Mercury Lightning XR 40hp (Tohatsu M40D2)

[aharding]

I have owned three of these and had pretty good reliability, with no major issues over the last 8 years, but just talking to a marine dealer who says he has seen many with issues of scoured cylinders on these through incorrectly torqued water gasket bolts letting salt water in? Have a feeling being a yammie dealer he maybe hamming it up a bit...

On my last one I did get a small amout of salt on the lower plug once and replaced the gasket - problem gone, and motor(s) have always run great - bar the odd carb adjustment being needed, just wondering if anyone else has had any issues with this motor? My last one did around 1500 hours and was great. Have just brought a 2011 version and hope to have the same reliability.

Just curious if anyone else has had any issues with this motor? They seem to extremely popular given there price and power to weight being a 50hp Tohatsu in reality.

[Dan5]

I bought one new in 99'....it spun a big end bearing at about 100hrs.......under 12 months.......no warranty was the call from a local dealer so i had it rebuilt somewhere else at half the cost and then i sold it.........best thing i ever did as i bought a spanking new 70 suzuki which clocked over 4700hrs in 6 years with little fuss..........i'm on my 4th fourstroke now........thankyou Tohatsu.

[Noelm]

not too sure you are talking about the same motor, bit hard to spin a bearing in a 2 stroke, why was there no warranty??? back to the question, the XR40 has been around for yonks and has a very good record for reliability, never heard of any inherant faults.

[Dave_H]

I bought one new in 99'....it spun a big end bearing at about 100hrs.......under 12 months.......no warranty was the call from a local dealer so i had it rebuilt somewhere else at half the cost and then i sold it.........best thing i ever did as i bought a spanking new 70 suzuki which clocked over 4700hrs in 6 years with little fuss..........i'm on my 4th fourstroke now........thankyou Tohatsu.

Ahhh - no, that is covered by statute manufacturer warranty and up to them to prove that it isn't/wouldn't be. They could claim whatever they liked but if push came to shove in a court of law they would have to prove that you were either negligent or reckless in the operation of the unit - almost impossible to do when compared to how easy a manufacturing defect is. I cannot understand why you accepted that outcome, if that was the case at all...

[myusernam]

hey i've got a full service manual in electronic format I got off the thundercat forums (tohatsu 50) and also the owners manual.
I love mine. It's an old commercial motor and still goes hard as. dont think there are any issues as mentioned above or you would see it on the net. thundercat forums a wealth of info on these motors as they are the only legal race motor (due to specs) in their league. my tohatsu 50 is great. cost me $600 with a stainless prop. cleaned the carbies, some paint. jobs done. probably done 300 hours since, a fair bit of that at WOT. even compression all cylinders. service it myself for stufall. best in class power to weight (manual tilt/ start) show me a suzuki that can do that!

[Dan5]

[Dan5]

Okay make it simple for guys who don't know........sorry my bad not a big end but crankshaft.........also this was 13 years ago and a lot of arguements did'nt help......The dealer here was and still is known to be a prick......after that incident i have never stepped foot into his yard......

Mine from new had a fault IMO it always had a bottom end knock but the dealer told me it was normal and just noisy as it was a twin.......being it was only my second outboard i believed him and should have sought a second opinion........anyway i didn't and in the end it shit its self and i never had the knowledge i do now or the smarts to know any better........So the guys that think i'm bullshitting can believe what they like.....but i'll never buy a Tohatsu again.

Dan

[davo]

My mate has the 50HP Tohatsu. Blew the gearbox at 140 hours and it has alway run poorly. He got the old "no warranty" trick. My father had a 6HP 4 stroke and it was never any good. A years worth of harrassment resulted in a new powerhead which was pathetic considering it lept coming up with with a low oil pressure alarm. Another mate had the 40Hp and also had a lot of troubles. I've heard too much of it lately. Our old Tohatsu's were a lot more reliable. I wouldn't risk it any more.

[Goodoo haven]

My mate has the 50HP Tohatsu. Blew the gearbox at 140 hours and it has alway run poorly. He got the old "no warranty" trick. My father had a 6HP 4 stroke and it was never any good. A years worth of harrassment resulted in a new powerhead which was pathetic considering it lept coming up with with a low oil pressure alarm. Another mate had the 40Hp and also had a lot of troubles. I've heard too much of it lately. Our old Tohatsu's were a lot more reliable. I wouldn't risk it any more.

I had one of the newish 40hp Tohatsu TLDI and it preformed brilliantly in all aspects.

[Smithy]

Interesting! Around Hervey Bay/Maryborough way the Tohatsus are legendary for reliability with a great dealer in Barneys at Pialba.

[myusernam]

I dont think you would get the largest ourboard manufacturer (merc) using the tohatsu as their 40 and 50 if they were a bad motor..

[Dan5]

I dont think you would get the largest ourboard manufacturer (merc) using the tohatsu as their 40 and 50 if they were a bad motor..

No doubt that many people have had a brilliant run with them,i asked around before my purchase.......My engine let me down.....so did the dealer........once bitten twice shy for me..... I'm just sharing what happened to me.


Dan

[Dave_H]

Okay make it simple for guys who don't know........sorry my bad not a big end but crankshaft.........also this was 13 years ago and a lot of arguements did'nt help......The dealer here was and still is known to be a prick......after that incident i have never stepped foot into his yard......

Mine from new had a fault IMO it always had a bottom end knock but the dealer told me it was normal and just noisy as it was a twin.......being it was only my second outboard i believed him and should have sought a second opinion........anyway i didn't and in the end it shit its self and i never had the knowledge i do now or the smarts to know any better........So the guys that think i'm bullshitting can believe what they like.....but i'll never buy a Tohatsu again.

Dan

Thanks for the nice easy to follow picture there Dan. Would you like some of the ones I used for 15 years to work on all in/outboards every day? I understand your frustration at your engine, when if you'd have gotten decent service from that dealer (which the distributor/importer needed to hear about and if you didn't then the buck stops with you) they'd have rectified the issue under warranty and you'd never (probably) ever had the issue again? A bit hard to just blame the brand of outboard for that one when there have been enough documented cases around of just about every brand having the odd low houred grenade...

There reason I sounded doubting about your original post was that motor (like most others) is a roller bearing bottom end and while not unheard of to damage a bearing, they don't "spin" as such and, lets just say that the number of people here on these boards that claim to have owned one or had a mate of a mate who owned one that did something-or-other etc is beyond laughable. Wasn't a personal shot at you, apologies if you thought it as such.

Regards,

Dave.

[Dan5]

I'm not frustrated with the engine at all,it happened 13 years ago.............well over it now.........I just wanted to answer the original post but seem to come under alot of scrutiny about the truth of my story...??? or so it seemed...."if that was the case at all".........

Dan

[Jarrah Jack]

I've got one and can't say a thing bad about it. Tough and reliable so far. Its a 2001 mdl with less than 400 hours.