Hydro locked engine. Getting the run around from the dealer.

[Tailwaters]

One of my old offshore boats with above water exhaust had the flappers burned out. Came in one day during a storm and when we got back to the dock a wake hit the back of the boat an in the water went. Next day I hit the key to hear a god awful noise. Sure as neck hydrolocked the motor and bent a rod. However that's not always the case. Every once in a while you can get lucky by pulling the plugs, spray some oil in the cylinders, change engine oil and turn her over by hand a few times. Turning over by hand will allow you feel any sort of hang up or resistance. Worked at a marina when I was younger so ran into this problem a time or two. Of course I'm in fresh water so that certainly helps pending how the water was ingested.

 

[Julian]

Still no boat, been at the dealer since July 31st. They told me to claim it on my insurance, I’m sure so they wouldn’t have to pay, to “save me money.” Told them that’s a great idea, I’b Be happy commit insurance fraud to save them money, felonies on your record aren’t that bad right? Told them to order an engine on August 6th and the service manager, what an oxymoron, said he would. 10 days later he finally ordered it and said I would have it by the end of the month. I know you will all be surprised to hear that he didn’t order all the parts, because he didn’t know that the head bolts didn’t come with the kit. It’s his job to know, either he is incompetent or is willfully screwing me over, not sure which is worse. Guess. I have to. Call the GM tomorrow again to get a fire lit under his ass. If it doesn’t go well with him im getting an attorney involved. I’ve been way too nice, haven’t left a review, filled out the survey, listed the name of the dealer, or called Yamaha, that changes tomorrow...Implementing scorched earth policy tomorrow.

So how did this end up?

 

[KevJul2019]

All 4 spark plugs aren’t wet at all. All 4 are very black tho. Oil is black not milky. I should be fine.

 

[Liveto99]

Put in new plugs if there black, I was not getting full rpm’s and dealer said plugs just change them. It worked. you need new oil also, no zinc in regular I would use synthetic.

 

[Jclax]

So how did this end up?

Dealer and I agreed that there was fault on both sides. Their salesman gave me incorrect information and I was at fault for trusting and not verifying that the information was correct. At no point did I ever attempt to abdicate responsibility, nor did I ever threaten legal action against the dealer. I did share a story from my industry with the GM of the store. I am the GM for a largest consumer lease company in the US, we leased a $125k Land Rover to a client for his wife. The Rover had diesel engine, we delivered the vehicle to their home while he was out of the country, and assumed that his wife knew that it was a diesel. You all know what happened, she put regular gas in it, the engine was destroyed, and Land Rover denied the claim. Since we believe that the mark of a great company is not that they never mistakes, however it is how they handle those mistakes, wepaid for the engine since their was fault on our side. They agreed to replace The engine at ”cost” and they Paid for 1/3 of it. Overall I was satisfied with the outcome, and since then they have been great to work with for other warranty claims. They also retrained all of their salespeople at all of their stores on delivery procedures, with special focus on engine flushing procedures. I found that out at a boat show from a salesman who came in to work the boat show from one of their stores that was over 100 miles away. I was looking at the new models and told him I had one already and was just looking to see what changed. He then proceeded to make certain that I knew the flushing procedures because there had been an incident where a customer was given incorrect directions on flushing their engines. I thanked him for the info, and when I told him it was me, he apologized for what happened and said every salesperson had to sit through three days of training to make sure that it never happened again.

 

[jamesk]

interesting how there are numerous labels all over the boat about falling off or getting water up you rectum from the jet, because Yamaha could get sued for that.
But nothing about flushing the engine or towing it and killing your engine, in that case Yamaha gets to sell you a new engine.
There should be a warning label by the flush ports and Yamaha should make 100% sure the information is pasted on to the consumer.
I have a big problem with this entire situation and it's a bad design as well, IMO.

 

[Jclax]

interesting how there are numerous labels all over the boat about falling off or getting water up you rectum from the jet, because Yamaha could get sued for that.
But nothing about flushing the engine or towing it and killing your engine, in that case Yamaha gets to sell you a new engine.
There should be a warning label by the flush ports and Yamaha should make 100% sure the information is pasted on to the consumer.
I have a big problem with this entire situation and it's a bad design as well, IMO.

Agreed, instead they hide the warning in the owners manual and then hide behind it to avoid paying warranty claims so they can sell engines at $10k+.