2022 90 HP Suzuki still under Warranty - look out!

[baensch-ak]

We are the second owners of the above listed motor on a C-D 22', under warranty until Jan 2027. In summer 2026 with 165 hours it developed a fuel leak, apparent as an oil sheen spreading on the water from the running motor 10 to 20' out, disappearing when the motor was shut off. We were on our summer cruise way up in BC waters. The nearest Suzuki dealer was Boatland in Campbell River. We broke off our trip and motored to Campbell River. Boatland, being full up with work and 2 mechanics short, came right away with a trailer to haul us out, and went to work. After 3 tries they found a broken O-ring up in the VST (Vapor Separating Tank) and replaced it, which stopped the leak. 6.5 hours of labor plus haul out and relaunch 2.5 miles away = $1,600 Canadian. Reasonable. We submitted the bill along with a letter detailing the issue to Suzuki and were denied any help. Reason: An American sold motor has no warranty in Canada.

We had another issue with this motor right from the start, which was at 45 hours to 120 hours over the summer of 2025. We noticed that the engine oil level was rising. The reasonable cause with a new engine is fuel dilution. At the end of the season we trailered the boat back to the selling dealer, Master Marine in Mt. Vernon, WA. They figured cold running/stuck thermostat may be the cause, but the stat was fine. We had an oil analysis done, came back with 14% fuel dilution, no metal. During the '26 season it happened again. Call to Suzuki produced only phone numbers for WA dealers. None had any solution. A lady serv mgr in BC knew the scoop. The thermostat in your engine is either 50 or 60 C, too cold for NW waters. The engine is running too cold, often not getting out of the enriched warm-up cycle, excess fuel getting into the oil. Bought a 71 C thermostat from her, installed, changed oil and filter, ran 9 hours with it, the oil level did not rise. Suzuki denied any compensation under warranty, same reason as above. SO, IF YOU HAVE A NEW, AMERICAN BOUGHT SUZUKI (which has otherwise run just fine) AND CRUISE BC WATERS, BE AWARE THAT ANY WORK OR PARTS IN BC ARE NOT COVERED, even if Suzuki is blatantly at fault.
Al and Karen Baensch, "FriendShip"

 

[localboy]

The Everett Suzuki dealer, Performance Marine, brought up the different temp thermostats available when I went in to purchase one. I believe this was last year. They recommended the higher temp one, which I purchased for our 2006 DF150. The woman was the parts sales person, not the service writer or mechanic. Surprised you had no luck in WA State but i guess it depends on who you're talking to. That doesn't mitigate the fact that Suzuki refuses to pay for warrantied repairs due to a few miles into a neighboring country...

 

[thataway]

This is important for any Suzuki owners who boat in similar conditions! Thanks for bringing this issue up!

I wonder how far you bucked the claim for payment? Many companies, Suzuki included, automatically deyny such claims. When you get up to the level of the head of sales for USA or similar for other countries, then you are most likely to get a positive response or at least some dialigue, instead of a catagorically "no".

This type of deniel of service is enough to stop all people from ordering Suzuki outboards--and the Suzuki head of sales needs to know this.

However baensch-ak's situation involves a motor still under Warantee, which I think would still be covered. In Local Boy's case, the engine would be out of warantee even if the extended warantee were paid for.