7 Common Issues With Riding Lawn Mowers

Healthy grass requires regular mowing. And while keeping a lush green yard can be a lot of work, the right machine can make all the difference. A riding lawn mower can make quick work of a big lawn, but even these hardworking machines can hit a few bumps along the way. From dead batteries and old spark plugs to stale fuel and dull blades, common problems can quickly put a dent in your landscaping routine. Luckily, many of these issues are easy to prevent or troubleshoot with a little routine maintenance and know-how.

Keeping your lawn mower's manual on hand should help you solve any problem you run into. As long as you address issues promptly and give your machine a good tune-up from time to time, you should be able to spend more time enjoying your yard and less time fighting with your mower. Knowing these common issues can help you catch small problems before they turn into expensive and frustrating repairs.

Riding mowers generally use lead-acid batteries, which on average need to be replaced every two to four years. But if you don't store your lawn mower battery indoors or somewhere with a stable, moderate temperature during the winter months, you could be in for a nasty surprise come spring, even if your battery is fairly new. Fortunately, replacing a lawn mower battery is relatively straightforward.

Gas doesn't stay good forever. So if you don't either empty or stabilize your fuel before taking a long break from using your mower, you can easily damage your engine. Save yourself the trouble of needing to have your carburetor cleaned, and just avoid keeping stale gas in your riding mower. Luckily, fuel stabilizer is affordable and easy to add. 

If you've noticed your grass seems damaged instead of healthy and lush after you finish mowing, there's a good chance your tractor's cutting apparatus is dull or damaged. Luckily, removing and sharpening your lawn mower blades is a relatively simple task. Just be sure to disconnect the spark plug before starting any work. Once you have a sharp and clean blade, your lawn should look much nicerand your mower should even run better and be more fuel efficient.

Like your car, the oil in your mower performs essential functions but doesn't stay good forever. In most cases, you'll need to change it about once a year or whenever it begins to look dark. If you don't change it and fill it to the proper level, your equipment's longevity could suffer. And you likely don't want to buy a brand-new lawn mower for your yard when you could have just kept up with oil changes.

Without a well-functioning spark plug, your mower's engine either won't start at all or will run poorly. Fortunately, spark plugs are quite affordable and seldom cost more than $10. So replacing the spark plugs on your lawn mower after every 30 hours (that's the recommendation) of use shouldn't be a major issue.

Riding mowers have a few different belts, including drive and transmission belts. Of course, because these are generally made of rubber or similar materials, they don't last forever. And when they start to fail, your mower will run far less efficiently and may begin to make strange noises. So check all the belts for signs of cracking, stretching, or other damage, and replace them as needed.

Air filters, as their name suggests, filter out dirt and debris that would enter your mower along with the air the engine needs. So a dirty or damaged filter is bad news for your mower's internal parts and can reduce the engine's lifespan. If they are only mildly dirty, you may be able to wash and reuse them, but you should still plan to change them yearly.