I have a Craftsman lawn tractor, 24 hp, 48" deck, that is almost 3 yrs old (in a few days).
It has never had a problem until a couple of days ago, and I maintain it each offseason (change oil, oil filter, fuel filter, spark plugs, clean air filter, sharpen blades).
I have a 1-acre lot.
At this time of year, the grass is growing fast again, and on Friday I cut it after having cut it the prior Sunday (5 days). I have a bagger attachment and was using it for the entire yard.
Just as I was finishing, the tractor became sluggish, then conked out. It would restart but would quickly conk out again. I pushed it to the driveway, and found it would barely run if I kept the choke in full choke position, but would conk out as soon as I put the choke to the run position.
The grass bins were not close to full.
The next day, the tractor seems to run fine. I haven't put it through a full mow, but just ran it once around the entire property, and it seemed fine.
I had already scheduled a service call for this Thursday, as I have a 3-yr warranty. I don't want to cancel yet not knowing what the problem is. My warranty expires two days later, and I have the option to renew, but it's on the order of $300/yr, so a 3-yr extension would cost almost $900.
- What might have caused the engine to conk out as it did, but it seems fine now?
- Is it worth extending the warranty?