Gonna buy me a Mercury and cruise it up and down the

NYSpeed Automotive
181

:feck: Got to make use of the warranty this weekend. I went for a cruise out to the lake Friday, floated for a while, drank a couple of pops, then decided I had had enough sun after an hour or so and started towards home. I was maybe 1/4 mile past the mouth of the river in the lake. The engine was a touch loud.

Then I noted the oil pressure was a couple psi low, around 36. Ruh roh shaggy. I figured this might very well end up as a coast guard tow so I offloaded my empty pop cans (sorry mother earth!)

Sho nuff, was down to about 20 psi by the time I got to the Huntley plant so I opened the engine cover, looked down, and groaned. Big pool of oil sloshing around the bilge. :picard: But I made it back to the launch before I was quite at zero pressure.

So I called Bill’s Boats, they looked up my paperwork and told me to bring it right in. No muss no fuss. I got a call this morning, the boat’s ready. The fuel pump bolts had backed off and that’s where all the oil leaked out. So they tightened it down, changed the oil & filter, cleaned it up, and it’s ready to go.

Kind of a lame way to get a free oil change, but :tup: to Bill’s Boatworks just the same.

182

Hopefully no further damage from the lack of oil. If the engine pops in the next month or so I wonder if they’ll refuse coverage since you admitted to continuing to drive it when you knew it was pissing oil.

183

:tif: It’s warranteed by Mercury, not the dealership. I mean I could see having to argue it a bit, but such is the nature of warranty work.

184

Nice to hear it wasn’t a serious problem. I bet you were worried.

185

Really? I wasn’t aware mercuiser offered warranties on used boat purchases. Surprising they would get into a relatively high repair risk market like that.

186

Yep, the boat’s 10 years old but the motor is a “new” factory reman’d unit, hence a 1 year warranty from Merc.

187

^ Oh, forgot about it being a factory reman. That makes sense then.

188

Yep. I’m still kind of a fucktard for not just killing the engine and calling the coast guard when I saw the pressure a bit low, but that’s just how I roll, er, float.

189

^ Yeah, but as far as I know, coast guard won’t tow anyone. They’ll call towboat US for you but if you don’t have towing coverage expect a hefty bill for that one. I carry BoatUS towing but have never used it. I shredded an impeller one year and had to shut down because of overheating but a few minutes after floating around with the engine cover up I got offered a tow to the nearest launch.

I’ve towed a couple people in myself too. Generally boaters are a pretty good “stick together” bunch and will come to each other aid when they see an engine hatch up.

EDIT:
PS, BoatUS is a pretty good organization to join if you’re a boater. For $35 a year you get unlimited on water towing and roadside trailer assistance as well as 10% off at BoatUS/West Marine stores. Besides that they’re the ones fighting for our quickly diminishing marina access across the country. And when the Coast Guard started making noise about mandating PFD use for all ages it was BoatUS who organized it’s members and got the plan killed. :tup:

190

Why is this in the Autos section?

191

I always help a boater in need, and when I break down people ALWAYS help me.

192

Good to know. I’ll look into it, especially now that I’ve given the engine a good stressor.

I figure a boat is better defined as an Auto than a Bike so I moved it. :stuck_out_tongue:

193

yup bill is good people and knows his stuff