Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Not wanting to start a war, but am curious about different actual issues you may have had with what ever brand of outboard motor you have......please no "such and such is junk" just actual real world issues or lack thereof.

2012 Yamaha 150 hp. 2 oil changes is all I have done as we've just got 67 hrs. on it. Absolutely no problems of any kind. It was a replacement for a Yamaha 115 up 2 stroke motor that I spent $241 on one repair--in 28 seasons.

i have owned older OMC motors , 2hp,25,50,70,85. The 25 was absolutely the best motor I have owned, the rest were problematic.

Merc. 9.9, 30, 50,75, & 2 90's ( 1 2stk and 1 4stk) all ran great

Honda 90. Water pump went out first trip, water got under starter and ruined it, other than that it purred

Evinrude Etec 90, great performance but hard to work on. Plugs must be indexed, lower cowling hard to remove to replace the water pump. For some reason, sometimes water gets in the lower gearbox. had vac and pressure test and both held

So if that tells you anything all are good and sometimes you get a lemon

First outboard was a Wards Sea King Air Cooled 5 hp 2 stroke motor. It beat rowing. Barely.

2nd was a Honda 7.5 hp 4 stroke. I loved having the power outlet to keep the trolling motor battery charged. Went through a couple of fuel pump diaphragms but other than that it was a good motor for a lot of years.

Now I have a Yamaha 90 on my Toon. I like it. Don't want to jinx it, but so far it's been a good motor.

we've been running a Yamaha 75 hp four stroke on our boat since the fall of 2009. Not one single issue with it. Now having said that I do have it serviced every spring.

1985 90HP Yamaha 2 stroke - Flawless
1999 115 HP Johnson 2 stroke - Once I found a very good mechanic it was bulletproof
Current 2015 Yamaha 4 stroke w/80 hours - Flawless

I've had only Mercury's from 94 to 2015 and never had a hiccup, only maintenance, never stranded, which is amazing. That said next boat I would buy Mercury, Suzuki, or Yamaha with out hesitation, I've never liked 2 stroke but love the new Evinrude.

2001 Force 2 stroke 150 - had issues (this was on a 19' saltwater fishing boat)

2003 Mercury 2 stroke 200 hp - no issues (this was on a 23' saltwater fishing boat)

2009 Mercury 4 stroke 90 hp - no issues (this was on a Bentley pontoon)

2011 Mercury 4 stroke 115hp - no issues (this was on a South Bay Pontoon)

2014 Mercury 4 stoke 150hp - had a minor fuel pump issue at 50 hours. Now have over 150 hours and no issues so far (this is on my current boat)

6 hp Yamaha kicker for my sailboat. Worked great about 10 years, then some bastid stole it. Replaced it with a Mercury 6 hp, then sold the boat a couple years later.

200 hp Yamaha 2-stroke (twins) 800 hrs over 11 years. No problem with port engine. Starboard engine had a gremlin the mechanic never could find. Solution was easy tho. Restart/reboot engine.

Current engine is 150 Mercury Verado. Purchased new, it was incorrectly rigged with the wrong harness resulting in overheating faults. Fixed under warranty.

Zoom650, surprised it was rigged wrong, seeing how Harris and Mercury are owned by Brunswick and Harris should know exactly how to rig the motors. What did they explain happened?

2013 new in 2015 Yamaha 150 4 stroke on my Berkshire tritoon, 2 years last month 290 hours in those 2 years. Not a single hiccup, annual services, and ethanol free fuel. And I don't baby it.

Opie, They didn't say much past a wrong part was used in rigging. It caused fault signal beeps. A new one was ordered and installed. Everything works now.

This is an engine thread so I won't go into the bimini fubar Harris had with my boat. Frankly Harris should have done a better job with a boat at this price point. It's all been made good now, but it shouldn't have happened in the first place.