Before I SCREAM... help me here!

So I just got my boat back from the service shop where I had it’s first annual 100hr service done. It didn’t have a full 100 hours but I figured since it needed some minor cosmetic warranty work I would pay the 600+ $$ for the service as well. They were real friendly and replaced all of the warranty items so I brought the boat and put it back into the garage. I then proceeded to open the engine cover only to discover that the oil did not look brand new and the rotor, and wires were dusty and did not look brand new.

Has this happened to anyone else? Shouldn’t they have replaced the oil and wires during the 100-hour service???

I guess the best thing to do would be to just take the boat back to the dealer and have them look at it but it just ticks me off that I am going to have to pull the boat back out of the garage and take time out of my day to deal with this. Am I being unreasonable here? Should I have them drive over and pick it up?

And vote for Attila on the home page, I am loosing to Umali big time!

Oil yes, wires no!

I seem to remember I was told: impellar, cap, rotor, plugs, wires, oil, filter... hecne the $680 bill.

I want to call them right now but they are closed. I guess I will have to wait til morning to find out what they "think" they replaced. I am starting to get a bad feeling about this.

(Message edited by attila916 on February 20, 2007)

attila if you were billed for it and they didnt do it then i would call them on it. id ask for some type of comp for the hassle of having to bring the boat back to them, but i dont think its reasonable to ask them to pick the boat up. take a day and calm down and then call them, otherwise your gonna burn bridges with the dealer.

Attila, what engine do you have? I have the MCX and I don't think it has a cap and rotor, all electronic. $680 seems sky high. Impeller, oil, tranny oil, fuel filter, etc. when winterizing is more like $180 at my dealer. Did they change your fuel filter? I would be more concerned with a clogged fuel filter than wires. My 2 cents...

Never heard of a 100hr service needing cap, rotor, wires, plugs. Most of the time the 100hr service is for the oil, tranny fluid, and alignment check. To replace all of those previously listed items seems like a HUGE waste.

My manual it says every 100 hours clean flame arrestor, replace the raw water impeller, have an engine tune up performed including replacement of PVC valve, spark plugs, distributor cap, rotor and ignition wires (if needed), change transmission fluid, check engine mounts, shaft alignment, exhaust flaps, lubricate the steering and throttle system, check the ballast impellers (old black ones are problematic) and inspect the fuel system for leaks....

Thanks guys, dug the work order up and here is what they wrote...
Replaced:
plugs, cap, and rotor, cleaned spark arresstor,
tranny & engine oil & filter
fuel filter
impeller and gasket
adjusted shaft alignment

So the wires are the originals, but why does the oil not look like new oil???

the oil should look brand new, crystal clear i'd call them make sure/ask if they changed it. then drain a little into a bottle and head down to the shop with the old oil and ask a few more questions.

thats because its not new oil. find yourself someone you can trust to service your boat or do it yourself. just keep your reciepts. you will not void waranty. and just take your boat in for waranty issues and save all that money. you do not need your boat serviced by a dealer to maintain waranty! its not hard and you have the best resource right here to learn how too. good luck. can someone please spell waranty for me?

attila i agree with bryan a little, you could have done most of those things for about 100 bucks +/- and a couple hours time. im not a mechanically inclined guy at all.

I just got my malibu back from the samething...warranty work and service... when they pulled it out, I climbed in with the service rep and looked at the WHOLE boat opened all the storage lockers engine hatch checked the engine / tranny oil ... the rep asked me what I was diong it was just serviced ?... I said "dood I dont trust anybuddy" I had a Harley that the main shaft of the tranny broke , they made the repairs but forgot one thing... the oil ?... which I found out 3k miles when I checked it ...later they told me i was sol ...it must have leaked out ?.. since then I check everything I can after any service on anything ;) gl

Thanks, I though it should look like much better than it does. I just checked the oil in my Silverado... it has about 4000 on the synthetic and they look about the same!

If they didn't change the oil I wonder what else they charged me for and did not fix...

Do they have an itemized parts list with prices? I do know that the tranny filter for a ZF hurth trans is about 100-120 depending on the dealer. Indmar does recommend replacing that every 100 hrs now.

Attila

If the shop ran the engine for 20-30 minutes after changing the oil it may not look brand new.

I guess that's the reason I do my own oil changes. At least that way I know it's done and done right...

Attila i hate to say it but service at a lot of dealerships sucks, and that is one reason why it is so important to buy a boat from a dealer that has a great reputation.

The hour meter said 78.8 before and after the service... I will call them on my lunch break.

You got screwed man, they didn't bet on you checking over your boat that closely. Go back down there, tell them you want what they said they were going to do the first time done for free. If they don't like it, make a scene, call mc customer service 423 252 1022 (Greg Clower) That should get something done. Just don't let the dealer take advantage.

I wouldn't go down there demanding things right away. I would talk to them and try to be as level headed as possible and explain what happened. It might have just been a mix up. If they don't fix it and offer some sort of compensation, that's when i would start to press the issue. But give them the chance to make it right before you start asking for stuff. We had a similar problem once with our dealer and my Dad kept cool and didn't ask for a thing, but the dealer offered to drive an hour each way to pick up the boat for service and to bring it back as well to make things right.
plus they ripped up the bill for the service they had done.

I think that is sound advice Mr. Bird

I am going to pull the boat out of my garage this weekend, have my mechanic fried look at the oil on the dip stick and go from there.

I just spoke to the service advisor and he seemed very fair and adivised he had one of his trusted techs work on it and if I had any doubts I should bring it by and they will change the oil again for me while I wait.

...Seems fair, he idnicated that often times there is a little residue left in the mortor and that changes the color of the oil as soon as they crank it over for the compression test.

From now on, mark your oil filter with a perm. marker before it goes in for a service.

Atilla, I hate to say this but is sounds as tho you got bent over and no reach around. I paid $150 something for my 100 hour service. which included everything oil (even tranny), impeller, etc. I would follow byrd's advice as that is how I would handle it.

After reading everything in these forums about boat servicing, I trust nobody! Soon as you do you will regret it! Think about it you are entrusting your 50k boat to what could be a 10 bucks an hour kid thats no different than the oil change place.

Just putting that out there...

is a compression test normal on a 100-hour service?

(Message edited by denverd1 on February 21, 2007)

Kenny, where are you paying $150? I found a mobile guy for $200 plus parts and thought it was a good deal. Hook me up!

good point nacho nor did they explain on your bill that they ran a compression test. seems like a stupid test to run on a such a new motor. Sounds to me like someone was covering something up, making an excuse for why the oil was dirty.

SOUND FISHY! seems to me even if they did "turn it over for a compression test" the oil should look pretty new...

Well, the work order has the compression test results so I don't think he is making that up...

All the cylinders are either 180 or 185 PSI

fair enough. they seem willing to fix whatever they overlooked, just kinda odd that you noticed dirty oil in it.

Maybe they used a pump to suck it through the dip stick and they didn't get all the old oil out?

thats just what they charge here. I did do business with moble marine in sac before I transfered and he wasn't expensive either.

My 50 hour oil change service(150total hrs) cost me only 55 bucks.

I don't see them doing a compression test but starting the motor to get the oil to cycle through the engine to check oil level, now makes sense.

I doubt they ran the engine to warm up the oil and typically this dealer uses an extractor to do oil changes. These don’t provide for the removal of oil to the maximum possible. I do my own oil changes therefore there isn’t a concern whether it was done correctly nor an inconvenience on my part taking to the dealer and having the possibility of my amps being ripped off.

I'd take them up on their offer to redo the oil change but make sure it’s warmed up first.

Without making threats and as everyone has already mentioned...front them on each of the problems in questions. If you run into a problem with the management, I would mention that you plan on contacting the Better Business Bureau and that is not what you wish to do. I have used this leverage before and it worked. Good luck Attila.

pull a plug and check it to see. It should still look brand new