mhtimber
New Member
- Dec 5, 2009
- 117
- Boat Info
- 320 Sundancer 2006, Raymarine C80 2KW radome
- Engines
- Horizon 350 Mag Bravo III
Can you enlighten us with what the problems were so some the people that are wanting to purchase will know the headache you are going/have gone through, thanks.
Hi Tom,
it was late and I was taking a little creative license with my post, but the sentiment remains the same.
Issue #1: Most recently, our 2006 320 had leaking bellows which were replaced in 2007; the dealer was able to press Mercuiser to cover them under warranty. Spring '09, both bellows leaking badly at launch time, when removed they showed no sign of deterioration, of being installed improperly, nor did the actual hardware show any indications for the problem. Despite extended warranty, Mercruiser refused coverage stating that the reason as the parts were 'under water and they moved'. My marina pressed several times but no luck. The bill was $1800~.
Issue #2: There is a known problem with certain recent model years of Merc I/Os with shaft o-rings being too tight and causing grooves in the shaft, which eventually let water into the system. I was using drive oil on my starboard engine and my mechanic suspected this issue right away. We watched it during the remainder of the season and had all three of my drives (320 & 175) torn-down, inspected and repaired as all three had the problem. Mercruiser did cover this, but had I not been diligent I would have likely ended up footing the bill.
Issue#3: 2000 BIII had repeated shifting issues, every time the dealer removed them for maintenance, shortly thereafter the drives would stick in forward and aside from the downtime and arguing about who was going to pay for the recurring problem, I also had a near accident due to the malfunction.
Issue#4: 2000 BIII self destructed due to water in the oil shortly after spring launch (hours). There was an alarm and when I called the dealer to discuss it, he told me to disconnect the alarm wire as the cause was likely a dirty drive oil bottle. The alarm was in fact due to the water, I had to pay $7500 for a reman I/O.
Issues#5: 2000 BIII engine exhaust risers rusted out within the new warranty period, it was covered but...good grief! Subsequently, I had to pay for another that rotted out. The cause being poor design and is well documented in the industry.
Issue#6: 2000 BIII engine overheated and seized, had to be replaced. Cause was diagnosed as loss of coolant due to water inlet on I/O getting blocked; insurance covered this fortunately. The point here being the inherent vulnerability to coolant blockage that the I/Os face - likely this would not have happened if my sea water inlet were a conventional throughull.
lastly, I/Os require a lot of expensive maintenance.
We live on an island 7+ months out of the year and we boat in all weather and at the extremes of the seasons. As such we do all required maintenance by the book and anything else our mechanics recommend because we've experienced so many problems.
Basically, I/Os are historically maintenance nightmares, expensive and not very reliable for situations where you need reliability. They make sense for bow riders and other small runabouts, but are a poor choice for anything larger (my opinion).
We bought our 320 with I/Os because it was a left over with great incentives from the dealer...no wonder. We do love the 320, even with the I/Os, but if I were to do it again I'd insist on inboards. Ideally straight inboards rather than v-drives.