No oil change Briggs and Stratton engines !

Charles in Aus.

Well-known Member
I'm considering replacing my aging self propelled mower , it has a 6.75hp B&S engine that I've been happy with for ten years .
I've been looking for a replacement, the best of a mediocre bunch is a Toro also powered by a Briggs engine.
But , it claims never to need an oil change !
What Devilry and Witchcraft is this?
The salesman was so proud of this ' feature ' , it put me right off and soured the sale . He wasn't happy and neither was I.
How can this possibly work ? Surely it would have to be the biggest design ' own goal ' in manufacturing history since the Tower of Babel .
 
This topic has come up several times before. I think it's just acceptance by B&S that the majority of lawn mowers never get a single oil change over their lifetime. And it saves them the expense of providing a drain plug.
 
There is nothing keeping someone from periodically changing the oil if you choose to do it.

The reality is most owners are lucky to even check a lawn mowers oil once in a while and top it off as needed. With modern oils and today's improved manufacturing tolerances, most owners will still get a satisfactory life out of their small push mower without changing the oil but keeping it full. Did you check what kind of oil is specified?
 
Hey never changing oil can cause more engine sales, so if you're in the business of selling them !!! Im a
believer in frequent oil changes myself..........

John T
 
It's now the same with oil that it has long been with the transaxle (if hydrostatic). They say you never have to change oil or maintain the transaxle; just run it till it drops. [Then we sell you another new mower. SUCKER!!]
 
There has to be a place where the oil was added.
Run the engine out of gas, tip the mower on its side and drain
oil out the fill spout. Easy solution..
 
If the blade never gets sharpened or re-balanced, does it really make any difference if the engine only lasts eight years without an oil change or it lasts 20 years with regular oil changes?
 
I must have missed previous posts concerning this .
No way will I contribute to the waste and excess of the world by buying such a thing .
Seems now that I will refurbish my old one ; its engine is still OK, and keep it until it is no longer able to be repaired .
I change its oil every Spring and drain the carburettor over Winter , I must be an exception as I certainly see no advantage in not changing oil .
So are the spark plugs in these new versions impervious to wear? and dothey gap themselves ? Are their air filters self cleaning and blades self sharpening ? It seems to me that oil is probably one of the easiest things to tend to.
I wonder what my 70 year old Ferguson tractors would run like if their oil had never been changed . :shock:
 
Actually you can still tip the mower over and change the oil, just like before. Few push mowers sold in the US have had an actual drain plug in the bottom since the 1980s.
 
I think they mean they don't consider oil changes necessary, but you can if you want to. If you can't do it
yourself it's probably more cost effective to just run it and add as necessary over the life of the mower. I
agree with others, take it out and use it, when it runs out of gas tip it over and drain the old oil and
refill. It's much easier than looking for a drain plug underneath. We have a fairly new JD Z-turn with a
20 hp Briggs, they made it very easy to change the oil in it with a permanent drain hose.
 
That feature is aimed at people that buy a new mower every couple years, that
have no clue how to maintain one, and have been bitten by repair shops that
charge more to service one than it costs for a new one!

Likely that same person is all about being 'green' so the world is not poisoned
with waste oil. Completely unaware of the environmental impact of manufacturing
a mower from scratch!
 
I live about 20 miles from B&S Wauwatosa plant. When their press release came out about five years ago with this claim they said at the very end you
could still change the oil if you wished, hmmm. I have a four year old Toro, self propelled, walk behind mower. The oil plug, if there is one is covered
by a metal cover that protects the drive beltyou would have the take the blade and blade mount off the crank to get the plate off. My solution is at
the end of the season, I run it out of gas, remove the dipstick and turn it over on its side to drain the oilnot perfect, but it works. Ive always used
SAE 30 for my lawn mowers over the years. Been a home owner for 40+ years and this is my third mowerif you take care of them, they do last. No oil
change is bunk imo.
 
I have gotten 2 good mowers from people like that, they buy new and use them, when they don't run properly push them out to the street with a free sign on them!
 
My concern is the probable quality of the engineering in an engine claimed to never need an oil change .
I also empty oil out of the filler when replacing it , the absence of a drain makes no difference to me , I could change the oil in this new Toro as easily as with my old one .
But if the manufacturer has an expectation that the engine won't need new oil because it won't last too long in any case then I'm just not buying one .
 
My neighbor worked part-time at a tractor supply for almost 30 years. People would bring a mower or a rider back under warranty with blown engines from no oil change or no oil. He brought a few home over the years and repowered them, otherwise they just forklifted them in the dumpster. Customer got new one. That policy has changed. They have to go to dealer now. Same with batteries, they would be dead in spring, costumer would come in see a new lawn tractor battery was $35 but a charger was twice that so they just got new battery. I got alot of free year old batteries. I'm not criticizing anyone, probably didn't think of it or want another thing on the shelf.
 
Hey Charles,

They know that will last long enough to be
out of warranty. No drain plug for years
here in the U. S.

Guido.
 
We have a new guy on shift, late 20's, bought a house and was given the 2018 Cub Cadet riding mower. He was asking about an oil change, but did not know the difference between 10W and 10W-30 oil. After the oil and filter change, it would not start. His engine is fuel injected, so not water in the carb. He did not know how to check for spark. Ended up having the local den of thieves shop pick it up and fix it- needed a new CDI box somehow. At least he got to meet two of his neighbors, as they tired of his unmown yard and came over and cut it for him.
 
I've had a push mower for years with no oil plug. I bought a suction gun from Carquest for about $14. I remove the fill plug and suck out the
old oil and replace , never had a problem. The suction gun is the handiest tool in the shop. I can suction power steering fluid and replace ,
I can suction brake fluid out and replace with new , it is a handy dandy tool and cheap to buy
 
I don't know if this is it or not but oil
changes are part of epa emissions. So that
is one way to cheat and meet emissions is
to extend recommended service intervals.
 
There is a you Tube video about those new Briggs engines that never need oil changes. You just add oil as the level drops.
 
I just bought a new push mower. Local repair shop had a 6.5 hp Craftsman mower with a bad deck - probably about 4-5 years old. He charged we $35 for it. I mounted the engine on my high wheel side
discharge deck and it started on the first pull. I replaced the air filter on it as it had the original packed tight with dust and grass. Wouldn't surprise me if the oil that I drained was original too. I
then noticed it probably has the original spark plug in it too - I'm afraid to mess with that as it does start so easy. My 10 year old was able to start it pulling the rip cord with one hand.

My original mower I bought used in 1996 for $50 from my brother. It was a 4.5 hp Tecumseh that I used until this year - it was on its third deck. Son left it outside in the rain and somehow the oil pan
filled up with water. He ran it that way until it wouldn't run anymore.
 
Well, this was CUSTOMER driven. Briggs heard the right people complain about having to change their oil, so they obilged them. I am
thinking those engines still have a 3 year (Homeowner) warranty.

When they came out (before nnalert, back when we could still go to in-person service schools), they told us they expected those engines to
burn 1/4 of their oil supply every year. And the customer still has to 'top off' the oil with fresh oil each year. So my math means that
if the customer hears the 'no oil change' but fails to hear the rest about 'top off' the oil, Briggs is essentially expecting the engine
to last about 4 years.

You can still pour the oil out the dipstick hole like we did for about the last 20 years and change the oil that way just like we always
could. I don't know what year Briggs quit putting a drain plug on those engines but its been quite a while. (And the last one I tried to
remove brought the threads out of the sump with it!)
 
Its a briggs push mower engine.
You have to add a quart every time you use it. So they always have fresh oil in them.

🤣😁🤣
 
On the complete other side of the spectrum, John Deere has a mower that you change the oil filter and it is pre-filled with oil. So you take the old oil filter off, DON'T DRAIN ANY OIL, screw the (prefilled) oil filter back on and your oil change is complete. The local John Deere salesman went to the same school as me and goes to my church. I mentioned something about that feature to him one day and we both had a chuckle and I ribbed him about it. He told me that, while it is available, he hasn't sold a single mower with that feature. It's my understanding that the feature is also easily fabbed back to a regular oil change mower.
 

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