(this is posted for my buddies boat also on THT)
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I have a 2003 Yamaha F225 and was wondering if anyone has worked had any issues with Yamaha and honoring warranties. I welcome both positive and negative experiences. I am prepared for a battle and would like to learn from other's experiences.

The issues I have had are as follows:
1. The first 20 hour checkup, the dealer reported that I was burning gear lube. Did a 50 hour checkup, same thing (dealer dropped lower unit and reassembled), 100 hour, per dealer the issue was gone.
2. The motor needs 1 quart of oil every 40 hours. I have been asked to monitor the oil usage. Dealer suspects possible leaks in the seals.
3. @292 hours, I was at idle and put the motor in gear. There was an extremely loud knocking, shut off engine immediately and towed in by Sea Tow. The knocking does not happen in reverse or at idle. Also, when pulled the motor had a black sticky oily residue down the back of the motor.

All work was done by dealer with more frequency than required specified intervals (20, 50, 100, 200, 264 hour checkups). The gear lube and the oil issue has been documented with Yamaha.

Boat has been towed back to dealer and I am awaiting a response.

Thanks in adavnce
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These posts are too frequent here's the link some of last years woe's:
http://69.93.108.13/StriperTalk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8829&perpage=10&highlight=yamaha&pagenumber=1

I can't imagine that you'll have any problems with the warrantee. Best of luck with it though. Hope you're back on the water soon with the job fully covered.

I think you are pretty covered...fear not.

I know of a guy that blew his lower unit soon AFTER the warrenty exprired and they still pick up the tab...it wasn't cheap either. I think the total bill was like 4K and he said they paid the entire thing.

From what I heard on other issues(mostly minor) during the warrenty period they picked up everything.

03 with 300 hours and we have barely started the 04 season...your using it!!

:huh:
No problems with mine other than I have a main breaker I'm waiting on from the same dealer.
I also do oil changes far more frequent that what is required (every 50 hrs) for what that motor cost me it's money well spent!
Ron

The motor is having the gear case replaced and I believe a new lower unit too.
So far no $$ out of my buddies pocket, but until he is indemnified, i'll hold off on saying all is well, and the warranty covered it.

Sandman, this guys runs the boat and fishes like every day is his last, might be a good thing, if he didn't run so hard, this issue may not of surfaced until the warranty expired.

Ron - I asked another Yammi dealer about Jacks motor, and the first thing he said, was it's very rare to see gear cases go, but they also thought a 17 pitch prop was undersized.
I think he got a $17K lemon, I just hope he gets it back in the water quick. Poor guy is like a kid who lost his dog.

all outboards suck IMO. I don't care who makes them I don't trust any of them. These are the most unreliable costly machines made today. As an engineer I think the whole problem is they are trying to sqeeze too much power per weight. Think about it...these engines are built of Aluminum!?! How long can it run in salt water?

What do you thing the MTBF is on an outboard?...(mean time between failure) Ever wonder why they don't post a number like that? Because if you saw it you would never go boating. Personally I would love to see a number like that posted by JDPowers on all these motors...IMO it would be a great way to compare them. I asked my dealer what it was and they looked at me like my puppy when I ask him a question.

These reviews you read in the magizines are worthless. Have you ever read a bad one?

I agree 100% when the reviews are sponsered by the <BrandName> outboard Co., the #'s are there to sell.

had a yamaha 200, powerhead went during second season. yamaha quick shipped new one in less than a week i was back in business, great co. if you think your dealer is stroking you, contact yamaha factory rep. directly.

Oil pump in main oil tank let go last Sunday

Yamaha had a new one installed and was back in the water Wednesday. Memorial Day week !

Good Dealer and Good Yamaha Year 4 of Warranty !

9 days still no part ......

I bet some of the dealers (who sell Parker) down in florida would have it fixed and back in the water by now.
Go on The hull truth and read some threads about Parkers.
Lots of owners down there RAVE about the service they get !!! Don's in R.I. also !!!
On the flip side, Lots of bitching and complaints from owners and potential buyers about the 3 dealers who sell them here in Ma.:eek:
Raider Ron
(A Parker owner who lives in Ma.) :laughs:

the part is there and they're hoping the boat will be ready tomorrow.
Now he's got to do another 10hrs of break in.

the old gearcase showed busted gears and a broken pinion , but the reverse gear was fine.

Covered 100% under warranty ?
Ron

Ron, He still hasn't gotten it back so I'm not sure, but I think its fully covered. The lousy part is other components of the motor have been running with the degraded part for 100's of hours, Jack hoped they'd give the new lower unit another 3yrs, but yammi said pound sand, you're original coverage is what you get. Its a safe bet he'll buy the extended coverage when the time comes.

ya freakin me out ! How on earth can a $17K-23K outboard have a failure like within the first year of operation? The JDPowers folks should go to jail for fraud. An oil pump should last 10,000 hours at least!!! The fact that an oil pump let go is telling you that the product is poor quality...no question. An oil pump should *never* *ever* go...and should work for least for 20 years.

What do you think the Mean time between Failure is on an entire outboard? (MTBF) I bet it is like 10 hours....really. This is the kind of rating system I would like to see on these engines. It is downright embarrassing. It would be easy to compute this to survey the repair shops, they now know exactly how may hours between each repair.

IMO it is impossible to make a *relaible* power plant out of a raw salt water cooled, aluminum block high performance engine...2 cycle or 4....it just can't be done. AL has good heat transfer features BUT...is too weak, is not good with salt water, expands and contracts too much and is subject to corroision and is a poor choice to when in contact with other materials...ie steel. We are using the wrong materials for the environment. The engine has to be cooled with coolant, not raw seawater (step one). The block material needs to be changed to something more stable. The casing needs to be also changed to something more stiffer and harder. Anything that sees seawater should be non-corrosive. Electronic should be sealed completely and are good for submerged operation. If something craps out is should e easily replaced. The parts (like oil pumps) need to test for 100K hours before breakdown. What they are selling us is utter junk. I think if they are going to use seawater to cool they need to move to a ceramic block or some exotic composite. IMO lower units are going cause there is too much flex in the system.

And by relaible I mean a machine that can last 10+ years being run every day and starting when you turn the key while being maintained by the dealer 2X per year. I am talking about 300-500 hours per season every season for 10 years.
That is NOT asking that much IMO!!

I just got a new 04 200 HPDI with a 5 year warranty that will cover almost anything except tstats, water pump + impellars for 5 years. There are not to many products with that kind of warranty. Even cars are limited by mileage because they will break. I think 5 years on something that takes the abuse an engine takes is a great deal and was some of the reason I repowered this year.

Originally posted by fishsmith
Ron, He still hasn't gotten it back so I'm not sure, but I think its fully covered. The lousy part is other components of the motor have been running with the degraded part for 100's of hours, Jack hoped they'd give the new lower unit another 3yrs, but yammi said pound sand, you're original coverage is what you get. Its a safe bet he'll buy the extended coverage when the time comes.

Jim,
Can you explain about buying extended coverage when the time comes.
I assumed you needed to buy that from the start.
Ron

Ron,
I just got back from vacation and Jacks in vegas this week. I think they have a deal where you can spend around $2k and pick up another 3yrs before the initial 3yr coverage is up. 3A Marine will know.
I talked to him briefly yesterday and he's got 13 more hrs on it, and he didn't mention any issues.