Hey I recognize that receipt!

 

Well that's interesting. We're the bolts torqued down with a torque wrench to spec? And not a HF cheap torque wrench. I play 'm a backyard mechanic, and my real "old timer" mechanic who does a lot of work for me torques every bolt he puts on to spec. If there is no spec he torques everything based on the size of the bolt. Sometimes I thinks it's overkill, but he has a point. Wondering if the mechanic torqued your bolts?

 

Obviously the mechanic didn’t torque down the bolts. The left bolt in the picture was literally resting in the hole and lifted straight out… the right bolt pictured was half way in. That’s why I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Clearly it was a major f-up on their part. I’m happy I caught it and it didn’t cost me 1 1/2 weeks of downtime (they want the boat in their yard to be considered in-line or on the board for repairs) and another $160 plus in shop hours. 👌🏻

 

I don’t think not tightening everything to spec is much of a problem. Things do need to be “reasonably” tight which is simple to achieve. When putting steel bolts into Aluminum threads, over tightening and stripping the Aluminum is pretty common. A person certainly doesn’t want to exceed spec. I think this was a case of finger tight and a possible distraction that interrupted the work flow. Stuff happens.

 

That’s right, stuff happens. I guarantee that the mechanic was distracted and was rushing; hence, neglecting to tighten and torque down the starter bolts. Obviously I have no recourse in this situation - just putting it out there.

Bottom Line: Just because you take your boat/engine to a quality (high reputation) dealer/shop doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take a look at the motor.

P.S. I didn’t mention that I had to wait 15 minutes for the co-owner to install the new fuel filter on my 9.9 HP kicker when I was called to pickup the boat back in June. When I popped into the boat at pickup I noticed the brand new filter sitting in the boat. Clearly the technician who was working on the project failed in more ways than one. Pretty clear in my not-so-professional opinion. 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

A shop is only as good as it's worst employee, unfortunately, one bad mechanic can ruin the rep of a whole shop.

 

The lesson being to learn to do stuff for yourself. Then you have no one to blame but yourself 😆

 

Agree, I’ve had to kick my own a** a few times

 

 

I don't know what I hate more - paying for someone who is borderline competent $160/hour, or having to wait a week and half to get bent-over

 

If I have to wait a week and a half it better come with a complimentary jar of Vaseline…😳

 

Alot can be done on your own through having repair manual or Youtube. I trust myself more than some hourly smuck with no pride in what they do.

 

Had a similar experience with a mechanic that didn't tighten all my lugnuts. Scary.
For what they charge no excuse to flunk lunch.

 

I had a new 6hp kicker I dropped at my dealer for an impeller change. It oddly took them longer than usual. I finally told them I need it tomorrow. I picked it up, laid it down on my Weather proof rubber mat in the back of my Blazer and took it home. Hung it on my stand and noticed there was a weird pattern on the side. The pattern matched the mat in my Blazer.
I figured out pretty quick it was uncured paint. They had dropped my motor and had to swap out the cowl and paint it to match, with new decals.
I was unhappy that they weren't just honest with me. The motor is still great but the paint job went to hell pretty quick. It looks terrible today. I will paint it myself one of these days.
Check EVERYthing shops do.
I sold my Outrage to a friend. He took it to a shop and had it serviced. His very first launch the lower unit went out. He found zero gear oil. They wouldn't warranty it, blaming me. He fixed it himself and sold it and bought a new motor. Check EVERYthing shops do.

 

I had a mechanic fail to torque my track bar on a Jeep once.
Major connection for the front end.
This stuff happens especially if more than one individual is doing the work.

 

Way back when I bought my old Arima 17, I repowered it with a brand-new Suzuki DF90A from a Portland-area dealer that is no longer in business. Dropped the boat off on a Thursday morning, got the call on a Friday at 2:00 that it was ready to pick up. Swung by to get it, made sure to have them start and run it on muffs and demonstrate that everything worked as it should. I specifically asked their lead tech if they had water tested it on the river and he said "absolutely, it ran fantastic!" He then walked me through the Suzuki recommended break-in procedure and suggested I stop by Chinook Landing and take her for a spin on the way home. Instead, I brought it home to pick up my wife, but by the time she got off work it was 6:00. She was starving so we went to dinner instead, with plans to get up at 5:00 AM and take her out.

Next morning (Saturday), I step out of the house with a cup of coffee to admire the new motor and notice a puddle of shiny stuff under it reflecting my porch light. Stick my finger in it and sniff and it is gear oil. Check the drain plugs and both were rattling when touched, like they had been started in by hand but never torqued down at all. Put a pan under it and took both plugs out, and maybe 1/2 a cup of oil was still in it.

I was ringing the dealer's phone off the hook starting at 9:01 AM and finally got to talk to the manager. If I were the manager of a shop that had screwed up that badly on a new motor, talking to the customer whos business I'd like to keep, my attitude would have been "holy crap! I am so sorry! What is your address, I will come by this morning with oil and parts to flush the lower unit and do the job right myself!" Instead I got "woopsie. Bring it in on Monday and leave it, and I'll have my guys put new oil in it when they can fit it in next week. We'll just charge you for parts."

Moral of the story... a dealerships service department is only as good as their worst guy, and their reputation is only as good as their honesty and support for their customers. There is a reason some shops have been around for decades and have crusty old-timers working in the service dept, and a reason why other dealers come and go, and can't keep good techs on staff. I never set foot in that crappy dealership again for anything, and took my business to Sportcraft instead. Nothing but positive experiences with those guys (with both that Suzi 90, and the Honda 225 I ran on my Hewes).

 

Salem dealer replaced my thermostats on a pair of Honda 200s. Can't remember why I pulled the housings but this is what I found. Dealer just said, "my bad".

 

Don,
Did the guy refund your $$ for the non-replaced thermostats?

 

View attachment 1074552
(Notice anything wrong with the bolts on the top of my starter? 👀🧐)

The mechanic that cleaned my fuel system, put new spark plugs, replaced a fuel line, installed my new batteries, re-wired all the connections on the battery terminals and most importantly “pulled and inspected the starter” (see invoice below) failed to bolt the starter back down. View attachment 1074556

Final Update: So... I sent a text message to the tech's cell phone # back on Friday, September 19th at 11:22 AM about finding the two loose bolts on the starter w/ the picture and video.

My text read as follows: "I found my problem with the intermittent starting problem. Looks like one of the bolts was simply sitting on the starter and the other bolt was halfway in. Not sure who worked on this when my boat was in the shop, but I think they neglected to torque down the bolts which has been causing the problem."

Didn't hear anything but crickets until late Friday, September 26th at 3:20 PM. The reply was as follows: "Copy that. Thank you for the update. I'll let the bosses know. We will do what we need to do to ensure this doesn't happen again."