zacs
06-06-2007, 08:36 AM
I appologize in advance for the long post.
As many of you may know, my motor crapped out in mid may, and I have been trying to get it fixed.
The yard I have used since owning this motor could not help me because the head mechanic quit.
So I went to the evinrude website, and found the approved service shops in my area. I called around and found an appointment 2 weeks later at another shop.
When I described the problem, the manager said immediately "Oh, that is a bad EMM (computer). No doubt about it." I said, well lets run it through a diagnosis and go from there.
So I brought it in on Friday. On Monday morning, I had to stop by and check a measurement for a new switch panel I am buying.
I asked if they had looked at it yet. The manager asked me again what the problem was. I told him and he said, "that is a bad EMM. It is going to cost you $2000+, and it will probably take over a month, maybe longer to get the new EMM.
So I called on Monday night, and the guy tells me "yup, its the EMM. It is not sending signal to the coils and we have no spark. You are not getting spark. You will need a new EMM, which will cost around $1500 just for the part, and will take over a month. We have a guy here who has been waiting over a month and we still don't have notice when they will ship it."
I was getting just a weird feeling about it. According to my service manual, there are 14 things that could cause the same symptoms, and it seems that they just jumped to this diagnosis.
I have a friend that works at an awesome OMC shop far from here, north of boston, and I called him to see if I could bring it in. He said to bring it in.
So I show up Tuesday (yesterday) morning to get my boat, and they are telling me how I am going to miss the whole season, and it is going to cost me $$$, in my opinion hinting maybe it was time for re-power. I told them that I didn't have the money and I would have to take the boat home and figure it out. They charged me $120 for 1.5 hrs work to diagnose.
Now I am off on a two hour drive to trailer my boat to another shop, for what you could call a 'second opinion.'
The guy up there is Very Very good. Probably the best in the area. The only reason I didn't take it to him in the first place was that it is a 4 hr. round trip drive.
He immediately hopped right it, pulled the cover, and hooked up the laptop. With a few keystrokes, he runs a test and finds that the EMM is sending signal to the coils. He says, "well, your EMM is working." Next, with a few more keystrokes, he started the fuel pump running. So that is working. Then he checked the pressure off the pump. NO PRESSSURE. So he pulls the air box to test the lift pump. What do we see? The hose that clips on to the pump is hanging off loose. What is this??? This is not something that can come off on its own. it has to be unclipped. So anyway, lets test the pump. Sure enough, the lift pump is not working.
What does this mean? It appears that the RI shop diagnosed the problem to the lift pump, and then tried to scam me into big $$ repairs, and possibly scare me into a repower. They left the hose off to remind themselves that the pump was where the real problem was, or possibly they just forgot to hook it back up.
My guy up north ordered the part, and hopefully I will be back on the water in a day or two.
But to say I am steaming mad is an understatement. Once the pump is replaced and the boat is running well, I will be 100% sure that the RI shop was scamming me. I will call them out in public on every fishing and boating website I know. I will call the better business bureau. I will call evinrude [edit: BRP]. I will file with my credit card to not pay the $120. I may even call the police.
Stay tuned.....
http://img103.exs.cx/img103/8325/angry2.gifhttp://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/dimebar_probably/Smileys/th_chainsaw.gif
As many of you may know, my motor crapped out in mid may, and I have been trying to get it fixed.
The yard I have used since owning this motor could not help me because the head mechanic quit.
So I went to the evinrude website, and found the approved service shops in my area. I called around and found an appointment 2 weeks later at another shop.
When I described the problem, the manager said immediately "Oh, that is a bad EMM (computer). No doubt about it." I said, well lets run it through a diagnosis and go from there.
So I brought it in on Friday. On Monday morning, I had to stop by and check a measurement for a new switch panel I am buying.
I asked if they had looked at it yet. The manager asked me again what the problem was. I told him and he said, "that is a bad EMM. It is going to cost you $2000+, and it will probably take over a month, maybe longer to get the new EMM.
So I called on Monday night, and the guy tells me "yup, its the EMM. It is not sending signal to the coils and we have no spark. You are not getting spark. You will need a new EMM, which will cost around $1500 just for the part, and will take over a month. We have a guy here who has been waiting over a month and we still don't have notice when they will ship it."
I was getting just a weird feeling about it. According to my service manual, there are 14 things that could cause the same symptoms, and it seems that they just jumped to this diagnosis.
I have a friend that works at an awesome OMC shop far from here, north of boston, and I called him to see if I could bring it in. He said to bring it in.
So I show up Tuesday (yesterday) morning to get my boat, and they are telling me how I am going to miss the whole season, and it is going to cost me $$$, in my opinion hinting maybe it was time for re-power. I told them that I didn't have the money and I would have to take the boat home and figure it out. They charged me $120 for 1.5 hrs work to diagnose.
Now I am off on a two hour drive to trailer my boat to another shop, for what you could call a 'second opinion.'
The guy up there is Very Very good. Probably the best in the area. The only reason I didn't take it to him in the first place was that it is a 4 hr. round trip drive.
He immediately hopped right it, pulled the cover, and hooked up the laptop. With a few keystrokes, he runs a test and finds that the EMM is sending signal to the coils. He says, "well, your EMM is working." Next, with a few more keystrokes, he started the fuel pump running. So that is working. Then he checked the pressure off the pump. NO PRESSSURE. So he pulls the air box to test the lift pump. What do we see? The hose that clips on to the pump is hanging off loose. What is this??? This is not something that can come off on its own. it has to be unclipped. So anyway, lets test the pump. Sure enough, the lift pump is not working.
What does this mean? It appears that the RI shop diagnosed the problem to the lift pump, and then tried to scam me into big $$ repairs, and possibly scare me into a repower. They left the hose off to remind themselves that the pump was where the real problem was, or possibly they just forgot to hook it back up.
My guy up north ordered the part, and hopefully I will be back on the water in a day or two.
But to say I am steaming mad is an understatement. Once the pump is replaced and the boat is running well, I will be 100% sure that the RI shop was scamming me. I will call them out in public on every fishing and boating website I know. I will call the better business bureau. I will call evinrude [edit: BRP]. I will file with my credit card to not pay the $120. I may even call the police.
Stay tuned.....
http://img103.exs.cx/img103/8325/angry2.gifhttp://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/dimebar_probably/Smileys/th_chainsaw.gif