Don't ever change your oil?!

I help out my neighbor whenever possible, she is 65 and taking care of her 92 year old dad at home. She called and asked if I would change oil on her mower in the back garage. I was baffled, no drain plug to be found and no manuals. I interwebed it and realized that there are now check and fill only engines?!? Seems like a good way to blow them up and make people buy new mowers quicker. I tipped it and drained it out the fill spout and refilled. What is your experience with these?

 

Are you sure? I have seen some that were internal-wrenching, and hard to find.

But seeing it's on the net, gotta be true.

 

I've got a DR brush mower equipped with a Briggs and that is exactly how the owners manual says to change the oil......tip the whole thing upside down.

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The new John Deere mower has an oil filled filter. Replace their special filter, and I guess it freshens up the remaining oil.

I finally changed the oil in my splitter rather than just topping it. Been running it a lot lately. Figured it was a good idea. About ten minutes work.

 

I have seen this no drain plug on a mower before. Roll over and drain through the fill hole. With some of the junk they are producing these days they likely think you'll have to replace the product long before you need to change the oil

This is a new design so it must be better right? Had to change the oil on the tractor the other day

 

I have a walk-behind Craftsman mower. Briggs and Stratton engine, I think. Oil change? Yup - tip it upside down. Lousy design, IMO. But, it is what it is.

 

This is when those vacuum oil change things become useful. Some are like a huge syringe and draw the oil up into the body of the tool, some are a bit bigger and have a small tank.

 

I guy at work has new mower and he claims he doesn’t have to change the oil. Why not, they don’t build things to last long enough for the engine to go!

 

Just Check & Add™ Technology Innovation | Briggs & Stratton

 

Yup! And that nice 62 year old woman and her 95 year old Dad were at the window watching you by the back garage just a giggling to each other!



Nice of you to help them!

 

So Briggs finally figured out a way to market poor ring/cylinder tolerances....brilliant.

 

Can you suck the oil out of the dipstick tube with a fluid evacuator.

 

If that is actually your tractor, I am glad to see you typing. This is a perfect example of why new tractors have ROPS (roll over protective structures) on them. If it isn't yours, I hope the guy survived. Lost a good buddy/ag teacher to a roll over, he lived on his farm his whole teaching life, raised two wonderful girls that became ag teachers, his first summer retired rolled his tractor and died. Oh, ROPS don't work without you using your seatbelt. Okay, enough of my sermon, will step off of my soapbox.

 

I thought the very same thing. Good sermon and maybe it'll save someone!

 

Why do you say that ?

 

My honda GX engines don't use/lose a drop of oil. I couldn't add fresh oil if I wanted to.

The Briggs engines make it seem like you keep clean oil in the engine by adding some....I'm guessing most of the oil you need to add is making it past the rings.

 

I'm not as good as I once was! It is a push with a B&S engine. 20 years ago I would have been able to singlehandedly tip a rider but my human forklift days are a thing of the past. I'm starting to realize that the most often way I hurt myself anymore is by thinking I'm still young.

 

Not mine, just a googled picture but you make some great points.

 

Briggs consume oil because some gets past the rings. After a while it gets low you need to add some. This the check and add model.

I used to work at Briggs on the manufacturing floor. They are not the Briggs of the past. Management continuously pushed out engines that did not meet internal quality specs. I was told by a plant manager that, "We're not building Swiss watches. They're just mower engines.". My reply was they would be luck to be making anything if this crap kept being sold. I got moved off the inspection line that day.

Briggs did a study years ago that showed most people don't change their oil especially on push mowers. A vast majority don't even try to get them fixed when they don't run right after winter storage. They just buy a new one.

There is a price point where people justify buying new vs repair cost. Briggs aims for that price point with this engine series. So, just check and add oil. It will likely get junked in 2 years with less than 60 hours on it. With a life expectancy that short you can use cheaper parts all over the mower....wheels, deck, handles....

I like to keep things for 10 years or longer. My newest car is 10 years old this year, truck is 22. Chainsaws are all 20+. I got a new mower 2 years ago when we bought a farm....I will keep it running for 10+ years easy. My old mower sold with the old house and I know it's still running after 14 years. My new to me log splitter is 10+ years old.

I don't have enough money to buy new all the time. I do all the maintenance I can to save a buck.