Broken bolt. Mechanic liable?
 

A couple of quick questions for the people on here. Local marina mechanic broke a bolt on my water inlet elbow on transom assembly while troubleshooting an overheat. (hose closed by corrosion) Removing the bolt will require removing the engine to drill it out.

1) Is this the mechanic's fault for breaking the bolt or just one of those things to expect on a 13 year old bolt in salt water? On the one hand, I expect a seasoned mechanic to know when to stop, on the other hand, it's a 13 year old boat.

2) instead of removing engine, it has been suggested to plug the inlet and plumb the bravo water pump to a thru-hull. Any negatives to this.

Now the frustrating part. Mechanic who replaced my engines in 2004 was supposed to replace/check this hose. Let's just say this guy stopped getting my business several years ago.

Thoughs appreciated.

Back a lifetime ago I was automotive tech so I have spent sometime turning wrenches. Sometimes things go badly, not anyone's "fault". (especially in salt water boat). Sure , I agree 100%, you would hope a marine tech would spend the efforts and do the right things but nothing will guarantee things turn with breaking and work out right. I had to replace starter in my personal boat about two years ago and spent hours with penetrating oil and heat trying to free a seized bolt. Finally put the wood to it and it was at best a 50-50 shot it would turn or break. If it broke, that meant engine removal and a upcoming vacation would be boat-less. Lucky for me it turned .........but rest assured if there was anything I could have done to stop it I would have.
Welcome to boating, especially in a harsh salt water environment.

Might not be what you want to hear but sh-t happens especially on a salt water boat 13 years old. These things happen no matter how careful we are and usually at the wrong time.

I have to agree with both above posts..sorry bud !!!

It's only a 1/4 inch bolt, doesn't take much for that to break. Even if he stopped before the bolt broke, what would you do? You can't use heat on it so if the bolt didn't break you would still have to drill it out. I would pull the engine, should only take an hour or so and you will have plenty of room to do the job right.

Fixx
 

as stated chit happens in salt ware environment,if you want to blame somebody blame mercruiser for using a coated 1/4 ' bolt instead of a stainless one..some years had a ss bolt and others didn't..

i would have it fixed the rite way,it still needs to be sealed even if you go to a transom pick up,i wouldn't trust 1 bolt holding on..

Sorry :( but a 13 year old saltwater boat.........

:Whatever:

You should just buy a brand new boat so that you won't have to find someone to blame when your 13 year old boat breaks.

Thanks all. I've been turning wrenches on boats and cars for a couple of decades. restored a couple of cars and boats during that time. Sometimes I've had the luxury of time, oil and heat to free rusted bolts. Sometimes not. Stuff happens is exactly what I wanted to hear. I do blame Mercruiser for a lot of engineering clearly intended to benefit their bottom line and will not buy another mercruiser product if given the choice.

This was a problem I could not address with a boat on a lift.

CubicInches, mighty harsh words for a man with no knowledge of the facts. I'm actually not too quick to blame others but I will let you judge. I fired the mechanic who build my motors after loose,leaky oil lines, loose fuel lines, improperly routed shift cables which wrapped around my input shaft, failure to torque exhaust manifolds which caused exhaust leaks, improperly set limit switch on the drive, water hoses touching belts, continuity wires not connected on bravo 3 drive, grossly diffferent jetting on carburetors on twin engines . I let him fix his negligence each time under "warranty". Finding fuel in my bilge from that fuel line however was too much for me. Should I have blamed him for any of the above or was that just a result of 90 day old motors?

normal for a boat that age...and maybe break more when stuff has to come apart, corrosion can be a killer !!

Sounds like a pretty unanimous opinion here. Fault lies in 13 yrs of salt water use.
Pull the engine, drill it, and replace it. BTW, if you do go with a thru hull, water still needs to flow through the bravo for cooling.

Having worked as a boat mechanic I've run into this problem and I can tell you how the marina handled it....

1. All service quotes I would write, accounted for extra labor time to remove stuck/rusted bolts etc....

2. We made the customer aware how there may be unforseen problems due to age and corrosion and if there was a larger problem we would call the customer and let them know... Possibly even invite them down to have a look for themselves.

3. In the case there was a problem like this, I would charge the customer the labor to R&R the engine but not charge the customer the time it takes to drill out and remove the bolt, that's built into the original estimate.

3. Then there's allways the screw-up factor... If I or someone else screwed something up, the customer didn't get charged for that. For instance, one time I was soldering some wires for a GPS installation and I dropped my soldering Iron and it burned a whole in the seat... We ate the cost of having to fix the seat for my mistake... Unfortunately not all mechanics are honest in this regard.....;)

It's kind of a give and take but it's to be expected...

So the moral of it all for me is be honest with your customers up-front so that if/when there's an issue they're not shocked by the outcome. :)

yeah sorry i mean hard to blame him. Ive had cars worked on and they troubleshoot a part and in the process something is so old that breaks. Ive heard it go both ways where they will fix it or you fix it. Either way doubt you could hold them liable. now a good mechanic should maybe cut you a better deal on what he had to fix or something or if he wen above and beyond then he would pay. But unless it was something totally unrelated to what they were fixing then pretty hard to get it ouf them

Thanks again. No blame from me for this mechanic. He's been forthcoming. I have the luxury of time with frozen bolts, he has to clear projects.

Panther-I would use your shop anyday. That is the kind of service I expect and have no problems paying for. Unfortunately with one exception I have found marina mechanics to be inept or outright shysters. This is why I donate a few saturdays of time to wrenching instead of boating.

I am going to have the hose in the transom assembly removed, the transom opening blocked and go with a thru hull for engine cooling. As I understand it this will still allow adequate water flow through the drive for cooling the upper bearing in the drive.

The water needs to go through the drive. What you are describing will give the water an outlet. The wate rwill go in, but has no place to exit. I have had separate hull pick ups on 2 boats and they both run a hose from the inner transom water inlet to a through hull water dump.

mkeller,
If your a tech,why would you have someone do all that work to your boats?why not save yourself $ and at least do the easier stuff yourself like cables?
just wondering:offtopic:
like everbody said, wouldn't blame the mech. Unless he's a known hacker.

Simple it was all covered by the "warranty" on my "remanufactured" engines. But then it only cost me about $40,000 in my time to hound the guy to take care of it.

I generally do it all myself, time permitting. Last year I restored and rigged an old whaler. I'm a 70 hour a week professional and sometimes my pesky clients get in the way of good wrench time.

Now with luck I have found my shop. 5 minutes by water and I have yet to receive a bull**** answer. In contrast, another shop in the area told me I needed to replace my drive bellows annually as part of the drive service. I said you mean inspect? He said no Mercruiser says replace them annually. This wasn't quite as bad as the car mechanic who told me my rotary engine was due for a valve job. Needless to say neither got my business.

Gottcha! sounds like your warr. turned out to be more of a hassle with the hacker working on it! If only there was more than 24 hours in a day..... things we could get accomplished.....

here in the midwest,we deal with rusty bolts on cars&trucks all the time,this is due to the salt used on the roads in winter months.also,the salt corrodes all sorts of things on the underside of the car,that damb salt causes a lot of problems in cars and boats,just the way it is,certianlly not the mechanic,s fault.

That sucks, I know last year snapped 2 motor mount bolts in the block at loto. needless to say motor had to come out.