Bobcat e85 stall issue

[Chris7810]

Hi guys, hoping for some knowledge. I bought a 2016 bobcat e85 a couple months back. It's been a good machine but when I climb fairly steep inclines whether it's up or down about 10 seconds after I get level again it will die as if I shut the key off. I do fine grading in a subdivision and it only did it between houses when moving it until today. Today it will either cut off immediately or almost cut off on any angle or when putting a heavy load on it with the bucket. If I let go of everything quick enough it will recover and save itself. Any idea what it could be? It was serviced when I bought it.

 

[Delmer]

I'd guess it's sucking some air and it takes that long to reach the injection pump? But why wouldn't it die if you stay on the incline? or don't you ever stay on the incline? Does it have anything to do with how full the tank is? if it will do it on a smaller incline at 1/2 tank than it will full.

 

[Chris7810]

I'd guess it's sucking some air and it takes that long to reach the injection pump? But why wouldn't it die if you stay on the incline? or don't you ever stay on the incline? Does it have anything to do with how full the tank is? if it will do it on a smaller incline at 1/2 tank than it will full.

Tank is usually close to full. Fill it about daily. I've worked on an incline for a bit with no issue. This morning I drained the water separator and also swapped the fuel filter just to see. I'm digging and 12 feet deep in hard ground and it will die out when im putting a lot of pressure on it but only now and then and it will also die if I swing fast to dump a load. Everything from the outside on the fuel system looks normal. The machine just hit 1500 hours. It's doing a regen now so if I can keep it alive through that then I'll see if that does anything but I dont think that's related.

 

[Chris7810]

So it did its regen, took over an hour. It seemed to get better. I've been trying to play with it and see exactly when it wants to stall and it's definitely when it's under heavy load. Pushing a pile with the blade while either spinning or moving the boom it will die out. Seems like it starves for fuel when under heavy load. What should I look at? Once I pull it off this multi million dollar neighborhood I will pull the bottom of the water separator and check the screen but I'm not sure what else I can check?

 

[Chris7810]

Still having issues abd getting worse. Machine does fine in the morning when it's cold or on a cold day. Towards the afternoon on a hot day it will stall out several times. Seems to get worse as things get hot. I'm thinking there is a Crack in something that is expanding?

 

[Delmer]

I have no idea what kind of fuel injection system that has, so these are general comments. Yes, a cracked hose can do that as it warms up. Failing temporarily in the heat is also typical of electrical components.

It sounds like you have way more power issues than just the steep angle issue. Possible that it's a hydraulic load issue more than fuel? I'd expect it to puff darker smoke as it stalls if the hydraulics lock the engine down.

 

[Chris7810]

Thanks, today I climbed almost a 1 to 1 slope gently, It pulled it no problem but once I got to the top about 25 feet in elevation change and leveled out it died. Started it back up and it died again. Turned the key to prime it and then started it and it ran fine again. Did the same thing when I loaded it onto the trailer. I'm not getting any puffs of smoke. I can tell pretty good when it's going to do it by watching the load gauge. It never gets over 85 percent until it starts starving

 

[Chris7810]

Yesterday morning I took the fuel cap apart, it had some rust on it. I cleaned everything up on it. It's a pretty complex cap. It has a check valve that let's air in and one that let's air out. They were both a little gummed up and stiff. I lubed it and cleaned it all and put it back together. It didn't stall out at all after that. I hope that was it but I dont want to say I'm good yet. Yesterday was also 20 degrees cooler then the previous day and it usually seems to do better in the cool weather.

 

[Chris7810]

Just wanted to give an update. Rebuilding the fuel cap helped and it was problem free for a few weeks then the stall issue started coming back. Every morning I've been trying to figure out what tge problem was until last week when I pulled the fuel line going into the fuel water separator and there was debris in the line, the lip of the separator stopped it from going through and the junk that would normally get caught in the filter was stuck in the line. It took pressure from the fuel tank side to push the plug out. It runs like a new machine now.

 

[mudnducs]

I love it when a simple fix is found .....after weeks/months of gut wrenching uncertainty. Its amazing how our minds often leap to worst case possibilities.
Kudos.

 

[Mbar]

I read a awhile back a very simple phrase awhile back by nige on this forum and it always seems to prove very helpful. “Follow the fluid”. When having trouble with hydraulic, fuel or coolant. Follow the path of the fluid and you will find your problem.