My Yamaha boat is such a disappointment mean to me

[philinkeys]

I thought I purchased a reliable Yamaha boat that turned out to be a nightmare from day one.
2017 Yamaha 242 “E” series boat. Engine Starting problems from day 1. Several hull leaks; Engines not accelerating problems. (“DRIVE CONTROL CHECK ENGINE”) Touch screen not working; Grass clean out holes filling up with water. The boat only has 50 hours on it. No respond from Yamaha Corp. From letters I sent the corporate office. Yamaha doesn't care. My boat has been at the dealer for over a month with not knowing when I will be getting my boat back. Frustrating is not the word. I’m extremely upset especially living where I could use my boat all year round. I WOULD NEVER BUY A YAMAHA PRODUCT AGAIN. Phil L.

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[OrangeTJ]

Man, sorry to hear of your problems. Can you describe the engine and acceleration issues? With regard to the clean out ports filling with water - that could be totally normal. The other stuff obviously doesn't sound normal, though.

 

[ZGhost]

Very sorry to hear that Phil. Water in the clean out ports is normal. Some leaks like from the bow anchor storage area been known and discussed here with successful remedies. There has been some issues with the Connext screen that also been discussed on this board. I would recommend doing some search to look into this stuff. Perhaps you could provide more context to your other problems as there are lots experience board members who would be delighted to help out.

 

[swatski]

Quite the first post. Well, could you tell us more about the boat’s history and the warranty?

This is a very friendly forum with lots of help. the forum software is easy to use with very few restrictions. Is your post cut/pasted from somewhere else?

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[Scottintexas]

What dealer is your boat at?

 

[Dave burke]

Really sorry to hear about this Phil.

I can’t help with the drive control issues as I never have had this problem. But I’m sure others can.

Re the touch screen not working, I did have this problem and it was an easy fix. Press and hold the sys control button (pretty sure that’s what it’s called but I’m going from memory since my boat is stored) until the diagnostics screen pops up. From there just go through the recalibration process.

Good luck.

 

[Ronnie]

Hopefully your boat just needs some tuning, when they are operating properly they are awesome boats.

 

[Dixie Highway]

Was this boat purchased new? I guess my antagonist mind is wondering why someone spending $60k plus on a new boat waits almost 3 years before posting about problems? Was it bought new and now you are having problems with your 3 year old boat? If you did not purchase it new, then you bought a used boat and these things should have been discovered during a PPI. If not, then you still bought a used boat. I don’t mean to sound like an a$$, just trying to gain some perspective here. None of it sounds catastrophic, and certainly if you negotiated a good deal on what I’m guessing was a used boat these can be repaired inexpensively.

 

[Gunner]

Hmmm

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

I bet collectively we can point you in the right direction to change your mind about the boat depending on the amount of detailed information you provide so as to help us help you.

I thought I purchased a reliable Yamaha boat that turned out to be a nightmare from day one.
2017 Yamaha 242 “E” series boat. Engine Starting problems from day could be any of several minor issues like neutral positioning switch out of alignment, kill switch or rear hatch switches or a ground wire at the solenoid 1. Several hull leaks; could be the cap between the top of the hull and the bottom, or intermediate bearing seal from someone blowing it out over greasing it, or hoses leaking due to crappy hose clamps, or scupper valve issues to name a few possibilities Engines not accelerating problems. Could be bad spark plugs or bad fuel or exhaust gases leaking inside the hull (“DRIVE CONTROL CHECK ENGINE”) Touch screen not working; That is common Grass clean out holes filling up with water. Now that is normal water on top of the clean out ports a 2017 has the newer clean out plugs and if you are in FL just learn my reverse move for most problems with weeds. The boat only has 50 hours on it. No respond from Yamaha Corp. From letters I sent the corporate office. Yamaha doesn't care. My boat has been at the dealer for over a month with not knowing when I will be getting my boat back. Yea that sucks Frustrating is not the word. I’m extremely upset especially living where I could use my boat all year round. I WOULD NEVER BUY A YAMAHA PRODUCT AGAIN. Phil L. So let the help begin

 

[philinkeys]

Man, sorry to hear of your problems. Can you describe the engine and acceleration issues? With regard to the clean out ports filling with water - that could be totally normal. The other stuff obviously doesn't sound normal, though.

Man, sorry to hear of your problems. Can you describe the engine and acceleration issues? With regard to the clean out ports filling with water - that could be totally normal. The other stuff obviously doesn't sound normal, though.

Thank you for replying.The Port Engine starts and will not accelerate. I get a message saying DRIVE CONTROL CHECK ENGINE. The starboard engine starts and accelerates. For the last several months I’ve been turning off the battery and waiting five minutes and turning it back on and the problem goes away. Except the last time the problem would not go away and fortunately I was near my home so I was able to return on the other motor. As far as the clean our holes which is a separate issue. The boat is in for service and has been for over a month now. They found that somehow the drain holes by the clean out ports was filling with water by being sucked up and entering the clean out holes above the clean out hole caps

 

[Scottintexas]

What dealer are you using?

 

[philinkeys]

Very sorry to hear that Phil. Water in the clean out ports is normal. Some leaks like from the bow anchor storage area been known and discussed here with successful remedies. There has been some issues with the Connext screen that also been discussed on this board. I would recommend doing some search to look into this stuff. Perhaps you could provide more context to your other problems as there are lots experience board members who would be delighted to help out.

Thank you for replying. The boat is in for service and has been for over a month. They are telling me that the problem of the engine not accelerating and given the message drive control check engine is because of the Connext screen. They ordered a new screen from Yamaha and have been waiting over a week now for it to arrive. I don’t understand how to screen could be affecting the engine acceleration. I assuming that it must have something to do with a sensor giving problems. The boat is under warranty so I should not have to pay for the new screen which I understand is very expensive. Thank goodness I got the five year warranty. I wish I knew more about the electrical system on this boat. I am upset because boat is in for service for a long time and not knowing when I will get it back.

 

[philinkeys]

Quite the first post. Well, could you tell us more about the boat’s history and the warranty?

This is a very friendly forum with lots of help. the forum software is easy to use with very few restrictions. Is your post cut/pasted from somewhere else?

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Thank you for replying. The boat was purchased in June 2017 and is a 2017 to 242 series E. The boat has 50 hours on it and there are so many problems with it. I was spoiled with a 20 foot SeaDoo Islandia that I had for 20 years and never had one problem with it. Here I spent so much money on this Yamaha boat that is supposed to be reliable and I have so many problems With it. the 1st problems I have to take the boat two hours to a service center and the service center is a problem because they have the boat now for over a month and it’s still not completed. I don’t know when I will get it back. I wrote Yamaha corporation a letter about the problems I have with their boat and they don’t care I assume because they never responded. PS I have a 5 year warranty on the boat. Phil

 

[philinkeys]

What dealer is your boat at?

The yamaha service center is RIVA Motorsport Key Largo Florida.

 

[Plpbecks]

This sounds like the e-series issues with the reverse buckets getting caught when engine is shut off while steering is turned full lock one way. Bucket gets stuck and bcu throws an error. I believe it showed same error message and same symptoms as OP. I haven’t had this issue on my e-series but there are a few threads on here about them if someone can find them. Others found a simple fix to resolve this.

 

[swatski]

Thank you for replying. The boat was purchased in June 2017 and is a 2017 to 242 series E. The boat has 50 hours on it and there are so many problems with it. I was spoiled with a 20 foot SeaDoo Islandia that I had for 20 years and never had one problem with it. Here I spent so much money on this Yamaha boat that is supposed to be reliable and I have so many problems With it. the 1st problems I have to take the boat two hours to a service center and the service center is a problem because they have the boat now for over a month and it’s still not completed. I don’t know when I will get it back. I wrote Yamaha corporation a letter about the problems I have with their boat and they don’t care I assume because they never responded. PS I have a 5 year warranty on the boat. Phil

I feel your pain, believe me. The factory (all inclusive) warranty is only 1 year, 5 year warranty is the YES coverage that unfortunately does not cover much beyond the powertrain unless Yamaha feels generous and they decide to cover things for your dealer to fix.

Those touch screens can be a bit finicky but I think @Plpbecks and others here are giving you good advice.
These boats are not what they used to be and do many require some tweaking and extra maintenance especially in salt.

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[4x15mph]

@philinkeys - sorry to hear about the trouble. No doubt that the older boats with less tech did better. I "upgraded" from a 2000 to a 2018 and expect to have a lot more diagnosing to do over the upcoming years. With the older boat it was "fuel, air, spark". With the newer tech it is electronic controls, ECU's, batteries, fault codes, etc. I would not advise that you jump from Yamaha to a newer Sea doo product (e.g. Scarab). While the Islandia was good for you, you may be digging a deeper hole. Check out the forums

 

[philinkeys]

I feel your pain, believe me. The factory (all inclusive) warranty is only 1 year, 5 year warranty is the YES coverage that unfortunately does not cover much beyond the powertrain unless Yamaha feels generous and they decide to cover things for your dealer to fix.

Those touch screens can be a bit finicky but I think @Plpbecks and others here are giving you good advice.
These boats are not what they used to be and do many require some tweaking and extra maintenance especially in salt.

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I do have the YES 5 year warrant. I hope the replacement connext display arrives this week and they install it in my boat. I’m still not convinced that that is the problem that I have of the mold are starting and not accelerating. I’m more concerned that it is not the problem and I will bring the boat home only to have the problem repeat it self and I need to bring it back two hours from where I live. thanks for your reply. Phil

 

[Liveto99]

Do you you live in the Key’s? Riva was helpful to me and due to limited storage I don’t think they keep it there longer than they need to. Due to politics and cleaner burning regulations crap that is required, it is the political aholes fault that our stuff does not run without all the electronics. I always had Diesal trucks now I would not touch one. Yamaha has a good name for reliability for a reason, so hopefully with a little tweaking you can get out there and enjoy.
trust me your next thread will be about seaweed down there. Ill be down Tuesday night pm me if you want a ride on a FSH.