210 FSH Sport 10 WEEKS AND 26.8 HOURS LATER....BUYER BEWARE!!

[Scottintexas]

at least 13 and possibly 20 overheat issues and you missed all of them ??? not believing that,
overheating causing loose screws ??

personally if there's a trust issues what makes you think it will get any better ?

since they've confirmed it's the gasket and that you're paying for everything, I'd pick the boat up and test the compression myself, fix the gasket myself or give it to an independent shop that I trusted to fix,

The fact that you have low power on the other engine makes me concerned there's some other issue, maybe a time to apply social media pressure to bend yamaha's ear,
how do you get overheat warnings and not get it on the display??

 

[I know You know]

at least 13 and possibly 20 overheat issues and you missed all of them ??? not believing that,
overheating causing loose screws ??

personally if there's a trust issues what makes you think it will get any better ?

since they've confirmed it's the gasket and that you're paying for everything, I'd pick the boat up and test the compression myself, fix the gasket myself or give it to an independent shop that I trusted to fix,

The fact that you have low power on the other engine makes me concerned there's some other issue, maybe a time to apply social media pressure to bend yamaha's ear,
how do you get overheat warnings and not get it on the display??

Hi @Scottintexas, I did not miss them all, during the 8 weeks we were in the Keys I had 3 on the Port Motor and 2 on the Starboard Motor, they were due to seaweed that was everywhere and got caught up in the intake. Each time the alarms went off I shut off that motor and corrected the cause and did not run it until there was plenty of cool water coming thru the pisser. The printout does show all the alarms so I am mostly Dead in the Water cause they and Yamaha are going to hold on to that to clean their hands of it. Beyond this issue, when is this going to happen again where the motors are going to over heat and I will not be notified because the overheat alarm is not functioning? At this point I have lost total confidence in this boat, I am sitting on a 45,000.00 and counting money pit.

 

[Ramblin Wreck]

I'm confused, if I purchase a brand new car and the engine overheats which causes other issues my auto dealer would have it fixed under warranty. Why wouldn't the boat be the same way? Is the dealer stating you were being negligent in operation hence them expecting you to come out of pocket? IMO this should be fixed under warranty and I wouldn't accept anything else.

 

[swifty_210FSH]

I'm not saying this is what happened but in regard to the new car warranty scenario: If a dealer or manufacturer can show negligence (driver ignored overheating warnings yet continued to drive vehicle) I doubt they'd be paying for any repairs. To me that's the 64 dollar question here. Can the dealer show any negligence? Printouts of alarms are one thing but can they show continued operation after said alarms?

 

[HABANEROTE]

I had over 20 codes the first 18 hours before modifying the intake crate... after that... only 1 time in 10 hours... says a lot about that mod... in my opinion get the boat out of there and take it to any yamaha jet ski mechanic they will never be as expensive as the STEALER, ups... "my bad" dealer......

 

[Beachbummer]

Sadly horror stories are available in most brand options. I would suggest considering how many are sold and how many have issues. If you are greatly concerned about being owed great service after having relinquished most leverage by paying upfront, perhaps a used model with no warranty offers the option to pay cash at any shop for repairs, and the knowledge most things that would have failed early after an "artisanal" build , were handled by someone else before you bought it. Feel free to walk into your dealer's service area and talk to other owners that are waiting for service, and see their take on the boat and the service folks.

 

[I know You know]

@I know You know

Really skeptic to hear your issues. I'm in the market for a 2019 FSH and was super duper excited....but after ready your issues, I'm wary....should I avoid Yamaha?

Your opinion is appreciated!

@DankishPlank I don't think its an issue of avoiding Yamaha, although there are many QC issues with these boats, they are a great bargain for the money and look really good on the water. I think the biggest issue is with the dealers, they are doing everything possible to avoid doing "Warranty" work and they come up with a bunch of bullshit excuses to blame the issues on the owners, so now the QC issues become compounded by BS problems and it makes the boats look worse then they really are. I am still waiting on an estimate on my issues which the dealer has deemed are my fault because of over heating alarms which never happened, the have had the boat for going on 4 weeks and there is no end in site. The problem is not Yamaha, the problem is Yamaha employees and managers....

 

[Britboater]

Just reading through your nightmare of FSH ownership, it’s a common issue with Yam boats, I’ve always thought if your not a competent, hands on fixer, don’t buy a Yamaha boat.
It’s such a shame and to boost the heartache, you hear so many dealers are just useless, mine certainly is and my boat never goes anywhere near them.

With regard to your problem, I would not roll over, they mentioned overheating and that’s caused the problems, well in your video you show the water ingress from the engine manifold and the lack of pressure from the pisser. My take on that is that those bolts were loose from the factory, thus causing low water pressure which will induce overheating, also the lack of power would be related to that problem too.
I’d say you’ve got a lemon, get out if you can.

 

[Elliott]

Almost one year using a 2017 FSH 190 exclusively in salt water, and I have not had any problems. I have not had any issues with the boat nor with using it in salt water, and I doubt that my experience is atypical. You look at every internet board for every brand, and you see the same thing - happy customers, people with modifications/improvements and unhappy customers (just like cars). The more boats you sell the more unhappy customers you will have (boats overall have a much higher issue rate than cars), and if you sell enough boats you can reach a critical mass of unhappy customers posting plus trolls.

 

[swatski]

I agree with @Britboater. To establish causality you would want to show that the leaky exhaust cooling gasket was spraying water before all the seeweed and (subsequent?) overheats.
https://jetboaters.net/threads/seaweed-nightmare.18246/#post-312443
So many overheats is an issue for sure, so if the overheat events were due to the facts cooling water was gashing into the bilge (instead of cooling the manifold) that would be a manufacturing defect.

To @DankishPlank, I would say Yamahas are pretty darn good value, especially is you can wrench and do your own maintenance. Keep in mind though the raw water cooling in Yamaha jet boat engines is very different than that in outboards as the intakes are inside the jet pump (on the high pressure side of it) and prone to be clogged up by whatever it is that the (huge) intakes (located under the boat) are ingesting/swallowing. The outboards, the raw water intake is somewhat protected, behind the stern which moves most of stuff away.

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[I know You know]

Wow! If there many QC issues...I would definitely say those are Yamaha issues. Aren't these boats made by robots? I think I saw that on Yamaha's site.

Considering all the issues you are having or dealing with, if you could go back in time, would you purchase a Yamaha again? Appreciate your opinion.

The only way I would purchase it again is if I had written assurance that the dealers would treat you with compassion and be professional and not treat you like "we already got your money, just go to the back of the line so we can set up units for new buyer" we will get to you whenever we can, since that will NEVER happen, nope no more Yamaha for me.

 

[I know You know]

Sadly horror stories are available in most brand options. I would suggest considering how many are sold and how many have issues. If you are greatly concerned about being owed great service after having relinquished most leverage by paying upfront, perhaps a used model with no warranty offers the option to pay cash at any shop for repairs, and the knowledge most things that would have failed early after an "artisanal" build , were handled by someone else before you bought it. Feel free to walk into your dealer's service area and talk to other owners that are waiting for service, and see their take on the boat and the service folks.

You make this sound so simple, so I just forked over 45,000.00 2 months ago and now I should go buy another boat so that I can avoid the warranty issue, btw I dont know what your dealership is like but last time I checked most boat dealerships do not have customers sitting sipping on coffee and watching TV while they wait for their boat. As I said is not the boat all boats have problems, is the dealers that SUCK!!

 

[swatski]

Well, @I know You know if you think the dealer is bad... better brace yourself when you start dealing with their corporate customer support...
I really feel for you, having been in a Yamaha pickle before myself, in my case it was a tower failure not mechanical but same difference.

Establishing the chain of events (causality, if possible) has been most helpful in my case. Written expert opinions help.

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[swatski]

Appreciate the the opinion @swatski and @Britboater

This does give me serious pause when considering Yamaha though. When purchasing a auto vehicle, it would be ludicrous for the dealer/manufacture or purchaser to have an implied assumption that the purchaser needs to be handy with a wrench in order to keep the vehicle running or fix manufacturing defects.

I thought Yamaha was quality. It appears it is not the case when it comes to their boats.

I'm not completely out on Yamaha yet...but this is cause for concern.

Reading your comment, made me realize how strange that really sounds: must be mechanically inclined to buy a new boat! lol

Well, in reality "value" is a complicated formula with purchase price being just one facet. For example, one of the huge advantages Yamaha has with their jet boats is this forum/community. There is hardly any issues with their jet boats that have not been flagged and/or conclusively addressed here. The Admins encourage and support this site with "no bs" information flow, not adverts, and completely unbiased and unrestricted by corporate ties etc. It is a unique situation that Yamaha is slowly learning to take advantage off of. That is a huge asset - IF you are willing to get involved in your boat maintenance and (hopefully just occasional) repair. If not, I would probably look somewhere else where the initial purchase price gets you a more solid initial QC/reliabilty (which is an issue with ALL inboard jet boat manufacturers, Yamaha is not the worst by far). Ironically, for me, it would probably still be a Yamaha just not a jet boat but rather an outboard.

All that said, the TR-1s are brand new in boats, and there are going to be things that we will all need to learn about those. Tons of TR-1 info from jet skis and sleds already available on TR-1s unfortunately does not always translate well into boats.

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[Beachbummer]

I stand by my statement, go hang out on the service department of the dealer before you buy in the future. This tip is way too late for the OP, so I'm sorry that's the case. Speaking to prior customers in the service/parts desk is a huge eye opener and good indicator of things overall.

 

[I know You know]

UPDATE....

Captains Log Day 18. Got a call from the Service Manager, according to them the problem with the motors was caused by "Me" what a surprise. The lose screws and blown gasket on the Starboard Motor where all the water is spewing out, is due to overheating (they claim that according to the computer that motor has thrown 7 overheat warnings). The lack of power on the Port motor is also due to overheating (they claim that according to the computer that motor has thrown 13 overheat warnings) and that one cylinder has very low compression. So to start off I have to pay them 3 hours of labor for the tech to tear down the Port side motor so they can tell me how much it will cost to correct the issue with the low compression cylinder (the mechanic does not think there is any problem with the block).

I am an experienced boater and would never allow any motor whether IO, OB or otherwise to run with overheating signals going off, has any one experienced this issue with "supposed" overheating alarms that really do not go off?
Unfortunately I am in a situation where it is my word against theirs, I feel like I am trapped in a bad dream.

What do you guys think?

If I wind up having to fork over the money to fix that cylinder, how much do you guys think it's going to set me back $$$?

UPDATE......

Captains Log Day 28. So after waiting another 10 days for the dealer to tear down the motor which was in perfect running condition when I dropped it off and now "supposedly" has a cylinder with low compression to give me an estimate on how much it will cost to fix that cylinder, I get a call from the service manager to tell me that once they tore the engine they realized that the motor is toast 3k to 4k to rebuild it, HTF do I go from a perfectly running motor when I dropped off the boat to low compression on one cylinder to a motor that is shot. When I dropped off the boat it had just come out of the water (the marina is across the street from the dealer) 30 minute ride WOT both motors putting out about 7100 rpms, I repeat both motors, and now I have a blown motor??? Does anyone out there think this is possible? I have had boats all my life, OB and IO and never seen a blown motor let alone a 3 cylinder motor with one busted cylinder produce 7000+ rpms.

 

[JeffVans]

@I know You know what dealer are you going through? I only know of one in the keys and I thought they were great when I bought my boat there in the spring and am in the process of buying another boat from them with my friend. Feel free to PM me the answer if you don't want to make it public just yet for legal reasons or whatever.

 

[Shuck Water]

Time to consult an attorney. You need to take the position that the dealer sold you a lemon.

 

[I know You know]

@I know You know what dealer are you going through? I only know of one in the keys and I thought they were great when I bought my boat there in the spring and am in the process of buying another boat from them with my friend. Feel free to PM me the answer if you don't want to make it public just yet for legal reasons or whatever.

Hey Jeff, I will be posting an update to this tonight, things have changed a bit this afternoon and now the story is making much more sense than it did yesterday.

 

[I know You know]

UPDATE......

Captains Log Day 28. So after waiting another 10 days for the dealer to tear down the motor which was in perfect running condition when I dropped it off and now "supposedly" has a cylinder with low compression to give me an estimate on how much it will cost to fix that cylinder, I get a call from the service manager to tell me that once they tore the engine they realized that the motor is toast 3k to 4k to rebuild it, HTF do I go from a perfectly running motor when I dropped off the boat to low compression on one cylinder to a motor that is shot. When I dropped off the boat it had just come out of the water (the marina is across the street from the dealer) 30 minute ride WOT both motors putting out about 7100 rpms, I repeat both motors, and now I have a blown motor??? Does anyone out there think this is possible? I have had boats all my life, OB and IO and never seen a blown motor let alone a 3 cylinder motor with one busted cylinder produce 7000+ rpms. View attachment 82022 View attachment 82022 View attachment 82022 View attachment 82022

Captains Log Day 29. Received a call from the service manager today with a more understandable explanation as to the demise of the motor. As per the technician the overheat incident caused for some of the seals to weaken which in turn allowed salt water to enter the motor and the salt water corroded and rusted the interior of the motor during the past few weeks thus making the motor non operational, so it was working when I brought it in but as it sat there the salt had already started doing its nasty work and just continued eating away..............and here we are.