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Consumer Affairs


Evinrude


Consumer Complaints & Reviews

In June of 2008 I purchased a new 115Hp outboard. On July 21, 2009, the engine severely over heated during its' 26th hour of operation. The motor was supposed to have a fail-safe system that slowed the engine down at 200 degrees and shut the engine down at 212 degrees. My engine reached the extreme temperature of 248 degrees.

The boat and motor were towed via Toe Boat Inc to ARGO Boat Co in Rosedale NY, an authorized Evinrude repair establishment where diagnosis of the engine commenced. After 5 days, ARGO boat could not find the cause of the over-heating, noting on the service bill. "Motor ran hot, overheat came on, Motor stopped pumping water,Boat not pumping water. Towed to ARGO Boat. Unable to find any cause for overheating. Checked thermostatm water pump impeller all seems to be ok. Replaced impeller and gasket. Customer may have picked up plastic bag".

The repair shop did not file a warrantee claim because I may have picked up a "plastic bag.

Consumer fraud charges have been filed with the office of the Attorney General of New York State because ARGO boat charged me $225 for unnecessarilry replaced the water pump and an additional $100 to diagnose the cause of the extreme over heating as well as $200.oo to take to boat out of the water and put it back. All of these charges were unnecessary and should have been covered under warrantee.

Multiple complaints were made to Bombardier including their customer service representatives, supervisors, call center managers, directors, Vice Presidents and their CEO.
They sumarilrly deny my warantee claim because I may have picked up a plastic bag even though the physical evidence clearly shows it was very unlikely a plastic bag was the cause.
In speaking with other expert mechanics, it is very unlikely that a plastic bag would have caused such over heating as there was no damage to the water pump impeller that were needlessly replaced. Had some bject/objects clogged both water intakes the lobes of the water pump impeller would have at the very least shown signs of wear. The mechanic found the impeller in an undamaged condition. The motor's safe system should have shut the enggine down at 212 degrees to prevent internal damage and scoring to the internal engine. According to Evinrude's uthorized repairman, the motor reached an extreme temperature of 248 degrees which may have damaged the engine in intangible ways and perhaps shortened the engines life.

The management heirarchy at Bombardier are not interested in my complaint and continue to deny a warantee claim nor are they interested in replacing or repairing this motor

I purchased a boat in may of '01 from Hammers Ski & Marine in Rancho Cordova. Recently I took it in to have it serviced and have a intermittent problem looked at. Since the certified evinrude rep. center was unable to detect problem he contacted the Evinrude/Rep look at it. Was determined to have a computer or "EMI" for a 150 hp ficht Evinrude motor on my 135hp motor. After making some calls found out from a company called DFI had repaired this computer on 2/01 three months prior to my purchase of the boat of the new boat and motor, finding out that the computer on my motor does not match my motor and was for another motor of which was purchased from Hammers also from a person living in Oakley CA, having called DFI they faxed me a copy of a service order of the repair work done on the EMI which is in my motor which matches the serial number.

For me to have to pay over $300 to learn that a motor which was suppose to be of a brand new motor had a repaired and wrong EMI for my motor. Contacted the dealer from whom I purchased my boat. Explaining to them the problem - their response was "they never send an EMI for repair nor could they have possibly installed the wrong EMI on the motor. wanting to know how I have a copy from DFI of a EMI sent to them from Hammers wasin my possession if they never have them repaired faxing them a copy, havng the evinrude rep./tech. a EMI with the serial number that is supposed to match the serial number on the motor that doesnt. Having proof that this was an error on the dealers end they still insisted that they had nothing to do with it.

How did an EMI with the serial # for a 150 hp motor end up on my 135 hp. The people at Hammers were unwillingly to work with me and insisted this was my problem not theirs. After telling me they wanted to see the motor I was willing to drive my boat to their store. After arriving they told me since they are no longer an Evinrude dealer they will not touch my boat. I feel I have been a victim of fraud and in believing I was purchasing a new boat and motor when in fact with proof that it was not, their lack of concern and not returning my calls leads me to believe their denial because of a federal regulation prohibiting from tampering with the emmission control EMI, is probably the reason of their avoiding the problem.


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