Yamaha 9.9 hp annual maintenance cost?

[Coalman]

I took my Yamaha 9.9 hp dinghy engine to the Yamaha service shop for the first annual service, 5 hrs later I got a call from them letting me know that they completed the work. Great. However the cost was $500. Wow, is that right. Seems like a lot is this normal or am I getting gouged? Advice

 

[psneeld]

Depends on what they did...4hrs plus parts.sounds right.... if water pump impeller, greasing, fluid changes, plug checks were all done.

 

[Ski in NC]

They hit you pretty hard. All you need to do on these things is change the engine and gear oil, lube a few spots, test run it in a tank. If only a year old really no need to do an impeller, but they probably did that. Maybe valve adjustment too.

Detail what is on the invoice.

 

[Sidclark]

Two stroke or four? If it's a two stroke that sounds high, even sounds high for a four stroke....

 

[psneeld]

Big question...are they a $85 an hour or $135 an hour shop rate?

 

[DavidM]

When you give any service company- boat, car, outboard, etc a cart blanche authority to "do the annual service" you get this sort of thing, but it does sound exorbitant.

An annual service should include an oil and filter change, a lower end top off or change and not much else. I did these on my Yamaha in about an hour and $20 in oil and parts.

The manufacturer also includes a lot of check/replace items in their recommended service. How do you check an impeller or the thermostat without running the engine for a while? So some might just replace these items.

So there is a lot of interpretation required and it is easy for the service guy to run up the bill while following the letter of the manufacturer's recommendations.

Next time specify exactly what you want changed and what you want just looked at.

FWIW car dealers have gotten much better about this sort of thing. My Nissan dealer typically charges half of what you paid for an annual service and oil change and over the years, recall service (free to the customer) has resulted in much more business than the annual service charges.

David

 

[Dougcole]

Good lesson to be learned here. Next time do it yourself.



With the possible exception of an impeller and water pump change small outboard maintenance is something well within the skills of the average boat owner. An oil and filter change and replacing the gear oil is something you can certainly do on your own.


YouTube is your friend.


In my experience most outboard mechanics are super backed up this time of year and they are going to ding you for this kind of work because your job took time away from a bigger job that is going to make them more money. It's sort of like a penalty charge for bringing them something they think you should do yourself.

 

[psneeld]

Good lesson to be learned here. Next time do it yourself.



With the possible exception of an impeller and water pump change small outboard maintenance is something well within the skills of the average boat owner. An oil and filter change and replacing the gear oil is something you can certainly do on your own.


YouTube is your friend.


In my experience most outboard mechanics are super backed up this time of year and they are going to ding you for this kind of work because your job took time away from a bigger job that is going to make them more money. It's sort of like a penalty charge for bringing them something they think you should do yourself.

Bingo...

 

[Pete Meisinger]

For probably 30 years my dad and us kids put three outboards away for the winter every fall.

Ran the carbs dry, changed the hypoid oil every few years.

I don't recall ever changing an impeller or overheating in 30 years. Just start them up and run the hell out of them all summer

pete

 

[Mike Lowthian]

Yamaha 9.9 annual maitence costs

Just finished first service on the same motor. Changed the gear oil and the engine oil, fresh water flush, changed the plugs. No labour costs, just the parts, probably under $40.

Thank you Utube.

 

[Coalman]

Thanks to everyone that offered advice and response. I guess I’ll YouTube and do the work myself next year. Ouch

 

[Chrisjs]

Absolutely the best thing you can do for your OB is to run the carburettor fuel to "dry" till engine stops. Do this every time you are going to leave it unused for more than a couple of days and especially when storing for the Winter. Depending on how much use, you do not even need to change the oil /filter every year. Plugs run years without changeout. The fuel thing is FAR more important.

 

[GH41]

Like the others said... You probably should have ask what was involved and for how much. The service department income is what carries many dealerships. I maintain most everything I own myself and have the tools and experience to do it. I save because I don't have the overhead a dealer does.

 

[koliver]

Absolutely the best thing you can do for your OB is to run the carburettor fuel to "dry" till engine stops. Do this every time you are going to leave it unused for more than a couple of days and especially when storing for the Winter. Depending on how much use, you do not even need to change the oil /filter every year. Plugs run years without changeout. The fuel thing is FAR more important.

My Honda 40 is 16 yrs old. I have no history from before I bought it in 2010. Since then I have always run the carburetors dry whenever it was unlikely to get used for more than a few days. Once I had no water coming out of the indicator spout, so I took it in for an impeller change. Since then, no water out the spout has been a frequent occurrance. I have determined that sticking a downrigger line down the water passage at least several inches will clear a persistent clog, so I now wonder if that impeller change was not necessary.
Last season, I had some trouble keeping it running at low revs, which was annoying, as I like to keep it idling while hauling Prawn pots. After changing the fuel filter, I went to the shop for carb kits, but was instead sold a spray bomb (at about 1/10th the price of the kits) of carb cleaner that did the trick.
I have also changed the oil and filter and the lower end oil once, but found the old oil to look exactly the same as the new, so that effort again was likely not necessary.
Now this is an old, 16 yrs, engine. With all of the improvements in outboards over that time, I wouldn't think any presently on the market are going to need much more regular maintenance than what I have listed above.

 

[Chrisjs]

And a good old 2T needs even less love!!