FYI ....OPTI OWNERS

[SNUFFY]

Something happened to my `09 225 Pro XS over the weekend that I haven`t seen listed here or on the BBC 3.0 LITER Merc Board. After several starts and stops during our club TX I turned the key and all kinds of weird sounds and really rough idle started coming from under the hood. Lasted about 10 seconds then cleared up like you flipped a switch. Started a few more times and worked just fine. We fished the rest of the day and were going thru a narrow spot in the river above the 411 bridge inVonore at about 4200 rpm due to traffic. I noticed a change in the way the engine was running, surging a couple of hunded RPM up and down , almost like it was running out of gas, or fire. I eased off a little and made itaround the bend and got the ramp in sight although it was still a couple miles away. I set it down off plane and died pretty quickly. Tried tostart it and would start but immediatly die. I probably ran about 2 minutes after it started messing up and was watching my MercMonitor, the RPM dropped to about 3100, the coolant was steady at 120 degrees but the Voltage was running about 12.1-12.3 erractically. I just bought one of those monster group 31 Platinum Diehards a couple months ago and give it about 7-8 hours of 10 amp charge the nite before. I`m sure I had seen 14.1 on the Monitor early that morning....the 12.1 got my attention. Thought maybe a bad coil would suck that much juice up while going bad. </p>

Since it was under warranty I just loaded it up and took it to My Dealer at Bunch Marine in Harriman Monday morning about 10 AM . I forgot that it was the week before MemorialDay weekend. It was apparent when I walked in the Showroom....everybody was hustling around...even TN SNOW!!. Curtis Bunch was giving orders and walking around with a handful of papers,mumbling about being slammed. I usually try to give Mark Bunch a description of my problem so it doesn`t have to gothru 2-3 people but he wasn`t in sight. So the young man behind the counter took my problem and wrote up the work sheet. I said something about hooking up the `puter to get the info from the motor in case we needed to order some parts. He kinda chuckled and said it wont happen today.Looked me in the eye and said they might not be able to get to it this week.I kinda expected that since they were so slammed and thought Oh Well....it happens. Not a big deal.... I saw Mark in the yard on my way to unhook the boat and he asked me what was up.....I told him what it had done...thought might be a coil. Said that was the most common thing with these motors.. So I made the 50 minute trip back home and resigned myself tobeing without the boat for the weekend. Since I was laid off a couple weeks ago I had planned to do serious fishing this next week or two.</p>

As it turned out the stud that is screwed in the block holding idle pulley for the belt was backing out and when the idler finally got out of line enough it threw the belt. It apparently had been doing it for a little while because the belt was really chewed up. The stud has one of those never ever come off aircraft locking nut on top of the pulley, butthe stud was backing out of the block. this engine only has about 25 hour on it.</p>

About 3 oclock I got a call to get come and get my boat out of the way...it was fixed. </p>

</p>

You can`t beat service like thatemoThumbsup emoThumbsup </p>

 

[Jmax]

They sound like they did you right. Good for them, you are lucky you caught it before it came out completely and did some really bad damage, I know you said it was under warrenty but this way you got it back quickly. emoAngel Jmax

 

[jbh3]

Glad they were able to get you up and running so you can enjoy your "vacation". Curtis, Mark, and all those folks down at Bunch are, surely, some of the nicest/best folks you'll ever deal with. Hope to see you down on Loudon/Tellico the next week or two.

 

[SNUFFY]

J, I only splurged for this engine because of the 5 year factory warranty ....for a tinkerer like me it `s hard to keep my hands off of it ....But I figure if my fingerprints aren`t on the cowl somewhere then Merc can`t claim I did something to it. I seem to have bad luck with bolts backing out. I lost my beloved `97 Venom 225 2 years ago when the top bearing carrier bolts backed out. I had even put my fingers on every bolt I could touch on that engine one winter day not long before they came out. Of course they are the one`s you can`t get to because of the electronics and flywheel. I guess I will start to give the Merc a look see ever so often now.
You are right John ,those guys are the best .
I`ll be lookin` for `ya.

 

[b.lee]

Cool, good for those guys to properly triage your minor repair and get you back out there! That type of service dept management is rare, and a learned art I dare say. Too often that quick fix would have sat on the lot for 1-2 weeks before anyone even looked at it. Good for the Bunch Marine crew!

I've seen several 115 Opti's have a similar issue eating belts from loose pulleys a few years back. Voltage is critical for these electronic engines.

 

[bostira]

My brother got a TR185 with a Merc XR6 from Bunch Marine a few years ago. Their service department has been great to hime EXCEPT for 2 issues where they tightened the oil tank cap and cracked it, and another time they changed the water pump and missed the grommet coming out of the pump housing and blocked the water pipe. We had to fix both of those issues on the bank at Guntersville!! However, Bunch Marine was very sorry and gave my brother a full service on his engine and a few other perks. They did everything they could to make up for it. After all that he still goes to Bunch Marine and I do also....

 

[wrechin2]

Always good to see positve comments about a shop. Thanks!

 

[Paul Nichols]

+1....it's great to hear about good experiences these days when it comes to marine dealerships.

Paul