Optimax-$500 Annual Maintenance

[slyfox34]

I had owned 3 prior Merc outboards and found them to extremely reliable and inexpensive to maintain. I repowered my bass boat with a 2006 Opti 150 to take advantage of the fuel savings it claimed .  All was fine the first season until I went to winterize the motor. Access to the spark plugs is a nightmare. Merc so-called engineers found it was a great idea to run their wiring harnesses in front of each of the spark plugs. Cylinder #6 is almost impossible to access. A typical 15 minute job became a 1.5 hr nightmare. Note: the dealers must have complained so Merc added a program so they can fog the cylinders directly from the oil reservoir but you can't. The cost to have the dealer do what you can't -$70. I tried to start up the Opti last week and the engine would immediately die in neutral. What I thought was covered under warranty, cost me $280 for new plugs. (They now use a $20 Iridium plug which would last 150K miles in a good car but only lasts one season in an Opti). The dealer showed me an advisory from Merc. It appears that Opti 135-200HP models have a problem with spark plug fouling. Mercury's recommended fix for their engineering mistake is to force the owner to add their special cleaner to every tank of fuel ($13 for 12 oz). Of course Merc didn't notify me or put that detail in the Service Manual. I could have cleaned the plugs myself had I known there was a design problem.

That $200 in fuel savings disappeared real fast with the maintenance and aggravation associated with the Opti. Merc believes that adding an additive to every tank of gas, making routine visits to the dealer for service and paying $280 per year for plugs is normal maintenance. I call it OPTI-CRAP.

Do Yamahas and ETEC have the same problem?

[frogtog]

Send this to Merc and see what kind of responce you get. Let use know if they have anything to say about it. If you don't let them know how you feel then they will just keep doing crap like this. 8-)

[SteveFinMD]

Wow, makes me glad I am still running my 1989 Evinrude.  Good luck with your motor.  It has to get better.

[Grey Wolf]

WELCOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry to hear about your dilema.

[blanked]

i am in the same boat.  i looked at those spark plugs to replace in mine a month ago and said Oh my gosh.  i left it alone for now.  i have 60 hours on mine.  i am surprised your fouling.  how many hours do you have?  keep on top of this and let us know    

[slyfox34]

I already notified Merc customer service and their response was "this is normal maintenance". I had 74 hours on the engine. The last 0.5 hour on the engine last December was at 1000 RPM ( I was on a no-wake lake). Could be these engines only stay clean at WOT.

The dealer charged $150 (1.5 hr) labor to replace the plugs. I needed to insert the spark plug into a piece of rubber hose to remove/instal two of the plugs when I winterized the motor and you run the risk of breaking the wires that block your access. Apparently Merc was losing too many dealers due to lack of required service so they resolved that by making their new Opti -the dealers dream!

[Redlinerobert]

That is the price you pay to play.  I understand that the Verado is MUCH more expensive to service.

[Way2slow]

THose E-tec's are looking better all the time.

If they run gaped plugs, if you index them, that will help bunches toward keeping them from fowling.  From what you describe, that's going to be a ton of fun doing that.  This was something Evinrude learned back in the late 90's with the Fichts but I'm sure Merc would never say that since that was the same problem the early Fichts had.  If they are a gapless plugs (flat faced), there's not such thing as indexing.