Getting Coverage on the Warranty

[little joee]

Before I ask the question I will play my tiny Violin. I purchased a boat with a freeze cracked engine. The rest of the boat is in fantastic shape and the price was right. I purchased a new engine from Doug Russell and dropped that baby in, aligned it, tuned it and took the safety course. I'm thinking great deal, right?

Fast forward to last weekend. After launching, idling out and getting on plane, the engine pops the head gasket at cylinder #1 (only one gasket on the 3.0L). I ran for less than 10 minutes and didn't even get past 3300 rpms. Did it overheat? No, it was running at 160-170 F and the heat stamps are still firmly attached. Did it detonate? No, time correctly (2 ATDC) by a mechanic. What else could it be? I'm thinking either bad gasket, torque aint right, or slightly warped head. Either way, I need to fix it.

So I call in the warranty and the only way to get this fixed is to pull the engine back out and ship direct to mass (I'm in washington). Needless to say, I don't want to do this because I just got done with it. I want the gaskets and a check for the shop that's going to check the head flatness.

How do I get them to pay or am I just out of luck and should have known better (and gone local)???

 

[Bass Tracker TX17]

Re: Getting Coverage on the Warranty

Pull the engine and they will more than likely just ship you a replacement. Just like in the auto industry. You buy a reman and something goes wrong they want the whole thing back. They want to see themselves what went wrong. It stinks but thats the way it is. They won't pay for someone else to repair one of there motors. Plus doing a repair like you are thinking of can really get you behind the 8 ball. What happens if the repaired motor does the same thing. Then your out the warrante PLUS the money you put in to repair it yourself. The sooner you yank it and send it the sooner it gets back in the water. It's not going anywhere at the moment.......

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Getting Coverage on the Warranty

With most warranties...... you flip the labor bill. Are they paying the shipping both ways?

If that problem showed up in the first few minutes........ don't you wonder about the rod bearings or other "rebuilt" parts??

It's a tough call but it is on you.

Around here many of the rebuild companies would deal with a local mechanic to do the repairs and then pay the bill.

 

[little joee]

Re: Getting Coverage on the Warranty

I pay the return shipping, they pay the shipping back.

It's a new engine, not rebuilt or remanufactured, so blowing the gasket right off does cause the "what if" gears to spin wildly. I agree the safest bet is to pull and send it right back. Doing the repair myself is risky if I have reason to believe the failure wasn't because of a bad gasket or other simple manufacturing error.

The whole dilema I'm having, besides the feeling of wasted time and expense of replacing the engine, is the deal that this boat began as is quickly going away.

And yes, I know that deals in boating are few and far between. I wasn't hoping to make a killer deal, but at least save a little cash when getting into the water.

 

[LippCJ7]

Re: Getting Coverage on the Warranty

My opinion is you knew the warranty when you purchased the engine right? If you didn't like it then why did you purchase it?

 

[Brewman61]

Re: Getting Coverage on the Warranty

They have an obligation to perform to the warranty- the details of which you hopefully have in writing somewhere. It should clearly state what they will and will not cover.
If they want to exceed their warranty policy, it's their call. But they should at least do what they promise.

 

[DuckHunterJon]

Re: Getting Coverage on the Warranty

I pay the return shipping, they pay the shipping back.

It's a new engine, not rebuilt or remanufactured, so blowing the gasket right off does cause the "what if" gears to spin wildly. I agree the safest bet is to pull and send it right back. Doing the repair myself is risky if I have reason to believe the failure wasn't because of a bad gasket or other simple manufacturing error.

The whole dilema I'm having, besides the feeling of wasted time and expense of replacing the engine, is the deal that this boat began as is quickly going away.

And yes, I know that deals in boating are few and far between. I wasn't hoping to make a killer deal, but at least save a little cash when getting into the water.

Couple of thoughts. First and foremost, there are no deals with boats. Hate to say it as I am an avid deal hunter, it's just the way it is. A good friend of mine found out i was looking for a boat a few years back. He said he had a sure fire way to see if I was a boater. He told me to pick a nice, sunny day - walk out to the end of a dock, and start tossing silver dollars into the water. The first one would hurt, as would the next few. He said, once I got to the point where it didn't hurt anymore - I was ready to buy the boat.

That said, you mention it's a NEW engine. If it's new, shouldn't the warrantee be from the manufacturer, not the dealership you bought it from? I would think a trip to a local mercruiser/volvo (not sure which one we're talking here) for the warrantee work would be in order. Maybe I'm missing something, but it's like buying a new car from one dealership, then having it serviced (under warrantee) at another - perfectly normal.

 

[little joee]

Re: Getting Coverage on the Warranty

That is the best preparation for boatings I have ever heard. And sadly very accurate, and turning out to be true. In addition to that little gasket problem we found the starboard side tire split and needs to be replaced.

The engine is new, but the warranty is very similar to nearly every other place offering these new engines. All require the warranty work to be performed by them with shipping back at the cost of the purchaser. It's crappy, but I figured the chances of a new engine failing as exceedly slim.

I talked with the company and little more today and they were more willing to help out, supply a few of the parts for the repair. So, that's a big positive.