at admitting any mistake or fault on their behalf and given that Bobcat are now owned by Doosan they are heading the same way (so I have been told), which is a pity if that's the case.

My biggest concern will be is the replacement rotary joint they use this time going to last any better than the previous TWO units, first one did 400hrs and this one has done 350hrs, pretty ordinary to think a customer would be at all happy with that.

Cheers.

 

[murphy777]

good to hear they will cover the costs, as they should! Im glad you contacted the fair trade people to make your case….we have nothing like that in the states that I am aware of….I was told by most mechanics and the bobcat dealer that most rotary couplers have a 1300-1600hr life span, so when mine started leaking at around 1500 hrs, it was no surprise….

 

[MX45]

G'day Diga,

Even when right you don't always win so good to know you did not have to fight that hard. For you Murphy777 'Fair Trading' is a branch of each State Gov't in Australia and there are Statutory Warranties on the Law Books which a supplier/manufacturer cannot void in any policy on warranty. You just have to know you can go there to get it honoured. Mind you it can take a lot of energy to go there and fight and losing is no good thing when there are little cracks for slippery things to fall through. However enough for people who don't want their business tarnished to stop mucking around and get the job done.

As for the practicalities I would require the technical details of the part being installed to be put on paper as next time you will be out of warranty. Check on the internet for the supplier of the part. Could be they are sourcing poor quality to increase profit - maybe Bobcat don't even know, ie that they are being ripped off! I have bought new things and had bearing failures. Also bought a car hoist just a few days ago from someone I know and the elec motor is noisy as the cymbal section in an orchestra but same motor on 20 year old commercial hoist. No matter as replacing three phase with single phase. I now have the dilemma of locating a decent supplier of electric motors but have been given good advices.

Best advice always is along the lines of go to someone who has been in business a long time and has the 'experience' and customers who return.

Good luck - at least an outcome that gives you some more service life. I would have to be tempted to let it go once repaired as a lemon design!

Regards, MX45. (Grey Import from Japan - touch wood still operating).

 

[diga]

Hi MX45, yeah I guess you'd call it a win, still concerned about the rotary joints life span in the future, especially after what murphy777 said he has been told. I was under the impression these lasted pretty well, my mates KX121 Kubota did 7000hrs and it had only just started weeping, I put just under 3000 hrs on my Takeuchi TB-135fr without any rotary joint issues but maybe times are changing?
My guess is most most of the manufacturers are using cheap components sourced from who knows where and don't really care as long as it's meets their specs and price and gets through the warranty period and then it's the owners problem.

Back to my dilema at hand, it is a real pity as the E35 Bobcat I have is a top machine digging wise, it is very fast and pretty much out-digs every other 3.5T machine I have had bar a Cat which would be about the same given they are both very close in the horsepower department, but the Bobcat does have some questionable quality components obviously, the Kubota motor is a real winner and appears to much better on fuel than my previous two machines that were powered by Yanmar's.

Who knows I am off to a Cat Dig Day tomorrow morning to have a play on a 303.5e just for the heck of it, I have sat in one before but never operated one,when I tried to buy one two years back the Cat salesmen mucked me around so much I ended at Bobcat,they were the only two machines with more HP than every other manufacturer and as stated before there is a very noticeable difference when digging.

 

[melli]

Hey diga...I guess the swivel is buried under the floorboards? I would, if possible, take a pic of it. It might have markings of where it was built (who built it). Something sounds odd when two of them have blown with so few hours. Like the problem may be pressure related (a relief valve problem?). I don't know the flow pattern to even make a semi informed guess, but the mechanic said pitting? What is that all about? When looking at my manual, I see a lot of O rings...manual talks about ensuring the face of swivel joint doesn't get scratched when repairing.

If there is some way to test pressure to swivel, that would be my first investigation.

 

[diga]

Hi Melli, no its not that bad to get too, pull the rubber mat out, undo 5 bolts and lift the floor pan out and you can see it sitting down there, you pull the belly plate off and its also visible from there as well. Yes one would wonder if the dealer has even investigated why it failed the last time they looked at it, given it's full of flowing clean oil how,why and where was it pitted,I am having serious doubts they actually replaced it last time.
The reason I say this is the dealer started telling me what "warranty work" they had claimed for on my machine, he was reading this info off his computer at his desk, he informed me it had been into the workshop in July of last year for "seal replacement in rotary joint" then again in October of last year "replacement of rotary joint", yet my machine has only been in their workshop once (August last year) yet they have two claims for rotary joint repairs, makes you wonder ???

 

[murphy777]

Just a quick note on my swivel…I only replaced the seals and O rings the rest of the unit was in pretty good shape….