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If you want something done right....

Nick J

Sustaining Member
Moderator
Blogs Author
It was time for a yearly maintenance on my Yamaha T8, but this year I decided to take it to a dealer to let the "pros" do it. They quoted me $200 for a yearly service and only $50 more for a new impeller. When I picked it up the bill was $650 with no immediate explanation and no call to explain additional work! They said they had to do a thermostat since it wasn't coming up to temp, but other than that it was a normal service and everything was running great. Of course I asked about the discrepancy and it boiled down to them miss quoting me the impeller job. It was supposed to be $200 for the yearly service + $250 for the water pump + $150 for troubleshooting and installing a new thermostat. Thankfully they agreed to bring it back down to $275 and they apologized. I was annoyed, but thankful they agreed to bring it down to a reasonable price.

On the first trip out, the motor stopped 1 hour in. I lifted the cowling to find oil splattered all over the place and no oil in the block. I limped in under headsail making a tad over 1 knot against the current of the Snohomish River and with the help of a fellow sailor for the last few hundred yards.

The shop said there couldn't possibly be oil splattered over the inside of the cowling without a major catastrophic failure, but they would take a look at it and get back to me. When they did, they said they cleaned out the inside, replaced the oil, and ran it in their tank for 4 hours with no sign of a leak. The shop manager said I must have laid it on its side and drained all the oil, however, I know for a fact it was on the right side and they are the ones who loaded it in my truck. Again, they agreed to a reasonable charge ($50) and handed it over assuring me everything was great with the motor and they helped me load the truck.

I went straight to the boat, put it back on the bracket, and checked the oil; it was an inch over the acceptable oil level. Stupidly, I decided to run it anyway thinking maybe the oil wasn't distributed in all the passages and I will check it after a quick 5 minutes. Even more stupid, I checked the oil while the engine was running, the oil splattered out of the dip stick hole, and I dropped the dip stick in the drink. On the positive side, I realized the initial "oil leak" was caused by the shop not putting the dip stick back in the hole (something I noticed when I removed the cowling after it stopped working the first time, but didn't correlate until now). So now I'm wondering:

1.) did I do any damage to the engine by running it dry or is there a low oil pressure shut off that tripped before any damage occurred?
2.) Is it normal for oil to spatter out of the dip stick hole if the dip stick is removed while the engine is running or is this a sign of an issue with crank case venting?
3.) Did I do any damage by running the engine with too much oil?
4.) Should I go back to the shop and tell them about this or just cut my losses and move on?

Lessons learned:
1.) If you want something done right do it yourself (or at the very least, make sure you know and trust the person you choose to do the work)
2.) Even if you pay someone else to do something, you still have to check if it was done right...even something as simple as checking the oil after you pay to have the oil changed.
 
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