Experience in getting parts from Sea Ray?

T

Theresamarie11

New Member
Aug 18, 2009
365
Vermont
Boat Info
2002 Sundancer 300
Engines
Twin 350 Mag, Westerbeke Genset
Hi all,
if this isn't the right place for this post, please let me know.

I recently had the need to replace one of the drain flanges on my 300DA and if you know this part, you know that it's difficult, if not impossible, to find the non-standard drain plug flange anywhere but Sea Ray.

I ordered from my local dealer and after a week I inquired and was told that they had no idea when they'd get the part and that sea ray is terrible with giving them any kind of ETA or information about delivery. So I asked if they could call Sea Ray and try and expedite as we'd like to get in the water for the weekend. So my parts came today and for 2 drain flanges ($32 total) I was charge 64.00 in expedite charges by Sea Ray. The dealer told me this is what Sea Ray charged them and they didn't mark it up. I thought, wow, this is really obnoxious of Sea Ray. Anyone else have similar experience?

Regards,
 
Look on the bright side, they don't have a $250 minimum order for the dealer to meet! : )
 
Stray Cat said:
Look on the bright side, they don't have a $250 minimum order for the dealer to meet! : )
Click to expand...
Jeff,
Now this is what's so nice about this site, everyone is looking on the bright side (smile). At least I have the part, and can hit the lake if we think we're lucky. The lake is at record highs and there's still a lot of crud floating around because of it. I just hate the thought of waiting until memorial day though, it'll be the latest we've ever gone out.
 
I have ordered several random parts form my dealer that had to come from Sea Ray. I never had a problem in getting them in a week or so and was never chaged an expidite fee. A common part like that should have come from the parts cage at the plant. All someone had to do was walk over to the bin and put it in a box and ship to you. I would try to contest that fee if it were me. If your dealer has a good enough standing with SR they should be able to get it waived- especially since you did not have a chance to approve a charge to expedite it.
 
jason78 said:
I have ordered several random parts form my dealer that had to come from Sea Ray. I never had a problem in getting them in a week or so and was never chaged an expidite fee. A common part like that should have come from the parts cage at the plant. All someone had to do was walk over to the bin and put it in a box and ship to you. I would try to contest that fee if it were me. If your dealer has a good enough standing with SR they should be able to get it waived- especially since you did not have a chance to approve a charge to expedite it.
Click to expand...

Jason, thanks. I'm going to send a letter to Sea Ray. I did ask them to expedite and said I'd pay the fee once it didn't show up in a week and I was worried it would not come. But I sure didn't expect a $64.00 expedite fee. My dealer tells me this is typical of Sea Ray for special handling. I'm kind of surprised.
 
I'm not too surprised at the $64. Any time you ask for something to be expedited you're looking at handling the parts request out of the normal order flow, then the FEDEX or UPS next day fee which itself is quite high.

You asked for it to be expedited without first asking what the additional fees would be. Suck up, man up, pay up, then shut up.

Been there, done that GFC
 
Theresamarie11 said:
I recently had the need to replace one of the drain flanges on my 300DA and if you know this part, you know that it's difficult, if not impossible, to find the non-standard drain plug flange anywhere but Sea Ray.
Click to expand...

I too just had to order a replacement garboard drain plug and the drain flange. The previous owner must have not removed it often. It was already nearly rounded and it was frozen in position. So I had to remove the entire flange, so I could drain the oil using the hose. Anyway, I ordered the replacement parts from a place that sells Mercruiser parts.There are several online shops where you can enter your engine S/N and find the parts you need. It's not a Sea Ray part. No problem ordering it for me. Think I paid around the same for one (~$20.00).

Tom
 
If you think that is bad. I have been trying to order a switch from Carling distributors. The cheapest is a min. order of 10 switches at 29$ a piece. One quoted me a min of 250 switches at 28$. What a rip off.
 
Gunn said:
I too just had to order a replacement garboard drain plug and the drain flange. The previous owner must have not removed it often. It was already nearly rounded and it was frozen in position. So I had to remove the entire flange, so I could drain the oil using the hose. Anyway, I ordered the replacement parts from a place that sells Mercruiser parts.There are several online shops where you can enter your engine S/N and find the parts you need. It's not a Sea Ray part. No problem ordering it for me. Think I paid around the same for one (~$20.00).

Tom
Click to expand...

Tom, nice work and you must be better than I. I am usually really good at finding things, but this 2.25" flange beat me down. Please send me a link for one of those sites... I'd like to see if I can find it after the fact. All I could find were the 2" flanges which have a different hole pattern which would require me to drill more holes and fill the old ones which I didn't want to do. I also bought a spare, just in case I need it some day.

Terri
 
Gofirstclass said:
I'm not too surprised at the $64. Any time you ask for something to be expedited you're looking at handling the parts request out of the normal order flow, then the FEDEX or UPS next day fee which itself is quite high.

You asked for it to be expedited without first asking what the additional fees would be. Suck up, man up, pay up, then shut up.

Been there, done that GFC
Click to expand...
I agree. Ask and you shall receive. ( at a cost)
 
I don't know why dealers hide the facts from customers, or maybe it the customers assuming they know what is going on when they don't.

I suspect the problem here is not an expedite charge but, that the dealer did not have a minimum order. Yes, Sea Ray does have minimum orders for their dealers. If the minimum is met, Sea Ray knows exactly when the part will ship. If your dealer has just put your part on his next order and is under the minimum, nobody on earth can give you an accurate ETA because you are waiting for his next order to be placed, not for Sea Ray to ship.

I needed 8 of an item to replace some older faded plastic ones on my old boat. The parts guy said, "Thanks...you made my minimum" and the stainless parts arrived the next day via UPS. I miscounted and needed one more stainless part and had to wait on the parts guy to meet the minimum this time......took 2 weeks for the same part that I got overnight previously.
 
Theresamarie11 said:
Tom, nice work and you must be better than I. I am usually really good at finding things, but this 2.25" flange beat me down. Please send me a link for one of those sites... I'd like to see if I can find it after the fact. All I could find were the 2" flanges which have a different hole pattern which would require me to drill more holes and fill the old ones which I didn't want to do. I also bought a spare, just in case I need it some day.

Terri
Click to expand...

I actually just stumbled upon it. I was looking at the schematics of my engine and drive ordering various replacement parts for maintenance (while I had my drives off) and was just browsing and found it. Like you, everywhere I looked the diameter didn't match up to the standard garboard drain plugs, which had me worried. I was pretty excited when I found this. Not to mention my tether was broken, so I had to push the oil hose out the hole from inside. This fixed that too.

Just to confirm, is this what you were looking for? There are two parts in my photo; the flange and the tether assembly.

Tom

http://www.mercruiserparts.com is one place to order it from, here is a direct link to my 4.3MPI diagram showing it. I won't give the link to where I actually ordered it from as their customer service turned out to be horrible, and their time from order placed to ship was ridiculous. The mercruiserparts help was great.
 

Attachments

  • MercruiserDrain_sm.jpg
    MercruiserDrain_sm.jpg
    81.6 KB · Views: 115
Gunn said:
I actually just stumbled upon it. I was looking at the schematics of my engine and drive ordering various replacement parts for maintenance (while I had my drives off) and was just browsing and found it. Like you, everywhere I looked the diameter didn't match up to the standard garboard drain plugs, which had me worried. I was pretty excited when I found this. Not to mention my tether was broken, so I had to push the oil hose out the hole from inside. This fixed that too.

Just to confirm, is this what you were looking for? There are two parts in my photo; the flange and the tether assembly.

Tom

http://www.mercruiserparts.com is one place to order it from, here is a direct link to my 4.3MPI diagram showing it. I won't give the link to where I actually ordered it from as their customer service turned out to be horrible, and their time from order placed to ship was ridiculous. The mercruiserparts help was great.
Click to expand...


Nice work, I was just looking for the flange but I do have one flange which has a plug without an eye for the teather so could use that too.
Thanks for the link. I would have never thought to look at mercruiser parts as I didn't think it was made by them. The ones I did get from Sea Ray don't look like this (looks like a different metal) but if it's 2.25 with the same hole pattern, it would work just fine.

Thanks,
 
Theresamarie11 said:
Nice work, I was just looking for the flange but I do have one flange which has a plug without an eye for the teather so could use that too.
Thanks for the link. I would have never thought to look at mercruiser parts as I didn't think it was made by them. The ones I did get from Sea Ray don't look like this (looks like a different metal) but if it's 2.25 with the same hole pattern, it would work just fine.

Thanks,
Click to expand...

Yep, it's the same thing. I installed it a couple of days ago, fit right where the old one went. I thought the color looked a bit different, but once on the boat, it's hardly noticable. So it must be just a "patina" that the existing one has gotten due to age.
 
Guys, just be ABSOLUTELY sure that the flange and plug are not dissimilar metals (in the picture, it looks like they are). You, obviously, do not want these items failing due to galvanic corrosion.
 
Lazy Daze said:
Guys, just be ABSOLUTELY sure that the flange and plug are not dissimilar metals (in the picture, it looks like they are). You, obviously, do not want these items failing due to galvanic corrosion.
Click to expand...

I would sure hope Mercruiser would not sell two parts that go together that are dissimilar! They were part items right next to each other on the same parts page (see previous link). The flange on the boat is grounded...
 
Gunn said:
I would sure hope Mercruiser would not sell two parts that go together that are dissimilar! They were part items right next to each other on the same parts page (see previous link). The flange on the boat is grounded...
Click to expand...

I totally agree. But that picture just doesn't look right, you know?
 
Mercruiser is also the company that gave us sea water cooled aluminum exhaust manifolds on the 8.1's and the infamous aluminum Cool Fuel 3.................I'm just sayin' keep you eye on the ball and pay attention because stranger things have happened.
 
fwebster said:
Mercruiser is also the company that gave us sea water cooled aluminum exhaust manifolds on the 8.1's and the infamous aluminum Cool Fuel 3.................I'm just sayin' keep you eye on the ball and pay attention because stranger things have happened.
Click to expand...

Good points gentlemen. :wink:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,248
Messages
1,429,268
Members
61,128
Latest member
greenworld
Back
Top