2021 Yamaha 275SD engine died - thoughts?

[mrcleanr6]

man i was hoping this wouldnt be the case with you just paying to have the boat fixed yourself that first time, but here we are. it kinda gave yamaha an out but who would have foreseen a blown motor after a shaft breakage. it really doesnt help that your repair shop isnt a dealer either. yamaha doesnt trust your repair shop anymore than they could throw him. if you wanted to drag this whole thing out and get a lawyer involved then yamaha might break down and cover it after some fighting but the fastest way back on the water though is for you to just buy a new svho. drop it in and your done. assuming you can get one. i know you cant get an outboard right now. yamaha just cant produce them. we went to all mercury on our boats here coming out of the plant. i havent seen a yamaha come down the production line in 9 mos.

 

[Troy JK]

Like mrclean said, if the shop that performed the repair isn’t a Yamaha dealer then that is most likely the issue. From what I gather, Yamaha wanted to inspect it but you didn’t allow that to happen. Looks like they feel you made the decision to go on your own.
I have a refrigeration/A/C business. If I install a system at your place and it has issues, I won’t feel responsible if I find out that you’ve had someone else working on it.
It’s still possible that if lawyers get involved that they will cave and cover it. But how much will you save and how much time will be lost?

 

[Hooker47d]

My guess is Yamaha wants to look at it as an engineering thing. Try to figure out the recall before it becomes a recall

 

[BGN123]

The repair shop is the biggest Yamaha dealer in the area.

 

[ripler]

@Sonic Blue @adrianp89

Based on these comments from the OP, Yamaha wanted to inspect the boat and he had the shop fix it without Yamaha inspection. He will be lucky if Yamaha warrantees anything and no chance at a lawsuit.

I stand by my previous post.

I understand the frustration and wanting to get back on the water ASAP, but Yamaha was taking the right steps to remedy the problem. If they were allowed to inspect the boat, they may have discovered other issues that could have prevented the blown engine.

Saying that you are "very disappointed in Yamaha and they don't seem interested in what happened here" is untrue. Yamaha wanted to inspect the boat and you refused to let them, by doing this you denied them the opportunity to make it right. You had repairs done that were not approved by Yamaha, so Yamaha isn't responsible for the repair. Yamaha knows that you had repairs done that weren't authorized by them and they know that they told you they wanted to inspect the boat. Once you had repairs done without Yamaha's approval you opened the door for them to deny any warranty work on the affected motor and driveline.

Good luck in your fight, but in my opinion you are on your own to pay the repairs.

 

[LakesideLaw]

This is a classic example of indemnification at play by Yamaha - We don't have to warranty that which is outside our terms - I.E. if you go against our process and take it upon yourself to fix something without our blessing and something worse occurs - NOT ON US.

The dealer did you no favors here IMHO - they should have refused to repair outside the Yamaha process. I would place some blame on them for even entertaining the idea. Money doesn't provide the right to by-pass systems at all costs. Yamaha is a business and warranty work is part of their business - it is at a loss for them - for them to offer to send out service techs/engineers on their dime to diagnose WTF happened means they were taking it seriously - then had they said NO Defect - repair the initial one and what happened happened now its on them. A blown engine is catastrophic - doesn't happen with Yamaha's hardly ever. It sounds like you drove it like you stole it - something happened - not sure what - without proper diagnosis Yamaha is saying we don't know either because we didn't get the chance to look. Must be operator error/neglect - you gave them an easy out unfortunately.

Lawyers involved won't change anything except costing you legal fees IMHO. I would go to the dealer and say WTF - you agreed to fix this and now this happened - negotiate a reduced cost on the replacement engine or rebuilt engine and demand to have them warranty that. My thoughts on best option at this point.

 

[BGN123]

I stand by my previous post.

I understand the frustration and wanting to get back on the water ASAP, but Yamaha was taking the right steps to remedy the problem. If they were allowed to inspect the boat, they may have discovered other issues that could have prevented the blown engine.

Saying that you are "very disappointed in Yamaha and they don't seem interested in what happened here" is untrue. Yamaha wanted to inspect the boat and you refused to let them, by doing this you denied them the opportunity to make it right. You had repairs done that were not approved by Yamaha, so Yamaha isn't responsible for the repair. Yamaha knows that you had repairs done that weren't authorized by them and they know that they told you they wanted to inspect the boat. Once you had repairs done without Yamaha's approval you opened the door for them to deny any warranty work on the affected motor and driveline.

Good luck in your fight, but in my opinion you are on your own to pay the repairs.

I’m not planning on a fight. And luckily paying for the repairs (or another boat) are a luxury problem I can afford.

The Yamaha dealer did the original work. It didn’t go to a third party service center. Apparently (learning this now), Yamaha said no to the original claim and determined that in their opinion debris must have caused the problem, and that is not a defect. The inspection was kind of a “red herring” meaning sounds like it was if I wanted to press the issue.

The problem is the mechanic said that debris ingestion is not what happened (completely clean impeller and housing with no scratches or damage). If it was, easy peasy I call my insurance company. But the insurance company asks what happened and wants to talk with the mechanic, right? And what does the mechanic say (“looks like some kind of problem with the boat”). The mechanic also didn‘t realize the motor was blown which cased the second disaster trip (motor dies one minute out of the marina).

I’m sticking to my view wrt Yamaha and the boat. Something went catastrophically wrong with this boat. It is a mystery problem that 3 mechanics cannot figure out. Several qualified technicians (including some who hit me on the side on this forum) believe that there is a vibration or metal defect that caused this. Yamaha told me to pound sand and is not interested in sorting this out. All I know is this is a horrible experience, and I cannot figure out the part where I did something to the boat (or to Yamaha) to justify this. Yamaha is also not responding to my salesperson. And the service center is not paid to sort out mystery problems that Yamaha says no to. So I am left begging the repair shop to fix this - and they are probably rightly worried to do it (will the customer pay $XX for the new engine, and after it goes in is there going to be another problem)?

Based on my experience the boat is defective, and Yamaha doesn’t care.

 

[BGN123]

Finally got some color from Yamaha. They got photos from the boat and noticed a nick or bend on the prop (which was not visible in any of the photos I saw). So they say there must have been something ingested which caused the damage. If that is right it puts my mind at ease. Doesn’t match what the mechanics said or what I think I experienced, but at least makes sense and I can stop being upset with Yamaha or not trusting my boat. And stopping me from impulse purchasing a Boston Whaler Vantage 280. Now I just have to wait for backordered engine (May expected). Expensive 20K lesson about jetboats.

 

[adrianp89]

Maybe I missed it, but are the photos here somewhere?

 

[Julian]

Finally got some color from Yamaha. They got photos from the boat and noticed a nick or bend on the prop (which was not visible in any of the photos I saw). So they say there must have been something ingested which caused the damage. If that is right it puts my mind at ease. Doesn’t match what the mechanics said or what I think I experienced, but at least makes sense and I can stop being upset with Yamaha or not trusting my boat. And stopping me from impulse purchasing a Boston Whaler Vantage 280. Now I just have to wait for backordered engine (May expected). Expensive 20K lesson about jetboats.

OK.....but did you ever ingest something that would have broken a shaft and destroyed your engine? Pretty sure you would have noticed that!

 

[mrcleanr6]

Yeah its going to be more than a nick in the impeller. You would need to almost shear a blade

 

[Julian]

There have now been at least 3 shafts broken in the last 6 months. Not a major trend, but certainly concerning......was there a bad batch of shafts?

 

[adrianp89]

There have now been at least 3 shafts broken in the last 6 months. Not a major trend, but certainly concerning......was there a bad batch of shafts?

These guys should get together to discuss.

 

[fatboyroy]

If boat ingested something, insurance should cover that, let yamaha and insurance company fight on whos paying.

 

[Beachbummer]

I call bullcr@p from Yamaha. These Warranties have zero timelines, they always take inordinate amount of time to repair, so the owner pays the Authorized repair shop, the same shop Yamaha would pay to do the work, and somehow that voids the warranty?

This is a big reason I refuse to buy a new boat. The warranty is cr@p even when it covers. My opinion is reinforced every time I see a thread like this one, and even where repairs are covered, they are done under warranty at a snail's pace. Buyer beware. Thankfully most are very reliable and do not require any repairs, but when they do, what a pain!

 

[swatski]

@Beachbummer I hear you, but it really depends, I've had first hand experiences of different colors with Yamaha boat warranties.

The most recent was excellent. I had a cracked head in the port engine, it was a pain to diagnose but once it was done, the dealer was quickly authorized to perform a head assembly swap which was completely covered under the warranty.
The cost (very substantial) aside, the dealer was prioritized for the part delivery saving me months (if not more) of down time as those head assemblies have been backordered forever.
As they say, YMMV.

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[Betik]

@Beachbummer I hear you, but it really depends, I've had first hand experiences of different colors with Yamaha boat warranties.

The most recent was excellent. I had a cracked head in the port engine, it was a pain to diagnose but once it was done, the dealer was quickly authorized to perform a head assembly swap which was completely covered under the warranty.
The cost (very substantial) aside, the dealer was prioritized for the part delivery saving me months (if not more) of down time as those head assemblies have been backordered forever.
As they say, YMMV.

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I am fairly positive that the second experience was a direct consequence of the first one. This time they were extremely smart with how they handled it. I wish they were just as smart the first time around. That being said though you would much rather being in this order than the reverse

 

[Betik]

@BGN123 i have been keeping an eye on your story as it is disheartening to see for many reasons. Between Yamaha being slow, some bad luck and you having a bit of an attitude it is like a perfect storm. In my opinion it was a mistake for you to buy a Yamaha to begin with. Based on your statements your pay grade is way above the median pay grade of the average Yamaha owner and therefore the level of service you expect is not the level of service Yamaha is catering too. No different than going from a boat Bentley dear to a Kia dealer.

I applaud your statement about being a 1st world problem and everything but if I were you I will also try to adjust my expectations.

I know you are busy man but maybe if you can find a bit time it might help to read on Phaethon’s story

Wishing you all the best with you knew engine. And if possible please try to break her in no break her.

 

[Beachbummer]

I am fairly positive that the second experience was a direct consequence of the first one. This time they were extremely smart with how they handled it. I wish they were just as smart the first time around. That being said though you would much rather being in this order than the reverse

Glad to hear it. I expect the exposure of the negative experiences also weight more heavily to the side of the more nightmarish situations, so that could be a factor too in my perception. I still think it's a perverse system where you have indeed lost all leverage and there is little recourse if they are not well behaved, but I'm glad to hear of your good experience in this area with your problem.

 

[mrcleanr6]

I agree the 2 are related. After this thread i pulled my pumps to be sure there wasnt an alignment issue.