I have had a Makita 4 stroke hand held blower since October last year. About three weeks ago it suddenly lost a bit of power and I noticed it had oiled up the starter line. I had been maintaining it as per Makita's manual with regular oil changes.
The blower lost power on a Friday so I did the regular oil change that weekend and noticed that the oil looked suspicously metallic.
I changed the oil and checked the air filter and spark plug and fired it up. Still down on power and the oil dirtied up straight away going a nice metallic colour.
As the dealer I had bought it off was off work injured I had to take it to another dealer who after inspecting it sent it off to Makita. At this stage I spoke to Makita directly and they offered a loan machine if required (it wasn't, I have a couple of backups) which is a service they offer to commercial customers. A week later the blower was returned. The motor had been rebuilt (new barrel, piston etc) and it was performing as it had from brand new.
All this was done at no cost to me under warranty.
Makita said it was an unusual case and the first failure they had seen through normal operation.
I am rapt with the service and repairs by Makita (not so much the dealer I had to take it to but thats another story) and have ordered another Makita blower which I hope to have this week.
Well done Makita, great service on a great value product. I will happily keep buying Makita tools for my business
Jake