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

[Evil Sports]

What I mean by that is I have witnessed dealers downplaying issues like this to protect the reputation of the product they sell. In some situations it is worse than they let on.

I have access to the techs doing the work. I guess they could be Yamaha protectors but they are gonna tell me what comes in broken and why they think it broke. I tend to smoke out the protecters and move on from them quickly and politely

 

[LTM1964]

A month ago, my early 2015 SX192 began making a terrible noise and lost power to plane out. I took it to the dealer thinking it was the supercharger clutch. Neither the dealer or Yamaha have told me exactly what failed but I am pretty sure it is timing chain related. Yamaha has agreed to replace the engine in two major parts. The head is one and the block, pistons, crank, and timing chain and gears, as another. It sounds great that they are willing to replace my engine under the Y.E.S. warranty but the block section is on backorder. All Yamaha will say is that some blocks might make it to the U.S. from Japan by the end of October or early November. At that point they are subject to delays in customs. So I am looking at a 7 week wait and may find out that a block is still not available. Both the dealer and Yamaha say I am receiving good customer service because I have been approved to receive a new engine and they promise to keep me informed of the progress in receiving parts. I have never had an engine failure in any vehicle before, especially not in two years. I think the engine replacements have been going on long enough that Yamaha should be able to assure a timely turnaround. I use my boat year-round so this is a real inconvenience. If this had happened earlier, I could have missed the entire summer. Even though I think Yamaha could do better, I plan on maintaining regular communications with Yamaha and the dealer to get my boat back in the water as soon as possible. The SX192 is still the best boat for my needs right now so I plan on keeping it for some more years. Yamaha doesn't seem too interested in convincing me to buy another one though.

 

[swatski]

A month ago, my early 2015 SX192 began making a terrible noise and lost power to plane out. I took it to the dealer thinking it was the supercharger clutch. Neither the dealer or Yamaha have told me exactly what failed but I am pretty sure it is timing chain related. Yamaha has agreed to replace the engine in two major parts. The head is one and the block, pistons, crank, and timing chain and gears, as another. It sounds great that they are willing to replace my engine under the Y.E.S. warranty but the block section is on backorder. All Yamaha will say is that some blocks might make it to the U.S. from Japan by the end of October or early November. At that point they are subject to delays in customs. So I am looking at a 7 week wait and may find out that a block is still not available. Both the dealer and Yamaha say I am receiving good customer service because I have been approved to receive a new engine and they promise to keep me informed of the progress in receiving parts. I have never had an engine failure in any vehicle before, especially not in two years. I think the engine replacements have been going on long enough that Yamaha should be able to assure a timely turnaround. I use my boat year-round so this is a real inconvenience. If this had happened earlier, I could have missed the entire summer. Even though I think Yamaha could do better, I plan on maintaining regular communications with Yamaha and the dealer to get my boat back in the water as soon as possible. The SX192 is still the best boat for my needs right now so I plan on keeping it for some more years. Yamaha doesn't seem too interested in convincing me to buy another one though.

I wonder if it is the timing chain or the supercharger? Of something else. Did you get any answers from your dealer as to what broke?

 

[haknslash]

My guess it that noise he heard was his valves being destroyed thus loss of power as you dropped the cylinder(s). I don't think a supercharger clutch slipping or going out would destroy a block or cylinder head. If they are replacing the engine I can only assume its from the timing jumping. Interested to hear what the diagnosis was.

 

[LTM1964]

My guess it that noise he heard was his valves being destroyed thus loss of power as you dropped the cylinder(s). I don't think a supercharger clutch slipping or going out would destroy a block or cylinder head. If they are replacing the engine I can only assume its from the timing jumping. Interested to hear what the diagnosis was.

I think you are exactly right haknslash. The way it was described to me by the dealer and Yamaha representative was the "gears on the front of the motor were torn up". The only reason they would be willing to replace the engine is that metal bits entered the lubrication system. I think the dealer and Yamaha were intentionally vague. I asked more than once for a more specific diagnosis but that is all I got and then I was reminded that I was getting a new engine.

 

[Gym]

I think you are exactly right haknslash. The way it was described to me by the dealer and Yamaha representative was the "gears on the front of the motor were torn up". The only reason they would be willing to replace the engine is that metal bits entered the lubrication system. I think the dealer and Yamaha were intentionally vague. I asked more than once for a more specific diagnosis but that is all I got and then I was reminded that I was getting a new engine.

The gears they referred to are the gear on the crankshaft and the gear on the cam shaft tied together by the timing chain. These are zero clearance motors so when the timing chain breaks all hell breaks loose and the valves crash into the pistons making a real mess. I still think Yamaha should be proactive and offer free oil changes in an effort to inspect those boats that are in the affected category. This would be much cheaper than replacing engines and pissing people off.

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

Well today I did my oil change with 12 hours on the new engine, it seems to be running pretty good but it did scare me yesterday. I tried to start it and it just cranked but it did not fire up, I snapped the throttle a few times suspecting it could be the throttle position sensor and then it started. As I put time on it I see it running smoother, tomorrow I plan on doing all new platinum plugs in both engines.
The description of the engine making noise and running poorly then quitting may be a timing chain slowly breaking but my chain made no noise , the engine just quit . Not a sound.

 

[LTM1964]

In my case, the chain didn't break as the motor still ran at low RPM. I am guessing the chain deteriorated enough to damage the gears causing them to slip at anything over no-wake mode.

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

If the chain jumps or slips just a tooth the valves will hit the pistons and get bent, there are 5 valves stuffed in each cylinder , my engine had zero compression so all the valves were damaged without a sound I thought the kill switch somehow shut me down. It was just that fast.

 

[swatski]

In my case, the chain didn't break as the motor still ran at low RPM. I am guessing the chain deteriorated enough to damage the gears causing them to slip at anything over no-wake mode.

That makes sense. Given the noise and (somewhat) gradual loss of power my thought was -- maybe the supercharger clutch or other part(s) failed, kind of like in the older rotax w/ceramic bearings, getting sucked in and causing catastrophic damage.

I am very curious why they don't have more engine blocks waiting at-the-ready.

--

 

[haknslash]

It's very easy to tell if it was the SC clutch. Remove the intake from the front of the SC and see if you can spin the wheel both directions. If so your clutch is bad (teeth broken). It's a DIY job to fix but if it's under warranty I would push them for it obviously.

 

[Evil Sports]

Im I the only one who thought once the timing on theses motors is off they dont run at all cause you mash valves ?

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

haaa no I believe I just basically said the same thing, off 1 tooth it's over ,I think the noise was the S C and it put metal in the oil just as the other make does when one blows up, they also run very poorly as described when it goes. I had a" Kawasucki" with a bas S C and it would not run over about 10 mph when it hatched.

 

[Evil Sports]

If this was such a widespread issue I would have expected to see it being discussed in the watercraft arena. I visited some of the more popular Jet ski forums and looked for this popping up in the Yamaha 4 stroke sections and found nothing. Now Im not saying to the people that its happened to its not a bad thing, just that its far from the 1.8 wide issue its made out to be here.

 

[Ronnie]

I agree with @Evil Sports , it sucks for the small percentage of people who experience a timing chain failure, more so if they are out of warranty, but I'm not losing any sleep over it like its inevitably going to happen too me and I'm not willing to spend up to $3k ($1,500 per engine) for upgraded parts. Seems pretty clear though that If it happens too me now, I will be coming out of pocket for the repairs (can't rely on Yamah to do the right thing) but I would be looking for a used pwc to cannibalize the engine / parts from. Sounds like if Yamaha does the work they leave you with one upgraded engine and one non upgraded engine.

 

[robert843]

If this was such a widespread issue I would have expected to see it being discussed in the watercraft arena. I visited some of the more popular Jet ski forums and looked for this popping up in the Yamaha 4 stroke sections and found nothing. Now Im not saying to the people that its happened to its not a bad thing, just that its far from the 1.8 wide issue its made out to be here.

Here are a few timing chain related threads from a PWC forum I could go on there are pages of them just on this one forum.

http://www.greenhulk.net/forums/showthread.php?t=254249&highlight=timing+yamaha

http://www.greenhulk.net/forums/showthread.php?t=254980&highlight=yamaha+timing+chain

http://www.greenhulk.net/forums/showthread.php?t=235263&highlight=yamaha+timing+chain

http://www.greenhulk.net/forums/showthread.php?t=242122&highlight=yamaha+timing+chain

http://www.greenhulk.net/forums/showthread.php?t=253028&highlight=yamaha+timing+chain

http://www.greenhulk.net/forums/showthread.php?t=252571&highlight=yamaha+timing+chain

http://www.greenhulk.net/forums/showthread.php?t=251080&highlight=yamaha+timing+chain

http://www.greenhulk.net/forums/showthread.php?t=239432&highlight=yamaha+timing+chain

http://www.greenhulk.net/forums/showthread.php?t=225050&highlight=yamaha+timing+chain

 

[robert843]

Now with my previous post said I agree with @Ronnie I'm not losing sleep over this either it is part of owning toys sometimes things go wrong but I still feel most of us will not see this issue.

 

[Ronnie]

It's somewhat ironic that the first time I recall hearing about timing chain issues it was raised by @ScarabMike, I think, who ended up trading in his new waverunner for a Seadoo because of the potential that the timing chain would break. The ironic part is that I stopped reading when I realized that his ski had a super charged engine, I thought it meant that the problem is only for those with supercharged engines. Once I started reading reports about non supercharged engines Haivng timing chains break I started reading / rereading all related threads a lot more closely.

 

[swatski]

Here are a few timing chain related threads from a PWC forum I could go on there are pages of them just on this one forum.

http://www.greenhulk.net/forums/showthread.php?t=254249&highlight=timing+yamaha

http://www.greenhulk.net/forums/showthread.php?t=254980&highlight=yamaha+timing+chain

http://www.greenhulk.net/forums/showthread.php?t=235263&highlight=yamaha+timing+chain

http://www.greenhulk.net/forums/showthread.php?t=242122&highlight=yamaha+timing+chain

http://www.greenhulk.net/forums/showthread.php?t=253028&highlight=yamaha+timing+chain

http://www.greenhulk.net/forums/showthread.php?t=252571&highlight=yamaha+timing+chain

http://www.greenhulk.net/forums/showthread.php?t=251080&highlight=yamaha+timing+chain

http://www.greenhulk.net/forums/showthread.php?t=239432&highlight=yamaha+timing+chain

http://www.greenhulk.net/forums/showthread.php?t=225050&highlight=yamaha+timing+chain

The vast majority of broken timing chains are 2014 SVHOs. In the words of big john in one of the posts "HO motors very rarely break timing chains, not saying is doesn't happen, but not very often."
http://www.greenhulk.net/forums/showthread.php?t=251080&highlight=yamaha+timing+chain

What's new?

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[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

My engine is a HO engine, ironically my supercharged engine had 650 hours with no issues and ran fine when I sold it. It leads me back to a possible bad batch of chains made by, Takata when they blow they KILL your engine!