Unhappy. Last Saturday a friend and I shoved off for an afternoon duck hunt on the North Landing River. My trusty Evinrude 75-hp E-TEC began acting up a bit, so instead of waiting until sunset to find out we were stranded in the marsh, we aborted the hunt and headed back to the dock while the motor was still running and the sun was still out. That was good headwork, and not why Im unhappy. The motor was due for its recommended 3-year/100 hour factory service, so I took it to Lynnhaven Marine, where it was sold new. I described the symptoms and the maintenance advisor recommended (and showed me the pricing structure) for the work (the 3-year/100-hour service). The motor is mounted on a jacking plate which has developed an intermittent balky-ness of its own lately, so I asked them to shoot the wires on that as well. I was quoted an hours worth of work for that. The fee for a 100-hour service check they showed me plus another hour for the jacking plate trim switch troubleshooting at their posted rate of $115 an hour shouldve totaled around $400 or so. I picked up the boat today. $1,079.35. Speechless. Naturally, on a Saturday the only person around was the young woman at the cash register. Informed that I thought I was being ripped off, she gamely read the invoice to me. As a licensed and actively practicing attorney, one of my well-honed skills is literacy, so I was able to actually read it myself. E-TEC motor have an electronic maintenance module in em... a computer chip that records everything when the motor is running. This motor can tell the mechanic what ails it. I now know that the motor has accumulated a total of only 36 hours of run time since new. Evinrude touts the reliability and durability of this motor, and heavily advertises the need for zero maintenance before the 3-year interval. Indeed, my motors EMM apparently showed no fault codes. However, despite zero fault codes, and after only 36 hours of use (check my math - thats roughly 1/3 of the operating hour interval Evinrude feels is the time to have a motor examined by a technician), the folk at Lynnhaven Marine determined that my motor required replacement of a fuel filter, a thermostat assembly, and a water pump and 6.5 hours of labor by what Lynnhaven Marine advertises as certified, factory trained technicians. E-TECs require replacement of fuel pumps and thermostats after only 36 hours of use? Not according to Evinrude. Gritted my teeth and paid. Got the boat back to my driveway. The motor wont start. Let me share that again: the motor wont start. Evinrude E-TECs have become renowned for firing up at the slightest touch of the ignition switch. Thats how this one used to be. But after 6.5 hours of expert labor and $1,079.35 for the parts and labor, my motor wont start. I have the battery charger on it right now - the highly trained mechanics at Lynnhaven Marine left electrical switches for my spotlight and the Lawrence sonar/gps system in the on position, so maybe the battery is run down and doesnt have sufficient ass in it to fire the motor. It cranks but wont fire. So, Im fuming in my driveway instead of enjoying one of the few remaining Saturday afternoons of waterfowl season by being out in the marsh with a shotgun and my dog. In the boat. With a freshly-tuned up, running-like-a-swiss watch motor. No, I wont be back to Lynnhaven Marine. Ever.
Posted on: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 20:58:50 +0000
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