Honda HRU196 Questions & Answers

I suggest you talk to your local friendly Honda dealer who may be able to source a new part for you or may have old mowers around that they can scavenge parts from to repair your mower saving you more money.They get plenty of very cheap trade in mowers, many of which are handy for spare parts.Give them a call.

Thanks for your help Paul.

Sounds like your carb needs a clean. It will be a little bit blocked, unable to get enough fuel under load. If you've cleaned the muffler it's not that

I do, what do you want to know?

Never mind Jeremy - I pulled down the carburettor and rebuilt it last night and she’s up and going again. Not my mower - drove five hours to friends property to find out that their mower wouldn’t start!

Thanks heaps for your time :)

Hi Roger, no self drive.

Hi Roger,
No the Honda HRU196 does not have a self drive but
the Honda HRR216 does have a range of self drive mowers.

Hi, our old one had cir-clip/e-clips that held the wheels in place.

Yes. Mainly for running fuel out of the carb for storage

If you are referring to A manual fuel tap. Depending on the model/year. Some do and some don't.

Mine has 4 blades. Am quite confident that you will be able to simply add another 2 blades to the existing holes in the plate that is currently on there. Cheers.

My mower guy put extra blades on. Mower still sucks with small chute but is improved

Mine did the same, adjust your throttle cable or might just need a spray with some lube.

Throttle cables stretch a little with use over time. To alleviate this problem you need to adjust the throttle cable to remove the slack.
WD40 may also be useful to allow the cable to move better inside the sheath containing it, but just a little, not much is needed!

If its only 5 months old id send it back to the supplier under warranty, the engine generally speaking is a brilliant little engine and should give you years without any issues as long as you have it serviced regularly

Hi Spondoola,
The only time that I have seen this is when the blade brake hasn't been disengaged. Check that when you are pushing the level in that it is actually pulling the cable on the left hand of the mower.

Hope not

Hi tussock bob

Naismith and jones in Tauranga have the hru196 heritage in stock. I was in there just the other day. This is the old school design with new motor and air snorkel. Note that it has the old body design, metal hatch and plastic catcher, but should not have the blocking issue. And it is about 6kgs lighter!

Hello there. Thanks for your response. As it turned out, I was able to order one in thanks to our good folks at Greymouth Honda Farm & Trial (New Zealand) last July.
I got the version with the Australian manufactured engine. I'm very happy with how it functioned - Great start-up every time, solid quality throughout. Its catcher is solid, with a steel plate (sheet) at the back to take the impact of stones that might get flung that way. The open chute design functions perfectly even in high moisture conditions the clippings have no difficulty reaching the catcher. The mechanism to hold the catcher is solid and overall it's a great runner. I do wish the wheels had a more 'closed' or smooth surface design. The inside spaces between the radial 'spokes' gets filled up with grass and is difficult to keep clean if you plan to use it in different places where weed & seed transfer become an issue...
HOWEVER: and this is probably just a fluke... After 9 hours of use I noticed a one inch crack in the alloy deck. I have been mowing lawns for more than 25 years now, and I have NEVER seen this (The Honda folks, locally and at head office haven't ever seen this either) And this is where things get a bit sub-optimal... Obviously something did hit the area that cracked, no argument there, but to get an alloy deck to crack you'd need a pretty big force, and I can't for the life of me recall anything like that happening (and I'm the only one using it). Our property is pretty tidy, established a long time ago, no new subdivision, no solid big stone edges or anything like that, just the occasional alluvial gravel stones from the road reserve. In short nothing that a lawnmower shouldn't be able to deal with... So we find ourselves in a bit of murky waters in regards to the warranty. This is obviously one of those events that lies on the far ends of the bell-shaped curve of probabilities. After a handful of phone calls to both the local franchise and Head office, Honda Head Office, after an initial 'no' and my talking about encouraging brand loyalty, has agreed to pay for the deck to be welded but not replaced. Given that there is so much uncertainty as to whether the damage was due to a preexisting micro fracture (certainly my belief) or negligence / heavy handling (probably Hondas belief - yet I can't imagine I'm the biggest brute ever to use a Honda lawnmower, I'm too weak even play rugby for gods sake :-) so I guess this is an acceptable outcome.

I don't think this is a mower problem, its just that there is too much grass for a domestic mower. My experience is that a well maintained lawn will not clog any mulching mower, as it will be regularly cut and the amount of clippings will spread into the lawn, even with worn blades. After summer rains and growth with thick grass, there can be a run of excess grass flung out to the side of the mower. My Honda mower which has good power for its cut width (compared to other domestic mowers) has also spluttered and stalled after clogging when mowing high grass, and especially kikuyu and the thick new variety of buffalo grass. I have had to rake the excessive clippings afterwards, even when mowing on a high setting. Such grass should not be fertilised and should be mown more often than once a month during growth times. I have had to mow such grasses as often as once a week (maybe once a year this happens).

Thank you for your comments but I am trying to get the clippings into the catcher......not mulch them onto the lawn. I think the chute is badly designed on the new model and is too narrow.

Luke I dont know what silver bit you refer to. If its on the top and made of metal, it is the handle to place and remove the catcher.
Why they intoduced a half shute no one can answer except that Its a new design that someone in the company introduced, but if they had sought some free advice from the contactors who use the mowers ( as I have) they would have been advised that the full opening at the rear of the machine is the much preferred option.

I think that maybe you should ask a Honda lawnmower distributor or dealer that question Luke as I don't really know.

i actually have asked and they dont no i just wish they used it for a day first then realized it is ridiculous

All current decks are not going to catch wet grass. The shute cannot be changed. Best option seems to be fit older model deck, either genuine or copy of genuine.

Serious contractors are leaving honda due to the shute which blocks far to easily. Why does the contractor need to pay for a retro fit which costs roughly $80. This should be covered by honda as it is a design flaw.