Outboard Economics

[Habebty]

I have had my Yamaha F2.5 4 stroke for ten years. It has never been serviced, I have learnt to degunk the carb and have changed the oil twice. It still runs well.

It cost me £450 I think and if I had it serviced every season for £100 that is another £1000.

If one is not of a practical nature, it surely makes sense to never service your outboard and just buy a new one every 5 years?

Of course, this is a wasteful throwaway society type attitude, but some people still pay a fortune over the lifetime of their outboard. And, this only works for the small tender outboard variety .

Do you pay someone to service your 2-3hp outboard, do it yourself, or not bother at all and just buy a new one every 5 years?

I should add, the main boat inboard gets lots of TLC!!

 

[AngusMcDoon]

I do it myself, as I do my main engine which is a 9.9hp outboard. Wor Dyl went through the same sums recently and decided against paying someone £100 to change the oil.

 

[Spyro]

My Johnson ob 3.5hp is 10 years old. Never had it serviced, same plug, stripped the carb twice myself to cure a sticking flat due to crud. Cost me about £300 10 yers ago. Why pay for service?

 

[Lakesailor]

Same for cars in reality. Why pay for the apprentice to run around ticking boxes?

Mechanical items are a con. Learn how to look after them yourself. There are threads on here which make me cringe. Surely if you are going to leave port you need some mechanical skills?

 

[BarryH]

Theres not actually a lot to service on a small 2 stroke outboard. What with breakerless ignition and simple carbs etc. Theres peobably only a handful of moving parts. Give it clean oil and fuel and a dab of grease in the right places every now and then and it should keep chugging away. Even the manual for my Mercury says change the impeller every 3 years!!

Bigger outboards are a different kettle of fish.