If your Toro TimeCutter starts each season feeling a little rough, it usually isn’t one big problem. It’s often a stack of small things, old oil, a tired air filter, dull blades, low tire pressure, that add up over time. The good news is that annual service is pretty repeatable once you know what a complete maintenance visit looks like.

Main Street Mower is a real mower shop in Central Florida, and service is a big part of what they do. In the video below, you get a technician’s point of view while a TimeCutter gets a full PM (preventative maintenance) style service. Whether you plan to do the work yourself or you just want to understand what you’re paying for, this walkthrough lays out the checklist clearly.

Not every mower shop is built around service work, but that’s what Main Street Mower is known for. A lot of owners only bring their mower in when something breaks. That can work, but it often turns a simple tune-up into a bigger repair, and it usually happens right when grass is growing fast.

To make yearly maintenance easier, the shop runs a winter service promotion during December through February. During that window, they pick up customers’ Toro TimeCutters for free, bring them in for a full annual service, then return them quickly. In the video, multiple TimeCutters are lined up that came in over the last couple of days, and many are going back out the same day or the next day. That quick turnaround matters because nobody wants their mower sitting in a queue once spring hits.

The service itself is what most owners expect from a proper annual PM:

• Oil change
• Air filter, fuel filter, spark plug
• Blade sharpening or replacement
• Greasing front wheels
• Traction adjustment if needed

The service shown in the video happens in what the shop calls the same day bay, basically an express area built for quick turn work. They normally have three techs working there. For this service, Morgan (a same day bay tech) wears a POV camera so you can see the steps the way a technician sees them.

A fast bay doesn’t mean rushed work. It usually means the process is consistent, tools are close by, and the work order follows the same rhythm every time. With the right setup, they say a full PM on a TimeCutter can take about 10 to 20 minutes, especially when tasks overlap (like extracting oil while another item is being handled).

If you’re trying to picture the flow, it looks like this:

1. Bring the mower into the bay and start the PM checklist.
2. Inspect blades first and decide sharpen vs replace.
3. Hit lubrication points and tire pressure checks.
4. Replace filters and spark plug(s) as planned.
5. Change the oil (they use a vacuum method shown later).
6. Wrap up details like traction adjustment when needed.

In the video, the service items fall into two buckets. Some are “must do” items that protect the engine right away. Others are done to prevent headaches later, even if the mower might still run fine without them today.

Here’s how that breakdown looks in simple terms:

That “preventative” list is where a lot of value hides. It’s also where owners tend to delay work because the mower still starts. The point of a yearly service is to handle those items on schedule, not after they cause downtime.

Anytime the shop does a PM, they check the blades early. That’s smart because blades tell the story of how the mower is being used. If the blades can be sharpened, they sharpen them because it’s cheaper for the customer and easier than swapping parts. If the blades are worn past the point of a good sharpen, they replace them.

In the video, the old blades are replaced. The reason is wear at the “tails” of the blades. You can see areas getting thin, thin, and pointy. That kind of wear matters even if the blade could technically be sharpened once more. The shop makes a practical call based on service timing: this mower is only being serviced once a year. If they reinstall borderline blades now, there’s a good chance the tips will be worn off by the end of the next spring season. So they replace the set slightly early to help the mower keep cutting well for the whole year.

A helpful detail is that the customer can take the old blades home. If someone wants to sharpen them on their own and keep them as a spare set, that’s an option. The key point is choosing what will hold up until the next time the mower is seen in the shop.

If you’ve ever mowed with dull blades, you’ve felt it. The cut looks rough, the mower works harder, and the yard can look more torn than trimmed. Fresh blades, whether sharpened or new, are one of the quickest ways to make a TimeCutter feel “right” again.

Two easy items are shown in the middle of the service that many owners skip at home: greasing the front wheels and setting tire pressure.

On Toro TimeCutters, the front wheels don’t use traditional roller bearings like many commercial units. Instead, they use a bearing and sleeve setup, basically a solid bearing with a metal sleeve. In this design, the grease acts as the moving portion of the bearing surface.

Because of that, Toro recommends greasing those wheels about every oil change. For a homeowner who does one oil change a year, greasing once a year lines up with the annual PM. It also helps prevent squeaks.

The shop mentions a practical reality: if it were a personal mower, they’d likely grease more often at home because those bearings can last longer with more frequent lubrication. Still, if the mower comes in yearly for the winter service, that annual grease is a strong baseline.

They typically run tires around 15 PSI per side, and they do that all the way around. The manual may list a range of 12.5 to 15 PSI, but 15 PSI is what they use in the shop.

Tire pressure naturally drops over time. Valve stems and Schrader valves aren’t perfect seals, and cold winter months can make that loss more noticeable. If you don’t check pressure annually, it’s common for tires to get really low every couple of years, which can affect cut quality and how the mower tracks.

This is one of those checks that feels “too simple,” but it changes how the mower feels on the lawn, especially on turns and uneven ground.

The video explains a difference many owners don’t think about until they’ve been burned once: mandatory maintenance vs preventative maintenance.

Oil and air filters fall into the mandatory category. They protect the engine every time it runs. Spark plugs and fuel filters are more preventative, meaning you change them to avoid problems before they show up.

Spark plugs last a long time. The shop mentions a typical recommendation of around 200 hours. In many cases, a TimeCutter spark plug can keep running beyond what a normal annual PM would require.

So why replace it anyway? Because the mower is already in the shop, and spark plugs are inexpensive (they mention about six dollars each). For customers who only service the machine once a year, replacing the plug becomes a simple “don’t worry about it” choice.

They also call out a real-world factor: a dirty air filter can cause spark plugs to clog or wear faster. In this service, the air filter needs replacement, but it’s not terrible. The spark plug pulled from the mower shows what a healthy plug can look like after about a year of use:

• Dark coloration, but not overly sooty
• Not burning too lean
• Still has plenty of material left on key areas

In other words, the mower probably could keep running that plug. The replacement is more about peace of mind and keeping everything on the same yearly schedule.

The air filter is treated like a standard annual replacement. Clean air is one of the simplest ways to extend engine life.

The fuel filter is talked about as preventative. The idea is simple: don’t wait for the fuel system to get clogged, just replace the filter before it causes a problem. When you stack a clean air filter, clean fuel delivery, and fresh oil, you reduce the odds of hard starts, rough running, and “it ran fine last week” surprises.

One of the most interesting parts of the service is how they change the oil. Instead of draining from a plug underneath, they use a vacuum system through the dipstick tube.

A hose goes into the dipstick hole and the vacuum pulls oil out. The shop likes this method for a few reasons:

• It’s fast in a production-style service bay.
• It avoids grabbing wrenches and dealing with drain hoses.
• It reduces the chance of damaging the drain hose setup.
• The hose goes all the way to the bottom of the oil pan, so it pulls the oil out effectively.

Some people argue that vacuum extraction doesn’t change oil as thoroughly. The shop’s view is the opposite: they’ve found it does an excellent job because the hose reaches the bottom of the pan and removes the oil cleanly.

This is also where the “same day bay” efficiency shows up. While other service tasks are being handled, oil extraction can be happening at the same time. That’s part of how they can turn a full annual PM around quickly and still hit every point on the checklist.

A Toro TimeCutter can run for a long time when it gets consistent yearly care. The service shown in the video isn’t fancy, it’s repeatable work done on schedule: inspect and handle blades, grease the front wheels, set tire pressure, replace filters and spark plugs as planned, and change the oil using a method that’s quick and safe for the engine.

Most mower problems don’t start as big failures. They start as skipped oil changes, dull blades, clogged filters, and dry wheel bearings. A yearly Toro TimeCutter PM, like the one shown here, keeps those small issues from piling up and helps protect your TimeCutter for the long haul. If you’re on a once-a-year service routine, bundling the mandatory items with a few preventative replacements can save you hassle when the grass is growing fast.

Links to Main Street Mower

• Shop online: Main Street Mower
• YouTube: Main Street Mower on YouTube
• Facebook: Main Street Mower on Facebook
• Instagram: Main Street Mower on Instagram
• TikTok: Main Street Mower on TikTok