Tweet
We boat in upstate NY, so our season is very short. May-September if we're lucky and May/June/September are questionable.
We purchased a 1998 290 Sundancer with twin 5.7EFI Engines coupled to alpha's. The selling dealership had replaced the lower units using SEI's (both counter and standard)
Our second season in with about 65 hours on the drives we blew the lower standard rotation during a trip while on plane at 3400 RPM. The lower failed violently and nearly punched the pinion gear through the side of the unit. I contact SEI and thankfully the unit was under warranty so would be covered. Inquiring about the process I found we needed to be responsible to ship the drive, fair enough. I sent it down and paid $168 to get it there quickly. Counting the time required to review the failure and send our replacement we lost nearly three weeks of our short season smack in the middle of July. The failure was blamed on improper break-in. In the interest of full disclosure I cannot verify if the drives were broken in exactly as described since we took ownership after the install. total cost for us was about 3 weeks, a lost trip, and about $1,000 for haul, shipping, blocking, etc.
Fast forward to this year and the exact same weekend in July. We were planning the same trip and idling out of our marina (1,100RPM) when we lost all thrust on the port (counter rotation) side. Temp started climbing so I shut the motor down and limped home. We pulled the boat the next day to find the lower unit had completely seized and caused the vertical drive shaft to shear off inside the upper housing. Queue the same process, $170 to ship 3 day express and the waiting game begins. As of one hour ago I talked to the warranty department and was told the drive was received yesterday (Tuesday) and the replacement will not ship until next Tuesday or Wednesday. They will not cover the cost of express shipping so if I want any chance of getting back in the water before august I will have to pay the cost to express ship this unit back to us to the tune of $150-350. This will be on top of all the haul block and relaunch fees as well as nearly 3 weeks on the hard at our yard.
I inquired SEI about charging us for a replacement unit and having them assess our broken one on arrival and refunding as necessary. I was told this is impossible but they could sell us a second unit. It also states in the warranty documentation that they make an effort to ship the replacement within two days of receipt, but that does not appear to be happening in this case either.
I'm incredibly frustrated with the product and loss of time. The first failure was acceptable and I understood the process, but to lose a second one and so much time is very disappointing. Our confidence in the boat is shaken and we've lost a tremendous amount of valuable summer boating time in the middle of our short season. I cannot recommend SEI going forward, unfortunately.
We purchased a 1998 290 Sundancer with twin 5.7EFI Engines coupled to alpha's. The selling dealership had replaced the lower units using SEI's (both counter and standard)
Our second season in with about 65 hours on the drives we blew the lower standard rotation during a trip while on plane at 3400 RPM. The lower failed violently and nearly punched the pinion gear through the side of the unit. I contact SEI and thankfully the unit was under warranty so would be covered. Inquiring about the process I found we needed to be responsible to ship the drive, fair enough. I sent it down and paid $168 to get it there quickly. Counting the time required to review the failure and send our replacement we lost nearly three weeks of our short season smack in the middle of July. The failure was blamed on improper break-in. In the interest of full disclosure I cannot verify if the drives were broken in exactly as described since we took ownership after the install. total cost for us was about 3 weeks, a lost trip, and about $1,000 for haul, shipping, blocking, etc.
Fast forward to this year and the exact same weekend in July. We were planning the same trip and idling out of our marina (1,100RPM) when we lost all thrust on the port (counter rotation) side. Temp started climbing so I shut the motor down and limped home. We pulled the boat the next day to find the lower unit had completely seized and caused the vertical drive shaft to shear off inside the upper housing. Queue the same process, $170 to ship 3 day express and the waiting game begins. As of one hour ago I talked to the warranty department and was told the drive was received yesterday (Tuesday) and the replacement will not ship until next Tuesday or Wednesday. They will not cover the cost of express shipping so if I want any chance of getting back in the water before august I will have to pay the cost to express ship this unit back to us to the tune of $150-350. This will be on top of all the haul block and relaunch fees as well as nearly 3 weeks on the hard at our yard.
I inquired SEI about charging us for a replacement unit and having them assess our broken one on arrival and refunding as necessary. I was told this is impossible but they could sell us a second unit. It also states in the warranty documentation that they make an effort to ship the replacement within two days of receipt, but that does not appear to be happening in this case either.
I'm incredibly frustrated with the product and loss of time. The first failure was acceptable and I understood the process, but to lose a second one and so much time is very disappointing. Our confidence in the boat is shaken and we've lost a tremendous amount of valuable summer boating time in the middle of our short season. I cannot recommend SEI going forward, unfortunately.
Comment