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NC Wayne
05-06-2005 20:02:53
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Hey guys, I just thought I'd give ya'll a heads up about a place I recently had some dealings with, you can make your own judgement if you want to deal with them or not.....The company is out of Canada and is called Advanced Hydraulics or ADh. I bought a main hydraulic pump (two section) for a Komatsu excavator from them 8 months ago for a customers machine. We gave nearly $6300 for it and it was supposed to have a 1 year warranty. With only eight months and maybe 600 hours use I got a call that the machine was down. I first pressure checked the pilot pump to eliminate the probability of a control problem, and it was at the high end of spec. I then hooked up my flow meter and checked the rear section and found it was also at the high side of spec in both GPM and pressure. When I got to the front section of the pump it was dead, no flow at all. Further inspection revealed metal shavings, pieces, etc everywhere telling me that the front section had had a massive failure. So I pulled the pump and sent it in for warranty. I had found parts of one of the slipper shoes as well as the head from one of the screws that holds the keeper for the slippers in place. I told them what I found and that based on what I saw I believed the screw broke allowing the slippers to float out of place causing the failure. Their response was that they had been using the same screws for 10 years without a problem so that wasn't the cause. Further the rear section was worn completely out and was also ready to fail at any time (strange it tested at the hight end of factory spec. Then they said both sections showed signs of sever cavitation, which had caused excessive wear, which had caused the slippers to hammer their keepers, which caused the screw to break, which caused the failure....Their final conclusion was that "the quality of the oil and the suction line were inadequate in service" meaning that we had used junk oil and the suction line had collapsed which had subsequently caused the failure, not just the screw breaking...so, THEY WOULDN'T HONOR THEIR WARRANTY..... Ok we used one of the best hydraulic oils you can get, and I have had it tested already, that wasn't the cause. the suction strainer was replaced with a new OEM when I replaced the pump, the suction line did not collapse and shows no signs of having collapsed on wither the inside or outside (and I've been told by the dealership that short of it simply coming apart it can't collapse because it's large diameter and short length. Based on my experience, talking our local dealer, as well as others in the industry that deal with these pumps nothing ADh has given as a cause for the failure makes any sense at all. Enought cavitation to cause the wear they claim would have caused alot of noise as well as heat problems, their were neither. If the pumps had been cavitating due to a problem with the suction line the pilot pump would have been too since it draws off the same line, yet their was no mention of any problems with it. If the rear section was worn out how could it test at the high end of factory specs? The reason I replaced the old pump was it had worn enough that it wouldn't even come close to spec. So, basically they threw all the blame on the oil and suction problems causing further problems which eventually caused the failure. Since oil and suction are customer responsibility, and even though neither had actually presented any type of problem in service, they denied the warranty claim. They wanted nearly $5800 to rebuild it and then wouldn't offer but the four months remaining in the origional warranty. Needless to say the pump is headed back to me, not rebuild, and I've got another one coming from another company. Hopefully this one will last a little longer.----- -----Sorry this was so long, but I wanted ya'll to have a little background on what I was saying. If you have any questions I failed to cover just ask. I covered all my bases when I replaced the pump and when I checked it out prior to pulling it for a claim and they simply want to weasle out of covering it by claiming problems that either weren't in existnce or some, I've been told, that couldn't exist. ADh might be a little cheaper in the beginning, but they might bite you in the end.....That's my experience, your welcome to make your own decisions..Good luck....
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