Foster Brothers Marine, Corp.

The *** first called us with an issue they were having with their new Honda motor. There was a fuel issue and also some oil warning issues. We made arrangements to pick the pontoon up at no charge. It was strongly suggested that they not drive the pontoon across the lake by our
service writer. They made the decision to drive it anyways. Our driver waited over an hour and a half for them to get to the launch after the arranged time. The ***’ said the motor kept dying on them when driving it across the lake. Once we got the motor into the shop we started the diagnosing process. We found the motor had no engine oil in it. We also found low oil indication signals that were ignored by the ***’. We submitted the motor to Honda for warranty. Honda requested that we disassemble the entire motor to find the reason for failure if possible. After complete disassembly, we were unable to find the cause of the initial problem but the motor was seized due to no oil. FBM staff pushed to get the motor covered under warranty because there was an initial unknown problem. Honda finally decided to send parts and requested we reassemble the motor. We encourage Honda to send a power head (complete motor assembly) because we felt that gave us our best option of avoid future problems. Honda did end up sending the power head. When we received the power head it was slightly different than the original. We proceeded to check into whether we could make it work and get the additional parts needed. This took additional time. We finally got to the point of being able to reassemble the motor. At this time, the only person we trusted to do the job was on vacation and stalled the assembly process. Because of this, I offered to deliver a rental pontoon to their lake for the weekend at no chargeThe following week, we finished the assembly, lake tested the pontoon and ran the motor through the break in process. Throughout the process, there appeared to be very little understanding that the ignoring of the oil warnings was the main cause of the severity of the problem. We made multiple trips to their lake to pick the pontoon up or deliver the loaner pontoon at no charge. There was little appreciation for any efforts made on our part the take care of the problems with the motor.

The [redacted] first called us with an issue they were having with their new Honda motor.  There was a fuel issue and also some oil warning issues.  We made arrangements to pick the pontoon up at no charge.  It was strongly suggested that they not drive the pontoon across the lake by our...

service writer.  They made the decision to drive it anyways.  Our driver waited over an hour and a half for them to get to the launch after the arranged time.  The [redacted]’ said the motor kept dying on them when driving it across the lake.  Once we got the motor into the shop we started the diagnosing process.  We found the motor had no engine oil in it.  We also found 52 low oil indication signals that were ignored by the [redacted]’.  We submitted the motor to Honda for warranty.  Honda requested that we disassemble the entire motor to find the reason for failure if possible.  After complete disassembly, we were unable to find the cause of the initial problem but the motor was seized due to no oil.  FBM staff pushed to get the motor covered under warranty because there was an initial unknown problem.  Honda finally decided to send parts and requested we reassemble the motor.  We encourage Honda to send a power head (complete motor assembly) because we felt that gave us our best option of avoid future problems.  Honda did end up sending the power head.  When we received the power head it was slightly different than the original.  We proceeded to check into whether we could make it work and get the additional parts needed.  This took additional time.  We finally got to the point of being able to reassemble the motor.  At this time, the only person we trusted to do the job was on vacation and stalled the assembly process.  Because of this, I offered to deliver a rental pontoon to their lake for the weekend at no charge. The following week, we finished the assembly, lake tested the pontoon and ran the motor through the break in process.  Throughout the process, there appeared to be very little understanding that the ignoring of the oil warnings was the main cause of the severity of the problem.  We made multiple trips to their lake to pick the pontoon up or deliver the loaner pontoon at no charge.  There was little appreciation for any efforts made on our part the take care of the problems with the motor.