Need help diagnosing prop drive shaft defect/issue on Zeus pod (450DA)

Wow, Sandy this sucks! I hope you can repair the shaft with a sleeve! I'd suggest, as someone already mentioned do your homework on failure rates. Gather all service records and any you can get from previous owners. It's hard but you can get them. Service shops hold records. Then leverage that with a negotiated NDA. You may save 50% to 75% of parts retail Cost. However, Labor is labor unfortunately. The Seattle Boat show is just around the corner. Merc sets up a nice booth and their VP's are on the floor. Usually you can get more when face to face.

Best of luck!
 
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Wow, Sandy this sucks! I hope you can repair the shaft with a sleeve! I'd suggest, as someone already mentioned do your homework on failure rates. Gather all service records and any you can get from previous owners. It's hard but you can get them. Service shops hold records. Then leverage that with a negotiated NDA. You may save 50% to 75% of parts retail Cost. However, Labor is labor unfortunately. The Seattle Boat show is just around the corner. Merc sets up a nice booth and their VP's are on the floor. Usually you can get more when face to face.

Best of luck!

Thank you! I'll know more early next week after our technician gets a chance to speak to Mercury but I think I may just call them myself on Monday.

The service records on our boat are very sparse. I was able to get records from LUSR for the time period that the last owner had the boat but anything that happened prior to the owner previous to us is not available. The Sea Ray dealer who sold the boat originally got bought out by another dealer and the records from that time period are lost. The owner that had the boat previous to us either did not keep any records or he tossed them when the boat was sold. It's really frustrating.

I hope I don't have to wait until the Seattle boat show to get some satisfaction on this issue but I like the idea of getting in front of the Merc reps and being heard.
 
It won't change things regarding your issue and its resolution since the dissolution of CMD occurred almost 5 years ago.

Cummins and Mercruiser formed a joint venture in 2002 to develop, manufacture and sell basically high speed diesels for the marine market. Then in 2012, the 2 companies abandoned the joint venture and transitioned to a "strategic supply arrangement to more effectively and efficiently serve customers in the ....marine market."*

Mercury Marine and Cummins will transition from their Cummins MerCruiser Diesel Marine joint venture to a strategic supply arrangement between the two companies to more effectively and efficiently serve customers in the global diesel marine market, the companies announced.


As you have discovered, Mercruiser has a habit of releasing product for sale to the public before they are ready, expecting retail customers to finish the prototype testing without out knowledge. A prime example is your prop shaft that was so drastically changed that it required a whole new gear set. If they tried to get me to pay the retail price for replacing the shaft and gears I would be absolutely livid.










*
http://www.tradeonlytoday.com/2011/12/mercury-marine-cummins-announce-supply-agreement/

One of my fellow club members suggested going directly to Brunswick to see what they can do to help us. He said to play up the fact that I'm the Commodore of our club and well connected to other Sea Ray owners. I've spoken to Sea Ray corporate previously and while they empathize, they claim it's a Mercury problem. Nobody wants to take responsibility for the defects. Another club member suggested that a class action suit should be considered. I just don't know what to do.

If this was your boat, how would you proceed at this point?
 
As for 5 years. I have a very close friend which I can't go into more details but he did an NDA which was 6 years from manufacturers build. It can be done.
 
As for 5 years. I have a very close friend which I can't go into more details but he did an NDA which was 6 years from manufacturers build. It can be done.

Well that's encouraging! Earlier this evening I sent an email including the picture of the prop shaft to both Mercury Marine and Brunswick (parent company of Sea Ray). I don't think it's unreasonable to have expected more quality and reliability from a 2010 boat with 335 hours when we bought it.

I'll update here when I have more information or a reply from Mercury.
 
Sandy
That looks to be a classic case of galvanic corrosion. The pitted area is not really subject to wear rather looks to be where the prop hub lands. Interesting are the three seal wear marks where the seal is a dual lip design so the third ring seems unusual. If in the past that shaft was bent and straightened that stressed area would be more susceptible to corrosion. The minor pitting around the seals (at least that is what it looks like in the pictures) also indicate a galvanic issue.
Regardless, without maintenance history (prior owners) as the warrantee documentation specifies seems you may have little recourse as to differentiating between lack of maintenance and a true product defect. Understand you have had significant technical issues with the drives which may serve to obtain attention from the manufacturers.
I would look to have the pitted areas welded out and turned down; it's a comparatively inexpensive process; the parts to tear down the pod are probably more costly. The issue with welding (which is very common) is if the shaft is Aquamet alloy or another high strength stainless steel, the heat affected area may compromise the physical properties of the shaft. A specialist shop for marine shaft repairs should be consulted.
Tom
 
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Sandy
That looks to be a classic case of galvanic corrosion. The pitted area is not really subject to wear rather looks to be where the prop hub lands. Interesting are the three seal wear marks where the seal is a dual lip design so the third ring seems unusual. If in the past that shaft was bent and straightened that stressed area would be more susceptible to corrosion. The minor pitting around the seals (at least that is what it looks like in the pictures) also indicate a galvanic issue.
Regardless, without maintenance history (prior owners) as the warrantee documentation specifies seems you may have little recourse as to differentiating between lack of maintenance and a true product defect. Understand you have had significant technical issues with the drives which may serve to obtain attention from the manufacturers.
I would look to have the pitted areas welded out and turned down; it's a comparatively inexpensive process; the parts to tear down the pod are probably more costly. The issue with welding (which is very common) is if the shaft is Aquamet alloy or another high strength stainless steel, the heat affected area may compromise the physical properties of the shaft. A specialist shop for marine shaft repairs should be consulted.
Tom

Hi Tom,

I contacted another Mercury shop in Tacoma and he agrees that the pitted area is galvanic corrosion. He said it's actually located under one of the fittings next to the seal so it's not visible unless you pull apart the entire assembly to inspect it. (So it's likely that it wouldn't have come up during the survey.)

He recommended that we contact a company called Flamespray that offers a solution that repairs the shaft by spraying it with a thermal sprayed coating that's resistant to corrosion. http://www.flamespray.us I won't know for sure if this solution will work in our situation but I'll know more tomorrow. I really hope that it will work because replacing the prop shaft and gears is out of the question. Also, the cost for the Flamespray treatment is around $150! Does anyone have experience with this type of treatment?

So - feeling a little more hopeful today. I was crazy busy at work and didn't reach Mercury Marine before they closed so I'll have to try tomorrow.

Sandy
 
Since galvanic corrosion is apparent you should probably pull all of the props and inspect the visible areas of the drives and do a complete shakedown of the anodes (zinc's), mercathode system, and your galvanic isolators. Last but not least look for any stray electrical current around your slip. Electrical leakage from the marina or your neighbor's boats will literally melt your boat down if voltage is above the breakdown voltage of your galvanic isolators.... Oh, and if your zinc's seem to last for ever there are probably issues with your bonding and galvanic protection system.
Good luck, Tom
 
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Thanks Tom. Sadly I'm very familiar with galvanic corrosion. We're in a new marina now but our previous marina (when we had our old boat) was a "hot" marina and we had been badly advised on the type of anodes. Also our galvanic isolator was poorly installed by the manufacturer and wasn't working. The Chaparral had Volvo Penta outdrives and they had to be replaced, along with the transom housings and one of the props. It's not a repair that I would ever care to repeat. After she was properly bonded with aluminum anodes and a new galvanic isolator, we replaced anodes after one year and they were only about 1/3 wasted with no signs of corrosion anywhere. We replaced them anyway.

With the Sea Ray, the previous owner had her in Lake Union, moored at the broker's docks. No way of knowing how careful they were about keeping power cables out of the water, properly grounding all cables, etc. Our Zeus technician did pull off both sets of props and shafts and this was the only area of corrosion found but I'll be sure and have them check the entire bonding system. I had requested aluminum anodes. I'll make sure that's what they install. We're in fresh water but travel to salt at least once a month on a year round basis.

One of the the issues with galvanic corrosion is that most boat owners use the generic term "zincs" instead of anodes. Zinc is only appropriate for vessels that are moored in salt water. Aluminum is best for brackish or when traveling between the two (as in our case) and magnesium is best when only in fresh water but it can depend on the specific marina.

Just hoping the Flamespray treatment will be our solution.
 
Sandy,

I appreciate the advice to have the shaft metalized (flamespray) or repaired by a machine shop, but that isn't a long term fix since whatever has caused the flaking or corrosion is still there. If this is a repair to "get the boat gone" than I understand, however, the fact that Mercruiser has redesigned a complete gear set and shafting is proof that the product was not adequately tested and was not ready for market when it was installed in your boat at Sea Ray. In other words, there is probably a breach of the implied warranty for fitness and purpose here. Every new product has an expressed warranty......that is the one they are telling you has expired. Every product also has an implied warranty for fitness and purpose and I think this one has been breached with your PODs. If MErcruiser found enough problems with their shafting and gear set that they redesigned it and completely replaced it to the extent that they don't sell replacements for your design then that appears to be evidence of a breach.

Now.......the last thing I am advocating is to sue Mercruiser or Sea Ray. Brunswick is a big company and they have deep pockets and they will contest and carry every lawsuit to court. Threatening a suit and mentioning the word lawyer shuts down all communications with you, the customer , so that is never a good negotiating strategy with a Brunswick company. You should, however, be aware of the terms "implied warranty for fitness and purpose" and as you discuss things with Sea Ray and Mercruiser, use comments like: " I love my boat but I am very disappointed with the quality of the drive system. It is a low time boat and in the last X months, the boat has been out of service Z weeks, and I have had to pay for Y repairs due to leaks. Now I am faced with Mercruiser changing the design and forcing me to pay retail for parts and a POD rebuild because you/they no longer support my system. When I pay this much money for a product I expect the manufacturer to have done adequate testing and sell a product that is fit for pleasure craft use. When I bought a Sea Ray, I selected your product because of your reputation for quality and customer support. The last thing I expected was for either Sea Ray or Mercruiser to hide behind every loop hole possible to avoid the responsibility for a bad and unfit product."

You should have this conversation with a top guy in customer service at Sea Ray. He will give you the song and dance about no longer being covered by warranty, this is a Mercruiser problem, etc., then politely tell him that "prematurely releasing a product is wrong and unacceptable and you would appreciate his giving you the contact information for somebody at Mercruiser who can help you." Then go from there with Mercruiser with the same message.


Don't start this until you know all the costs and the time frame for the repairs. The above paragraphs contain several "hot buttons" for Sea Ray and describing the expressed warranty for fitness/purpose without calling it a breach of warranty will be something Mercruiser had heard before and should pay attention to. I am not a lawyer and am not advocating that you avoid that route, but I have been around long enough to see how the system works and how to stand a good chance at getting some help before spending real money going the legal route.


Good luck with it, whether you decide to keep the boat or move on.
 
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Thank you for your very detailed and helpful response Frank!! Every time we've had a breakdown I've called both Sea Ray and Mercury and the issues I've raised have been very similar - that how could we have had 4 major pod failures in 9 months of owning a very expensive boat. I like term "expressed warranty" and will be sure to use it when I speak to them next.

We we both want to keep the boat but not if it means knowing we'll have continuous breakdowns and costly repairs every few months. Even our Chaparral, which was worth about 1/4 of what we paid for this boat was far more reliable. What I've also brought up when calling Sea Ray and Mercury is the issue of safety. Knowing where we cruise, we can't feel confident in our boat if we're in the middle of the Strait of Juan de Fuca or in the strait of Georgia and wonder whether or not the pods will spring another leak while under way and stranding us in rough water.

I'll hear back from LUSR today regarding Mercury's recommendation. Once I have the cost breakdown then I'll make my phone calls.

If I'm successful in getting their assistance, would you expect they would provide the parts for free or at a deeply discounted rate? I want to make sure that I don't just ask for a discount if it's possible they'll provide the parts we need at no cost. I also don't want to shut the conversation down if I'm insisting on free parts when all they can do is provide deeply discounted parts. What do you think?
 
Sandy, first off I'm very sorry for you to be going through this.... Every boaters nightmare. With Frank's advice of "implied warranty for fitness and purpose", if it were me I would shoot for the moon and settle where the dust lands.... Meaning start with the expectation that they will cover 100% parts & labor and negotiate from there.
 
Thank you for your very detailed and helpful response Frank!! Every time we've had a breakdown I've called both Sea Ray and Mercury and the issues I've raised have been very similar - that how could we have had 4 major pod failures in 9 months of owning a very expensive boat. I like term "expressed warranty" and will be sure to use it when I speak to them next.

We we both want to keep the boat but not if it means knowing we'll have continuous breakdowns and costly repairs every few months. Even our Chaparral, which was worth about 1/4 of what we paid for this boat was far more reliable. What I've also brought up when calling Sea Ray and Mercury is the issue of safety. Knowing where we cruise, we can't feel confident in our boat if we're in the middle of the Strait of Juan de Fuca or in the strait of Georgia and wonder whether or not the pods will spring another leak while under way and stranding us in rough water.

I'll hear back from LUSR today regarding Mercury's recommendation. Once I have the cost breakdown then I'll make my phone calls.

If I'm successful in getting their assistance, would you expect they would provide the parts for free or at a deeply discounted rate? I want to make sure that I don't just ask for a discount if it's possible they'll provide the parts we need at no cost. I also don't want to shut the conversation down if I'm insisting on free parts when all they can do is provide deeply discounted parts. What do you think?



Sometimes your success depends upon the presentation. If you have said "to hell with it; I am done" and you convey that in your conversation, the Brunswick Co guys figure they have already lost you as a customer and there isn't anything to gain by spending a lot of money on you. What usually happens when they offer to help on an out-of-warranty situation is to ask you what you would like from them. Your answer should be couched in a way that essentially says " I love this boat and don't want to consider getting rid of it, but honestly, we have had so many failures that we are afraid to leave sight or our own slip and have no confidence at all in ever successfully completing a trip. What I would like from you is for you to contribute enough to the repair (which we now know cannot be done without upgrading the lower unit prop shaft and gear set) so that we once again have confidence in the boat and in the company who built it. My goal would be to be able to tell everyone that "Yes, we had some problems with the Zeus drives, but Mercruiser recognized our situation and stepped in to keep us whole."

Finally, you should be talking about both POD's, not just one. What has happened to one will likely happen to the other.
 
Hi Frank,

Since I last updated here, LUSR came back with two options yesterday - either replace the inner and outer shafts and lower gears (at our expense) or just replace the seals and hope that we don't have continued leaks. Neither option was really viable for us so we decided to take our prop shafts to the machine shop to get them repaired. After I had already dropped them off and was waiting for a quote, I received a phone call from Mercury Marine this morning offering to have their regional representative inspect the shafts and offer a recommendation and possible solution. When I asked whether we would just be back to square one with having to repair the shafts ourselves, they said they can't make any promises of assistance yet, but if we repair the shafts then our options will become even more limited. I brought the shafts back to LUSR this afternoon and have been told that they will be inspected early tomorrow.

What's interesting to note is that the only area of pitting and corrosion is occurring under where the thrust hub is installed. After consulting with my friend who is a certified corrosion expert, he suggested that crevice corrosion might be what we're looking at and that it would directly point to a design flaw. (The pitting/corrosion is present in both inner and outer shafts directly on the tapered area - and nowhere else.)

When I spoke to the representative from Mercury this morning I definitely conveyed that we'd like to keep the boat and continue as a Sea Ray customer but that it's difficult to have the confidence that we had in the product because of all of the problems we've experienced since we got it. And that is truly the case. My husband and I had a long and serious conversation about the boat yesterday and we both feel that if we can get past these issues, we both truly love our boat and are looking forward to many years of happy memories on her. Selling her would be an absolute last resort. Since getting our first yacht, we always dreamed of owning a Sea Ray one day and we were so happy and proud when that moment occurred. Let's hope that I'll have better news to report tomorrow.

As always, thank you Frank for your wise counsel.

Sandy
 
The following are some observations from comments you have received on both Zeus Pod repair threads running on CSR now........and from 2500 miles away:



Get Cummins involved..........

Don't bother. Sea Ray built your boat, they purchased the engines and drives from Mercruiser, and Cummins provided the engines as a part of their joint venture with Mercruiser that agreement was terminated. In our area, Cummins has never done anything on the Zeus Pods other than routine service and they do that because customers expect an annual service to include both engine and drive service. Cummins has no skin in the game and responsibility for a POD defect, and you are wasting your time trying to get them to do anything on your problem. Your only leverage would be with Mercruiser and Sea Ray, and the only leverage with Sea Ray is that you are a customer and have a problem. Sea Ray is interested in keeping you happy, because they full well understand that about 80% of their new boat customers are previous owners moving up, but it will be Mercruiser who must pay the cost for and make any decision for good-will warranty coverage..........even though I believe they prematurely released the POD's and should pay for all the parts since they redesigned the system and will not support the OEM drive parts you need.



Your Service writer attempting to make you pay for time spent talking to a technician..........

You may not be talking to the right person at your Sea Ray dealer. A service writer's job is to listen to a customer, make an initial diagnosis, schedule the boat in for repairs, and handle the customer relations during the process. Part of their job performance measurement includes technician utilization. A very good shop will run 100% utilization on their best technicians and when they spend 1/2 hour on the phone with you at no revenue, that is time that the service writer and the technician will never recover in terms of performance measurement. A big picture view is just not part of the service writer's job description. Customer complaints is another of the service writers measurement criteria. If you don't get what you need talking to the service writer, then calmly and politely explain that their (her) approach isn't getting you what you need and you would like to be switched over to the service manager. Then, don't overtly criticize the service writer, just explain that your problem/situation needs attention that the service writer doesn't seem to be able to handle on her own. Look at it like the service writer is a gate keeper whose job it is to keep the mechanics busy and the shop full...........way, way on down her priority list is helping you in a no-revenue situation.

Another value in the Sea Ray relationship part of this is that you do have a line of recourse if your dealership fails to provide you the care and consideration Sea Ray expects of its dealers...... up to a point. If you didd not buy the boat from the dealership and don't usually get your service work done there, you lose some leverage. It is unfortunate, but boats are not like cars, where there are multiple dealerships/service departments in a given location. Sea Ray dealers do have the right to prioritize their service customers.



And, finally, and I sense that you are already doing this, but you will get a lot better and quicker results if you stay calm, and polite. It may be tempting to tell Sea Ray and Mercruiser "how you really feel", but your results will be better and come quicker if you stay calm and professional, always stressing that you bought a Sea Ray with Zeus power because of the reputation for quality, that you love the boat, but are very disappointed by the lack of dependability and frequency of repairs needed just to run the boat and I need your need help. I am not telling you to roll over and beg for mercy here; you should ask for everything you can get, just be polite and professional about it.
 
The following are some observations from comments you have received on both Zeus Pod repair threads running on CSR now........and from 2500 miles away:



Get Cummins involved..........

Don't bother. Sea Ray built your boat, they purchased the engines and drives from Mercruiser, and Cummins provided the engines as a part of their joint venture with Mercruiser that agreement was terminated. In our area, Cummins has never done anything on the Zeus Pods other than routine service and they do that because customers expect an annual service to include both engine and drive service. Cummins has no skin in the game and responsibility for a POD defect, and you are wasting your time trying to get them to do anything on your problem. Your only leverage would be with Mercruiser and Sea Ray, and the only leverage with Sea Ray is that you are a customer and have a problem. Sea Ray is interested in keeping you happy, because they full well understand that about 80% of their new boat customers are previous owners moving up, but it will be Mercruiser who must pay the cost for and make any decision for good-will warranty coverage..........even though I believe they prematurely released the POD's and should pay for all the parts since they redesigned the system and will not support the OEM drive parts you need.



Your Service writer attempting to make you pay for time spent talking to a technician..........

You may not be talking to the right person at your Sea Ray dealer. A service writer's job is to listen to a customer, make an initial diagnosis, schedule the boat in for repairs, and handle the customer relations during the process. Part of their job performance measurement includes technician utilization. A very good shop will run 100% utilization on their best technicians and when they spend 1/2 hour on the phone with you at no revenue, that is time that the service writer and the technician will never recover in terms of performance measurement. A big picture view is just not part of the service writer's job description. Customer complaints is another of the service writers measurement criteria. If you don't get what you need talking to the service writer, then calmly and politely explain that their (her) approach isn't getting you what you need and you would like to be switched over to the service manager. Then, don't overtly criticize the service writer, just explain that your problem/situation needs attention that the service writer doesn't seem to be able to handle on her own. Look at it like the service writer is a gate keeper whose job it is to keep the mechanics busy and the shop full...........way, way on down her priority list is helping you in a no-revenue situation.

Another value in the Sea Ray relationship part of this is that you do have a line of recourse if your dealership fails to provide you the care and consideration Sea Ray expects of its dealers...... up to a point. If you didd not buy the boat from the dealership and don't usually get your service work done there, you lose some leverage. It is unfortunate, but boats are not like cars, where there are multiple dealerships/service departments in a given location. Sea Ray dealers do have the right to prioritize their service customers.



And, finally, and I sense that you are already doing this, but you will get a lot better and quicker results if you stay calm, and polite. It may be tempting to tell Sea Ray and Mercruiser "how you really feel", but your results will be better and come quicker if you stay calm and professional, always stressing that you bought a Sea Ray with Zeus power because of the reputation for quality, that you love the boat, but are very disappointed by the lack of dependability and frequency of repairs needed just to run the boat and I need your need help. I am not telling you to roll over and beg for mercy here; you should ask for everything you can get, just be polite and professional about it.

Regarding Cummins - I agree. I called them yesterday mostly just to find out if they knew of any additional service bulletins on our Zeus pods. Especially because of the fractured relationship with Mercury, I wouldn't expect them to be very helpful though our local Cummins dealer is particularly great to work with. I have only ordered parts through them because their service rates are way too high. We did hire a Cummins expert to do a Captain's briefing when we first purchased our boat. Best money we ever spent. He walked us through all of the systems, the engine room, told us what to look for, which fluids to monitor, which systems are critical to pay attention to before any cruise. Great guy and super knowledgeable.

Regarding the service writer telling us to pay for future phone calls....

Although we didn't purchase our boat from the local Sea Ray dealer, we've done all of our service and Zeus work through them. For all intents and purposes, we are their customer and I would hope they value our business. Our boat is currently at another local boat yard because we had some other items that needed to be attended to with the swim platform that they're just better equipped to handle. This particular boat yard regularly subcontracts with LUSR for other Sea Ray boats and they were happy to help us out to make sure that our Zeus work continued to be done through LUSR.

Over the months that we've been working with LUSR, all of our work has been done by their mobile Zeus technician. I call the service writer to describe the issue I'm having and get the technician scheduled to come out to the boat. The first time he came out to replace hydraulic hoses, I was present while he was working and also paid for his time to give us an overview of Vessel View and the boat in general. He was the one who recommended doing a Captain's briefing through Cummins. After every other issue we've had he's come out to the boat and then he always calls me to review what he's done and provide any further recommendations. Most phone calls with him are at least 20 minutes or so because he's very thorough. This last phone call was more extended because he had a lot of questions and wanted to make sure he was proceeding in the right direction. This is not a phone call that I could have had with the service writer. I think it really comes down to expectations. Up until now I've had the opportunity to speak to the technician without a timer on the call so I didn't expect that anything would be different this time, especially since our Zeus issues continue to be more complicated. (and I should be clear - they didn't charge me for the phone call, they just said that they would charge me in the future if we had a long phone call). I was disappointed that they were changing the rules of engagement after working with them for 9 months. Without having an interface between the customer and the technician, I don't know how the technicians can do their job as effectively as they can without the customers input. Just an observation.

And yes, thank you for the reminder but I have been nothing but calm and professional in all of my communications with Sea Ray and Mercury as well as my local dealer. I'm a business owner with 30 years of experience in business (wow - that's scary to think about!) so I thankfully have learned how to communicate with others, even in tense situations without offending them. My demeanor in this forum is no different than how I communicate with Sea Ray other than that I might be a tad more formal with them. I have gotten the attention of Brunswick/Sea Ray and they are definitely taking the steps to encourage Mercury to work with us. I'm getting much more traction with Mercury now that Sea Ray is involved than I've had up until this point. Sea Ray also realized that when I attempted to transfer ownership of our vessel into our name last spring that it didn't "take" in their systems. They've now gotten that corrected and we're official Sea Ray customers (yay!). This morning I sent a picture of our boat to the Sea ray rep so that they can see how well it's taken care of and I expressed my desire for us to get past this so that we can enjoy our boat without worry. I think I made a good connection and hope that they'll see us as people who love their boat and just want some assistance. Sadly what some people realize is that when they're frustrated, it's easy to move from polite persistence to being an obnoxious pest. It's a fine line!

Lastly - after learning about the possibility of a design flaw that is causing the crevice corrosion, I'm more hopeful that we'll get a good resolution.

Thank you Frank. The CSR community is lucky to have you!

Sandy
 
Hi everyone!! I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who participated on this thread for your extremely valuable input and good wishes. I can't go into detail however I have great news - Mercury Marine is helping us out with our situation as a gesture of customer goodwill. Needless to say they have won some serious customer loyalty from our family. Sea Ray and Mercury Marine did an amazing job of listening to their customer, even though we're not the original owner of our 450 DA.

I think it's really important to utilize all of your local resources and do your research. Be polite and professional in all communications and remember that the guys on the other side of that email or phone call are more inclined to help you if you're being reasonable and treating them with respect. Also - spend a little time each day reading on CSR - I swear it's the best education for anyone wanting to learn more about their boats inside and out. I'm so grateful to have found this community. It's been the number one resource for gaining knowledge on a boat that was completely new to us. Going from gasoline engines to diesel, from our nice Chaparral to an awesome Sea Ray...there was so much to learn and we still have much more to go.

Can't wait for the 2017 boating season!! :)

Sandy
 
Nice work Sandy, I knew it would work out for you. You took the right steps and you have been rewarded for it!

Mark
 

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