Dealer Maintenance Prices? What Are You Paying?

[jkendallmsce]

Just to add more fuel to the fire I have the Hammerhead as well..... boy search will make your head spin. Going to just get the rig here and start poking and prodding. My local dealer here in Austin is only asking 436.00 to do complete 100hr service. Although I was told that it could cost a bit more due to differences in fuel filter and if the factory K&N filter needed servicing. Note to Self: These boats are not quite

uniformly outfitted! NUTS!

This would give me a base line to start from for future maintenance. It seems fluid requirements for the North West and Texas may be a bit diffrent.

Multi-viscous oil vs non. Lord know what else I may need to add to the ol' gray matter.

Good luck with the HH. Had one in the 07 LXI. Enough problems with the engine and boat, that Malibu took the boat back in trade for a 2010. Now have the LS3 and love it.

Also be careful to measure how much oil is removed/drained. HHs have a reputation of "hiding oil". So be careful so you don't over fill.

Verify the oil pressure from the previous owner. Going to a straight 50W was initially suggested by Malibu/Indmar after problems began. Oil pressure after WOT can be a problem.

Oil changes are easy to do, once equipped to perform the task....then you know it was done correctly. ANd use a quality oil filter. Filters are often overlooked...don't go with the cheapies like Pennzoil or Fram.

Edited March 9, 2011 by jkendallmsce

[Bill_AirJunky]

Why not just drop the hose out the bottom, let it drain over night? It only takes a few min to do and you could start this project up on Wed and finish up on Sat with the rest of the service. That is unless you are hitting the water every day.

Pulling the pump to feed the drain hose out is kind of a PITA too. I thought about extending the drain hose so it would make it out the bilge drain on the stern, but the extractor is easier anyway.

[board brained]

I just went to my local Indmar mechanics and asked how much my 20hr break in service would be... and he said a around $250ish... and that is supposed to be all three fluids, oil, tranny and vdrive... plus all the other checks they are req'd to do..

Although from local reputation these are the best guys in the area, the one guy who sounded real knowlegable said that he is aware that the Indmar specs call for the tranny to be drained, opened and the screen or whatever check and cleaned... he straight out refused to do it and siad it was stupid to do it..it was a big PITA.. that it was best to leave it alone..

His argument was that these trannys rarely ever go bad and the only times they do fail is when folks get into them and mess them up, the specs or fail to reassemble properly... he further argued that when you buy a new truck do you drain the tranny after 3K Miles?? I donno, sounds reasonable to me, and their reputation locally is top notch, but to ignore the Inmar specs, possibly void warranty?

What do you guys think?

you know this is one thing that does drive me nuts.......... why do you have to inspect / change fluids etc so often on a boat? when u buy a new car / truck u drive it....why is a boat so different. Oil changes seem to come so fast, I did the 20 then the 50 then the 100 now the second year opener at 140.......

is this a conspiracy....... by the man..............

[BaBaLoO]

anyone have any tips or special tools to take off the oil filter off of a HH?? Can barely get my hand to it!

[jkendallmsce]

you know this is one thing that does drive me nuts.......... why do you have to inspect / change fluids etc so often on a boat? when u buy a new car / truck u drive it....why is a boat so different. Oil changes seem to come so fast, I did the 20 then the 50 then the 100 now the second year opener at 140.......

is this a conspiracy....... by the man..............

We always run all our tractors (diesel) 100 hours between oil changes/intervals. And they experience much worse conditions than these boats will ever encounter (from the dust to the constant load). Although completely different engine type, design and uses, I have often wondered the same. And then when you add synthetics into the equation, it seems to me that they could run, for most boat users, an entire season. Isn't that what/how they advertise and rationalize the added cost?

Specially since Mobil 1 and the other synthetics are now about $8-9/qt.

But I have always thought, that the cost and time of an oil change every 50 hours, is mucho cheaper than the cost of a new monsoon, LS3 (yikes) or the new supercharged LSA (can't even imagine).

And if they recommend oil changes at 50 hours on the monsoon, I wonder what Malibu recommends for the supercharged LSA?

[elc]

anyone have any tips or special tools to take off the oil filter off of a HH?? Can barely get my hand to it!

I use one of these to get the filter off our HH.

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=oil+filter+wrench&bav=on.2,or.&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=6322531775013876261&sa=X&ei=miZ4TZOWCYT7rAGj_PWACg&ved=0CC4Q8wIwAQ#

[Chia]

I use that same extractor that Ronnie posted. It's great. Holds like 6 or 7 qts of oil in it so you just use it to haul the old oil to the auto parts store to dump it. I pump it a few times & it sucks oil for several minutes while I kick back & suck beer.

I've tried warming the engine up to drain out the drain hose. The hole in the end of the hose is so small that it takes forever no matter how warm the oil is. Siphoning it out with an extractor is far less frustrating.

I like the little $10. drill pump. i got fittings so i just screw the end from the drain hose into the pump and use the drill to fill the milk container. fast, easy and cheap.

[Chia]

Ndawg, if changing the impeller is that simple why do we have hundreds of threads with v-drive owners griping about it?

changing the impeller in a v-ddrive is not difficult if you have an impeller puller.

[Lance B. Johnson]

This thread confirms one thing for me.....I could not afford to own a boat if i was paying for service ( teacher). Glad I can do all my own maintenance.

[martinarcher]

This thread confirms one thing for me.....I could not afford to own a boat if i was paying for service ( teacher). Glad I can do all my own maintenance.

[BaBaLoO]

I use one of these to get the filter off our HH.

http://www.google.co...ed=0CC4Q8wIwAQ#

Ha common now! tried that too..

[WakingMeHappy]

This thread confirms one thing for me.....I could not afford to own a boat if i was paying for service ( teacher). Glad I can do all my own maintenance.

:plus1:

[Eric LX]

I have a Merc 350 Mag Ski and do all the oil/ filter/ trans and impeller service on my own. The only area that I have been wondering about is the antifreeze in the block and would appreciate the group's experience.

The steps that I have taken over the past few years after oil, filter etc.

1. Remove the plugs from the block, exhaust manifold and trans cooler line to drain.

2. Remove the J hose from the water pump and turn to empty water.

3. Remove the seawater pump hose to drain (turning impeller) while checking trans screen for debris.

4. Reinstall plugs in block and exhaust mainfolds.

5. Remove thermostat housing and pour a gallon of antifreeze in top of block and some down hoses for the exhaust manifold and into the trans cooler.

I have a local shop that will fog and run antifreeze through the engine (at temp) for $150. Are they covering some base that I might be missing?

thanks!

[srintx]

Or if your boat stays on a lift. Hard to do over water. Also hard to do if your boat doesn't have a drain plug under the engine like the older boats have.

You answered my questions...this will be my first year with the boat on a lift at lake LBJ so I'm having to rethink how I do my service. Need to get one of these.

I only have 6hrs on our boat but, how critical is the 20hr service?