Yamaha Motor Corporation Yamaha Motors, Yamaha Waverunners, Yamaha Motor Corp. Dangerous Factory Defect on Yamaha Waverunners Widely known Yet NO Recall issued Cypress, CA 90630 California

There is a dangerous defect in the timing chain assembly on Yamaha Waverunners starting in 2014 when they dramatically increased the power output. If you search the internet with the keywords Yamaha Waverunner and timing chain failure you will see that a very, very high percentage of Yamaha owners out there have had this chain snap, usually in the first 50 hours, many at less than 20, and I could find very few examples of any that did not break by 150 hours....those are the rare exceptions. Some people who own multiple waverunners have had all of their waverunners chains fail.  Usually when they fail it is at high rpm, and these skiis can go at least 70mph. I was going around 65 when my chain snapped.  The violent deceleration pitched me and my passenger into the water at speeds high enough to injure, which we both are still healing from.

I have now been battling with Yamaha for more nearly the entire spring and summer...4 months,....to get this fixed as I paid for the extended warranty. However, even though this defect injured two people who had to miss work and lose a lot of money, Yamaha still dragged their feet about fixing my boat under warranty. At first they refused to acknowledge that my skii might need extra parts because there was saltwater in the engine when the ski failed, and you cannot flush a broken engine. Then Yamaha only authorized the dealer to tear down the engine in incriments. First they were only allowed to tear down the heads, then they had to get additonal authorizations, every time they needed to go deeper...this ate up months of summer boating days. Then when it was all torn down, it was realized that I needed an entire new engine....which should have been obvious from the get go as I didn't want them to simply replace the timing chain and leave me with the factory defect to fail all over again. 

Once they realized I needed a brand new engine, they sent only engine components instead of a new engine already to go. This was obviously to try to save money, despite the fact that we are already out thousands due to injuries. And wouldn't you know it, the parts they sent were incomplete....no new head studs ect... Also these new parts needed a specialized tool to install that my dealer didn't have. this tool is on backorder for 2 months. When you live in Seattle.....losing a whole summer is losing one full year!  All so Yamaha can size a few hundred dollars. Meanwhile there are thousands of other folks around the country battling yamaha over these timing chain defects. If you search the web for the online magazine called "Watercraft Journal" you will see the author state that Yamaha is well aware of the problems people are having with their engine essentially blowing up when the timing chain snapps and they are quietly trying to address this issue with owners and dealers so that they can avoid the expense and embarassment of a full on recall.