ETEC Failures - anyone hearing of any?

[Lancair]

Ive had an injector go on my 40, had the gear position switch replaced twice under warranty. It is still playing up if I leave it in neutral when not in use, I now leave it in gear all the time, except when I start it up. My local mech is good but he is miffed by the gear position switch, according to him, so is BRP. Its going in tomorrow morning for its 3yr service, estimated cost, $300 inc parts. I did have him take the leg off and check gearbox seals after about 18months so Im hoping no nasty surprises tomorrow.

Lanceair

[ozscott]

this is why we change the engines over after warrenty.. new engine no breakdowns well hopefully and if it does least we aint paying for it warrenty will be.. might cost us more but better piece of mind.

Man that would be expensive. For me a waste of money. My 93 Yammy just keeps going. If I was going to spend $15-$20k on a new outboard I would want it to be trouble free except for minor things and run like Seiko watch for at least 10 years...I mean bloody cars do it so why not outboards (and its not salt water that is doing it either, its unfinished tech, TOO high tech, unresolved tech, poor quality control etc).

Cheers

[stinky-stabi]

Man that would be expensive. For me a waste of money. My 93 Yammy just keeps going. If I was going to spend $15-$20k on a new outboard I would want it to be trouble free except for minor things and run like Seiko watch for at least 10 years...I mean bloody cars do it so why not outboards (and its not salt water that is doing it either, its unfinished tech, TOO high tech, unresolved tech, poor quality control etc).

Cheers

i was thinking along the same lines...
so i guess skutso you look for the motor with the longest warranty then????
as i couldnt afford to replace a motor with a couple of hundred hours on it every couple of years ,,seems like a big misconception to me on how to save money???????????

[Skusto]

hi its not about the money its about relaibly everything degrades over time rubbers perish electrics decay etc for the first 5-10 years of life should be very few failures and when offshore 50 ks you want no breakdowns .i have mates who have old car and old boat and motor maybe cheaper but always something failing.

ps even yamahas fail our 115 4 stroke trim motor failed at two years would have cost 1200 dollars out of warrenty.

[ozscott]

Mate - you must have been dead set unlucky with the trim motor! Apart from that a good simple outboard should run well if serviced and looked after for a LOT longer than the warranty period...but add huge complexity to the equation and I guess its not quite that simple. A trim motor is very unlucky, because its normally the little techy bits that cause problems out of warranty. In warranty things like a main bolt not torqued down enough is going to show itself by shooting a rod through the side of the block - that will occur in warranty. By the time warranty runs out the big things should not normally be an issue in simple motors...ie old tech.

Cheer

[Noelm]

not too sure buying new when warranty runs out is any sort of insurance against breakdown, there is hundreds of motors fixed under warranty, some complete tow in failures, some just a nuisance, being new does not eliminate this! a new motor can just as easily fail 50K out to sea, but it will cost the owner nothing to fix (hopefully)

[Skusto]

hi each to there own but parts are getting very expensive and will only get worse and the old tech two stroke will eventually be banded .what do you do then?

[Noelm]

your missing the point, you said you get a new one when the warranty expires, so you dont have failures, I say that it does not prevent failure, it just makes them free to fix, I do not disagree with your thinking, and whether old tech will be banned or anything else.

[Skusto]

my reply was to ozscott not you

[oldboot]

there are a couple of issues that I find interesting.

If there "was a bad batch of ####" why wasn't there a recall.....obviously all those motors with bad components are "not of merchantable quality", they all should have been recalled and the known dodgy items replaced at no charge.

I've seen this behaviour from some electronics suppliers.....equipment built and known to be not to spec... but will only fix the problem if the item is returned under wraranty with the correct fault discription.

Dirty fuel...power surges....incorrect operation.............very common clauses in warranty documents and cop out excuses every one.
The equipment has not been designed to cope with what can reasonably be expected to be encountered.........iether the injectors are poorly designed..the factory fuel filtration is not up to snuff.........the electronic design does not have adequate power supply treatment or the interfaces are not correctly buffered..........as for incorrect operation...........OH please.........appart from a gross cooling system blockage or gross damage..still no reasonable excuse.

As for banning old tech two strokes........probably from new sale and reasonably soon......but apart from the empoundments.....just unreasonable.

cheers

[cormorant]

Oldboot

That's pretty much how I feel as well and all the manufacturers are having a lend of us and for some reason we accept it because " well because it is marine and salt water" "harsh environment" What a croc.

That is why I say components like the computers in outboards should be warranty'd for the life of the engine as there should be no user input that can damage them these days. Manufcturers know exactly how long components should last from their test bed testing.

Hopefully with the computers actually recording codes on them it will actuall show that the consumer had a decent battery, was running petrol to produce correct revs so they were in spec so manufacturers should pony up and replace components unless they are worn our from a suitable number of hours use.



Doesn't seem to be any new issues on the ETECS at the minute and other brands are pretty much the same.

90% of stuff seems to be the result of single component failure or from set up where the mechanics haven't put in extra fuel filters , propped em right and so on. Seems to be very few complete seizures from any brand - hope it continues as it means more reliable boating for all of us and better 2nd hand motors on the market

[ozscott]

when they are banned it will be new sale and impoundment as referred to above.

Cheers
PS. I MAY buy a brand new V4 before they close downt he sale of them yet...I am still in 2 minds about it really (for people that go out every week/LONG way off to grounds there is no comparrison - new tech is really worth it, but not necessarily for people like me)

[Mark-P]

Man that would be expensive. For me a waste of money. My 93 Yammy just keeps going. If I was going to spend $15-$20k on a new outboard I would want it to be trouble free except for minor things and run like Seiko watch for at least 10 years...I mean bloody cars do it so why not outboards (and its not salt water that is doing it either, its unfinished tech, TOO high tech, unresolved tech, poor quality control etc).

Cheers

The whole issue here is emissions !!! The problem facing every one today, is
that our fathers & grandfathers liked there V8's & V4 2st ! Every thing from now
on has 2 produce Fa polution, hence the word ( New Tech ) The problem for the
manufacturers is trying to please everyone, from me to you, the governments & every body else ! Which they've yet to perfect !!!!!!

Mark

[BigMav]

Old thread but I just wanted to mention I had a rubber seal replaced which sounds like the same seal in the gearbox mentioned a couple of times in this thread. I had the motor checked out by a mechanic when I purchased the boat and he found a small (and I mean very small) amount of oil leaking. I was told it was under a recall program and was an easy fix, there is always small problems like these on everything you buy these days. I'd be suprised if there is a new car around that didn't have some sort of recall on it for something. It was replaced with a better seal without any dramas. The computer told the mechanic that there had been no other fault codes come up on the engine. Its a 150hp 07 model.

[Getout]

I was over at Peel this morning sitting on a chair in Horseshoe when a dark red Stabi with an Etec on the back pulled up onto the sand about 100meters away.

Lady thru the anchor while the bloke dipped up a bucket of water.
He then poured the water over the engine.
Did this 3 times.

He then gingerly reached out and touched the engine casing. Quickly withdrew the hand. It seemed to be rather warm.

Did the bucket trick a few more times before before deciding to go for a swim.
I left not long after that. Didnt see what happened next.

Overheating maybe?


Rod

Who would tip salt water over an engine? Hope the cowling was on!