Finally got my boat back....fixed....I hope....according to the dealer it is.... I will be able to test it out this weekend if all goes well. But I spent some time and talked to the tech at the dealership, and with a face to face, he gave me the rundown.
1. Initially they just changed out the antenna.....nothing solved.
2. Replaced antenna and the antenna module...Threw additional error messages...
3. After this failure Yamaha told them to replace the entire GPS system. However:
3. Upon further consultation with Yamaha, they determined that Yamaha sent them the wrong part. Seems that the systems on these boats may differ from boat to boat based on what was available when it was produced. If the antenna/module are not a match for the system, it wont work.
4. Yamaha sends another antenna/module. This time the connector had a female plug, but the old unit was male. Yamaha techs told the dealer it didnt matter, just cut the connection and splice a male end. This they did, and shit REALLY got screwed up.
5. Dealer then talked to a tech that apparently had passed his course on anatomy and geology (knew his ass from a hole in the ground) and couldnt believe they told them to do that. Tech found the correct antenna/module and sent to dealer.
6. Dealer installed the correct equipment and....TADA....everything worked perfectly. I will only know once on the water if it is a true, reliable fix.
7. I gave the dealer a lot of grief over this....some deserved, some not. The service dept is very hard to get ahold of, so after 4 -7 weeks with no results, and then nobody answering the phone and few returned calls, I was getting more pissed by the day.
8. I wrote to the President of Texas Marine to complain, and called Yamaha Customer Relations. I did not get a call back/response from either one! This did disappoint me!
9. In fairness, I do think the techs at the dealership were between a rock and a hard spot because they could only install what Yamaha said since it was a warranty issue. The techs at Yamaha basically were severely suffering from cranius rectumus (Head up ass). And since they never ship anything but by ground, everytime they shipped a part is was 4-5 business days before the dealer got the part! So between consultation time, shipping time, install/test time, it took 7 weeks to resolve this issue.
10. As some compensation for all the hassle, the dealer has agreed to perform my 100 hr service and no cost....thats pretty substantial. (I do have that in writing!)
Here is a list of the part numbers they replaced:
F2D-U8K1L-00-00ANTENA GPS $217.51
F3F-U8K1L-1--00GPS ANTENNA $221.24
Labor $238.00
Total Warranty Cost $676.75
If anybody else has this issue, hopefully this MAY help!