Have you had a 1.8 timing chain failure, was it in warranty and how has Yamaha handled it?

[McMark]

Hate to say it Mark but I cant see a bigger waste of time

Not necessarily. Some oils have more zinc in them which allows the oil to cling to moving parts during down time. I'd be curious to see if a majority of the failures might link to using a full synthetic automobile oil such as Mobil 1.

 

[swatski]

I would have to agree with @Evil Sports, only because we certainly do not have enough data To come up with anything that would be even remotely close to statistically significant considering various maintenance schedules.
I would be happy to have the events collated or in a table, but I will tell you based on my cursory survey that it's going to be difficult to even make a conclusion the timing chain is the leading cause of engine failure in 1.8 in boats.

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

Coming up on 2 weeks so I called to see what was going on with the engine warranty deal. I was informed that Yamaha will repair it under warranty but it may take a few more weeks before it is finished and returned to me. So I hope the other one holds out a few more weeks .

 

[Noko]

I heard all the failed timing chains were made on a Monday when the workers were hung over.

Maybe its an old joke, but when Col. Paul Tibbets hand picked his B-29, the plant manager told him to avoid any airplanes made on Monday!

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

That figures, and to think I don't even drink !

 

[JEvanoff]

I had a timing chain failure at 27 hours on 1 motor. I had changed the oil at 15 hours before the failure, used Yamaha filters and Castrol oil. I had good luck with this on my good ole AR230 so I thought I would continue the same maintenance plan. Yes, I have revved my motors up a couple times to clear the water out. I won't be doing that anymore. I also make sure and always have, that the engines are completely warmed up before I get into it. I NEVER let the jets come out of the water like jumping etc.
It really sucks, not sure what we will do. I have the 4 year YES warranty, but it still makes me nervous to go very far out. I think we will get rid of the boat after the warranty expires. I can't imagine a repair bill for $6000!
Cobra Jet Steering I feel your pain!

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

I hope that when they rebuild the engine it will be good to go but now I have to worry about the other one, they are both the same year and model , so when does that one hatch?

 

[JEvanoff]

I hope that when they rebuild the engine it will be good to go but now I have to worry about the other one, they are both the same year and model , so when does that one hatch?

They just replaced the head and timing chain on mine.

 

[Bruce]

I NEVER let the jets come out of the water like jumping etc.

That would not work very well for me. I had the jets out of the water on a calm lake yesterday. I have heard them spin up countless times in the ocean!

 

[haknslash]

They just replaced the head and timing chain on mine.

I would have hoped they upgraded all of your components to 2016 changes, not just replace the timing chain. Most people I've seen on here with a failure are getting new 2016 upgrades that are supposed to resolve the issue.

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

On the jets out of the water I keep reading that the chains went while cruising just like mine did I have no idea why. I was only going 35 mph and on calm water, I have been know to jump wakes and waves at high speed even driving in white caps etc so who knows what causes it to just give with no warning.

 

[JEvanoff]

On the jets out of the water I keep reading that the chains went while cruising just like mine did I have no idea why. I was only going 35 mph and on calm water, I have been know to jump wakes and waves at high speed even driving in white caps etc so who knows what causes it to just give with no warning.

Yes, me too. I was running wide open (trying to beat the rain) when we had the failure.
I told the Yamaha mechanic that and he said these motors should run all day wide open.

 

[Gym]

I've been reading this thread with great interest although it doesn't affect my year boat. It would be interesting if one of our members, that had membership on the other site, would run a survey over there to see how many were affected and how their issues were resolved, especially the non YES customers. That would give a much broader picture as to the scope of the problem. If I were a candidate for this issue I would be doing annual inspections of the chain. I like to be reasonably pro active.

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

So who gets to go there and explain what a timing chain is? JUST KIDDING

 

[dougg]

Just adding my boat (2014 212X) to the list of failed timing chains. We had just finished a day of surfing and beaching which has been the norm for us the past two summers. While on the ride back to the dock, with both engines running great, the starboard side quit. It took me a bit to figure it out and thanks to this thread I though to look at the timing chain. We're 4 hours from the dealer so I won't have it inspected until next week. I'll let you know what Yamaha says regarding warranty. Engine has 150 hours on it. Lots of surfing and general boat use. Well maintained and taken care of. We've had zero issues up to this point. We're going to miss not having a boat for September long. Looks like well be riding with friends, none of them jet boats though so I'll be taking a ribbing.

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

With a twin engine boat if a chain fails on you , the up side is you still have another engine to get back in with, but the bad side is you loose your boat for a month or longer and after you get it back you still have a ticking time bomb and if / when that one fails you loose your boat for another month. This will have a huge negative effect on Yamaha's reputation. The flywheel issue was a recall and few people even knew about it with this problem the word will spread like wild fire, I guess their market analysts have deciphered that the numbers are in favor of dealing with it the way they are but I hope those analysts didn't work for Takata .
I never hesitated to strongly recommend the Yamaha jet line , now I don't bother to recommend any line so multiply that by thousands of people who have dwindling confidence .

 

[njmr2fan]

More bad news... sorry to hear @dougg . I hate reading these updates. I hate thinking that our beloved 14 AR190 could go at anytime for no reason. Hope you have YES coverage or that Yamaha will step in and do the right thing with your boat.

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

On another note reading JEvanoffs post I took many a ford hypo 289 engines apart for their broken plastic cam gears failing and allowing the timing chain to slip a tooth or two, this usually avoided smashing the valve into the top of the pistons, or so I thought, after rebuilding one that had slipped time I was winding it out like any teenager did back in the late 60's when I heard a very loud bang coming from the engine, the oil light came on and the engine seized up on the spot, hatched a rod right through the side of the block. Apparently one of my pistons had a small crack in it from a valve hitting it when the chain slipped, I missed it and that was that.
Now these newer engines have huge valves and when a chain breaks , those pistons slam into the valves and there is no way that they can just do a chain and a head without doing the entire bottom end. it would be a disaster waiting to happen.

 

[JEvanoff]

I have to agree, I have never been so disappointed with Yamaha. I feel I have been one of their better customers through the years (3 boats & 11 PWC's) and they have completely lost all of my trust. I can assure you this will be the last Yamaha product I own.
It really has taken the fun out of boating for us. I know several people just say forget it it's a rare failure, it will probably never happen again but believe me that's a lot easier said than done.

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

Now we have a tropical storm that may develop and stall in the gulf, when that happens the surf is huge and I love jumping that surf, The problem is I can't do it without a chase ski sitting on stand by because if you get separated from your ski , forget it you will never even be able to see it let alone get to it. So your chase person has to first find you and then look for the ski. The waver are huge I jumped one last time and while I was in the air I noticed a boat pulling a person on a tube riding in the trough between the waves, I had no clue anyone was doing that and never even saw the boat until I hit the top.
I yelled Oh crap only with a S, the boat operator saw me and stopped, I landed just in front of it, had he kept going I would have landed in the boat. It's absolute chaos, people jumping waves from both directions and boats bringing surfers out to let them surf back to shore, I love it but I doubt I will be doing any of that with this ski being unreliable and my other ski in the shop for a chain. Going to miss all the fun. Oh crap only with an S.
That pic was a very small wave at passagrille pass.