So I have been hesitant to write this up, trying to give PCM and my dealer time to get this figured out. 2016 Axis T23 with 49 hours
I had a guy that was looking at buying it take it out and put about 200 yards on it before the V-drive locked up on him, I had it out one other time this year for about 3 hours and everything had been normal. Before I had taken it out I checked the v-drive and motor oil and both looked fine.
The boat was driven to the dealer (3 hour drive) on July 5th the diagnosis that I got from them on July 6th was that it wasn’t winterized correctly and it was freeze damage and since they didn’t winterize It (I had a local dealer do it) and it was not going to be warrantied. I called BS on the freeze cracks and Monday morning made the drive again and requested to see the V-drive and the cracks. Of course, the service manager said that they hadn’t pulled it out yet and that was just the initial diagnosis since there was water in the V-drive oil.
At that point I was told they only way they would order parts was for me to pay for 40% of the total parts bill, so I shelled out $2,000 so that they would order the parts and get it fixed. The parts were rush shipped and arrived on Thursday (same day the boat was to be done) The service manager finally called Friday morning, apparently the repair was taking longer than expected. the work was completed on Friday afternoon but when they lake tested it, the transmission was locked up. The service writer called me from an event the dealership was sponsoring not prepared to talk just to tell me the boat wouldn’t be done. No other information provided repair cost / ETA nothing.
I called Monday morning 6/16 and Tuesday and Wednesday trying to get an answer to what the plan was to get our boat back on the water. Finally, on Thursday I got a call from their service writer, their shop manager had gotten a chance to look at the v-drive, what was found was their no bad seals, no bad gaskets, and no freeze cracks. The only problem was the input shaft bearing was seized. AND they had pressure tested the v-drive and it met PCMs specs. I was happy, thought that was all good news……….. then she informs me that they are still not going to pursue warranty on it as there was water in the oil and that if they had performed the winterization then they would have caught it.
That lead to a 20 min argument of me talking her in circles about how the water could have gotten into the v-drive, in her opinion the only way for it to get in there was for the boat to be swamped. That went back and forth with me finally telling her that if she could find one other piece of evidence that showed the boat had been swamped then I would drop it. The most frustrating conversation I have had in a long time, I did find out that a new tranny would cost $2500 to install, and I commented, well the boat is useless without it so you should order one….. not actually getting an answer if she would or wouldn’t order it.
Friday after 3 attempts I get in touch with the Service manager that pulled the v-drive apart, his tune was a little different in that he was willing to pursue warranty if we wanted him to but it would be up to PCM to determine if it was covered or not. He had a better understanding of mechanics that their service writer did and at least the conversation wasn’t completely frustrating, but if we wanted the transmission ordered we would need to pay for half of it, even though I still feel like this is warranty. They are worried that if they repair it we would take the boat and not pay, even though they have a $80,000 boat as collateral against the repair they won’t order parts. Of course, I make a request to him as well that the boat is worthless without it. That was Friday July 20th
Today July 24, 2018 and no update as to whether its warranty or not or if they have even ordered the transmission to repair the boat. 20 days a boat that I thought was sold has been sitting at the dealership in the middle of summer. Here in the Idaho we get 4 months’ worth of boating weather and it will be 30 days, I am positive before this is fixed. My wife got a call yesterday from someone at PCM asking how the experience with the dealership and warranty was, and she said it’s a sh!t show and to call her husband. She was going to call me but I have received no called yesterday or today. I made a phone call today to PCM and talked with Mark, who was going to get more information and call me back.
SURPRISE haven’t heard back from Mark or the dealer today.
Anyone else had such a wonderful experience or is it just me, seems if I buy a $90,000 boat with a 5 year warranty and a bearing goes bad taking out the V-drive and Transmission that it should be covered under warranty without the consumer having to continually argue with the dealer it was purchased from about it being covered under warranty. I’ve paid $2,000 to get the repair started, without that they wouldn’t even tear into it. OK OK rant over whats your opinion.
And just for kicks it appears maybe there is a design flaw with the V-drive letting water in seems to be more than 1 with the same issue.
http://www.themalibucrew.com/index.php? ... n-v-drive/
