The Bomb exploded on my Motor (a bit long)

[Highlander]

Leon
I think maybe he' trying to power sail @ WOT & his sails are back winding
Sorry Gazmn but I could'nt help myself

J
PS as for your eng problems the fact that a laptop erases your problem ? would highly suggest pointing to an electrical problem the lap top must be bypassing something whether its an program or sensor . you would think somebody up stairs "the engineering dept" would have some Idea whats wrong athough it does sound like a progaming problem !!! have they checked to see if their is any new progamming updates that your eng has not had installed yet ! or poss. recalls for this issue

J

[delevi]

Got BRP involved. We'll see where this goes. Also spoke to the other local Evinrude authorized mechanic in my area (only 2 of them.) He seems to concur with everything the other guys did. The laptop allows for control of how rich the fuel is at various throttle settings. This is a diagnostics feature only and can't be saved due to EPA regulations... otherwise the engine could theoretically be set to run with more power and in turn not as clean-burning... at least as far as the EPA is concerned. When I spoke to BRP, they were able to confirm that the mechanic did in fact have numerous conversations with their engineer/technical reps. Trouble is, it is very difficult to get one of these guys to show up in person. There are only a handful of them for the entire Western US reagion. Furthermore, per mechanic, they don't make it a high priority to come out in person when an engine is out of warranty. Go figure I will still push for this however. Will post my porgress. Hopefully there will be actual progress to post.

Leon

[dreamer]

You may have checked already, but there's an e-tec owners link on this site. May be worth a try.

[Highlander]

Leon

Just for the heck of it have you checked your fuel tank p/u tubes for obstruction looked inside them for contamination water , dirt , a piece of clear plastic like siran wrap how did that get in their ! cracks in the p/u tubes etc, vents not plugged , check the fuel ball on your fuel line for cracks also & try another fuel line , eng. fuel lines not colapsing under power !! , leaking air intake at the manifolds , corroded wires at sensors or loose connection's

Failing that buy a set of oars I hear beene's an expert & suberb rower

hope things work out soon J

[Russ]

When talking with the higher ups, remind them that you are posting your experience on various internet forums which might not make their product look very good if they can't resolve it. (hint: bad press) Be subtle and say, "All the internet forums I post on suggest a computer issue and are surprised at such lack of support for out of warranty products."


--Russ

[TAW02]

When talking with the higher ups, remind them that you are posting your experience on various internet forums which might not make their product look very good if they can't resolve it. (hint: bad press) Be subtle and say, "All the internet forums I post on suggest a computer issue and are surprised at such lack of support for out of warranty products."


--Russ

I'm impressed. Good advice.

Big T

[bscott]

Three years ago an Etec60 owner in our marina had the exact same problem. BRP sent a factory tech and solved the problem so they know the "fix".

BTW, BRP just introduced a new Etec 800 engine into their snowmobile division so they cannot afford any bad Etec publicity.

Bob

[Tom Root]

Reading all of these problems you have gave me Deja-Vu. I truly feel your pain, as I have had a similar situation. Except my problem was with a Suzuki DF50 about 6 months or so out of warranty. The Marine Mechanics must have a school they go to that makes them say to a customer..... "We'll start at 2 thousand and it may cost 4 thousand plus ,to fix". In my particular case, I was not going to be taken, and shaken for every last dime they could drain me of. I had medical issues, and was considering other things in my life that were more important.

My toys are always paid for with cold hard cash, so I could just wait till I wanted to get back on the water. That's mostly why I have been gone from the board here as well. Now, I have spent nearly 13 Grand in upgrades, and ready to get back out this season!

What it came down to for me, I see that all outboards seem to break, no matter the brand, it just depends on pure luck. So, after much debate, and consideration, I bought a new Suzuki DF- 50. I have exausted whatever means to get the troubleshooting software from Suzuki Inc. Anything short of a class action lawsuit to release that software, is futile. I did everything to troubleshoot it myself, and I know enough to be dangerous anyway! So, what it comes down to, is I spent several hundred bucks and got NO answer as to what was wrong with my motor! And now I have an identical engine that I can shotgun parts at with my old motor as the donor engine.

I really wanted a bigger, as in a 140 HP Outboard. But in the long run, I got the Gimme 6 Warranty that Suzuki puts out every spring, and be satisfied and just hope this one lasts me more than 150 hours!

Also, I would'nt even mind paying whatever ransom they come up with to get the software for my computer, and add the "Y" connectors/hardware from the computer to the engine as well! I'd like to take this boat to places where I may not be able to even find a Mechanic, (Do they even exist anyway?) and T/S the thing myself, that is my biggest complaint with this whole issue anyway!

[Boblee]

Rotflmao (sorry) Delevi
Mate I posted about this happening with my motor several times, it totally stuffed up three years cruising for me and do not be too hard on your mechanic.
Incidently my motor had a problem from day ONE, sorry saw this heading previously and didn't twig you were having this problem.
Firstly all you have had done and more was done to mine to no avail so in desperation got onto the Aust head office and threatened to spread the word, to cut a long story short they replaced the powerhead and no more problems, note this was after almost four years and over 400 hr's as part of warranty.
What really gets up my nose is that when I asked the mechanic who did the c/o what would happen with the old motor he said it would be tossed out or used for spares (maybe), I wanted to know what the problem was so that others such as yourself would not have to go through this BS.

[delevi]

Well, here is the latest. After several promises by BRP to take this to the next level, the mechanic received no calls. I contacted another mechanic who is Evinrude authorized. He was nice enough to spend nearly 30 minutes on the phone with me. He sounded like he knew his stuff and I described the situation to him in detail. He told me that he wouldn't have done anything differently and that he couldn't find any fault with the series of daignositcs and repairs my mechanic performed. Nor did he have a solution. I made another call to BRP and I got the "You're out of warranty, sir." No SH*T! So round and round we go... I made a major fuss, etc, etc, made some threats, etc, etc, "How can you not stand behind yoru broduct?" etc, etc. "Take it up with your mechanic sir."

So I made the decision to take my boat back. I will not allow this to ruin a promissing sailing season. The engine runs fine outside the problem RPM areas so I will do my best to avoid this range and... she is a sailboat afterall. If I could afford it, I would buy a new enigne *****NOT EVINRUDE***** Once finances allow, hopefully by year's end, I will be shopping for a new outboard. And as I told BRP customer service; "I will never buy another BRP product again, and will be sure to share my experience with all my fellow boaters. I am truly disgusted that a company won't stand behind its product like this. I am also surprised (maybe I shouldn't be) to learn of Boblee's story while under warranty.

[Boblee]

Delevi
Mine was taken back time and time again all under warranty but the last time it was looked at under warranty (but technically out) it was running beautifully until I got thirty k's down a very remote river 2000k's from the nearest dealer.
After calling that part of our trip short due to safety reasons in open ocean and remoteness I took it to the nearest dealer (2000 k round trip) on the way to the next leg of the trip and contacted head office in Sydney, it was tested and the mechanic had no choice but to agree yes there was a fault and he had no idea what it was.
By this time the motor was well out of warranty and after BRP stalling I totally spat the dummy and parked the boat while taking time out in Arnhem Land and in retrospect I am glad as it was magic.
Finally got word they would replace the powerhead which I did when I got back to Darwin and as they say lived happily ever after except it was too late to do the last leg which will now happen this year hopefully.
May be a bit different here as if there is a recognised fault during the warranty they are obligated to fix it irrespective of warranty conditions and they were notified of our problem on the first day on the water, but I sincerely thank them for finally fixing it although If we counted the down time and many trips to the dealer they should have given us two full free motors.
While sorting this out it became apparent while many manufacturers have problems Evinrude really need to lift their game in regards to service IMHO they are using customers to test their product instead of doing it themselves prior to release.
I have absolutely nothing but praise for any dealer I attended.
Best of luck bloke but still think they are a good motor and there must be a logical problem here if they will only make the effort to find it.
It was only around the 3000rpm mark but under wot it would sound flat like a spark breakdown or fuel starve.

[SkiDeep2001]

This may not be worth the "paper " it is written on but in my 40 + years of boating, if I ever had to rent a small boat with a small outboard and they had multiple choices between engines, say, Johnson, Evinrude, Mercury, Honda, I always chose the Merc or Honda because, I am sorry to say, if I wound up on the water with an Evinrude or Johnson, and I'm talking 5-15 horse, it usually turned into a very frustrating adventure. Now, granted, I love adventure, but not the breaking down in the middle of a lake kind of adventure. Other than my own Merc's needing an impeller change more frequently than I thought should be necessary, I will always go with Honda/Mercury motors over Evinrude/Johnson. Just my 2 cents worth. Rob PS; this includes boats in both Canada and the US if that means anything in the overall scheme of things.

[Bill Reichert]

Checking for bad grounds. Check for solid wire grounds. They can crack (My 72 Pinto that had a solid wire on the vac advance.) How to check for continuity. Use a light bulb NOT an ohmmeter. An ohmmeter can show good continuity with almost no current whereas a 12 v source with a taillight bulb for a safety load will show a failure that an ohmmeter won't.
Computer board. If it is easily accessible, use a magnifying glass and check for corrosion at solder joints. Re solder any corroded joints. This is a common problem in cars. It sounds like it could be a failure at a sympathetic vibration/at certain speed? (piano tuner here that know about those problems.)
Maybe a GOOD independent auto tech could put the motor on a portable scope for you. Invite him for a sail and work day?

My wife's cousin fixed a Hallicrafter short wave that had stumped the techs. He used a heat gun to find a bad capacitor that only failed above 95 degrees.

[Russ]

I'm glad I didn't buy the e-tec. I sent away for the DVD and liked what the marketing stuff said. Simple, more power, lighter. After hearing your experiences, I'm glad I took the advise of BWY and stayed away from it. They didn't recommend the e-tec because of reliability issues. I guess they were right. BRP needs to know that bad support will hurt future sales.

I just can't believe this company is treating an out of warranty customer this way. I would write letters to everyone. Nothing beats a physical letter to a CEO or something. Include links to this site and others.

It sounds like it could be a failure at a sympathetic vibration/at certain speed? (piano tuner here that know about those problems.)

This makes sense to me. There have been so many times when environmental conditions have been the cause of mechanical failures. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that at that RPM, some vibration is creating a failure.
Although I'm also amazed nobody is willing to just swap out the computer to test.

--Russ

[beene]

Just wanted to chime in Leon

You know how I feel about this BS as we have spoken over the phone numerous times about this.

Just wanted to say, my Merc runs like a kitten and throws the Mac out of the water and on plane in seconds.

My recommendation is a Merc 75 or higher, when the time comes.

Of course Mercaha would mean a Yammy would do fine.

Just keep an eye on the cc's..... the higher the better.

Its all in the grunt with these waterbeggos.

G