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I was up visiting a friend in NY recently and was expecting to be taking a ride on his boat but it has been laid up for a month. He has a 2-year-old Suzuki 140 4 stroke with a lot of corrosion under the cowling. Here is what I know, the screws and bolts on the block are corroded, and the power pack and starters are corroded and caused the boat not to start. The motor has been sprayed with t-9 after every use. Has anyone been having these problems or heard of anything like this? I was surprised to hear that he was having these problems as Suzuki ha some of the best technology on the market today. I am not looking to start a bashing thread just would like to find out some information that I can pass on to my buddy.
NO! I've been selling them for years and have had no issues. I would advise to use CorrosionX once a month and not T-9. I'm down in the Keys and salt and sun will screw everything up down here. Sounds like a maintenance issue to me.
I have a 2005 df 140 with 834 hours on it. I have had zero problems with it and have no corrosion anywhere. I change my oil every 90 hours and it's pretty damn clean in their! Tell your bro to check his cowling and make sure it is locking up!
it does sound there has to be a huge amount of spray getting under the cowling - either from outside (loose cowling, bad gasket) or from inside (loose hose clamp?) Stray current?
I have a 3 year old DF140 with about 340 hours and have had "0" corrosion issues. I have always used a product called Fluid Film which is made for ocean going vessels and have had great results with this product.
I still do not understand. Components on a marine outboard motor should not rust regardless of how much salt water they come in contact with. Is this a fair statement? I am not talking about a motor that is submerged for a long period of time, just one that gets salt spray on it under normal operation. If the motors have been on the back of this boat and the boat has not submerged for a long period of time, then why is there corrosion or rust? Are the components not made for salt water contact?
The 140's seem to have internal corrosion issues also. The water passage ways around the cylinder head corrodes away and water gets into the cylinders. According to Travis Boating Suzuki seems to be covering the failures under warranty.
Boy, it sounds like he must have some salt spray getting in there somehow. I've always kept my outboards spotless by lightly coating them with crc 656 after each use. If I saw any corrosion starting up I'd stop and figure out where the salt was coming from. For it to get to the point where the corrosion causes it to not even start. YIKES!! The handles that lock down the cowlings are adjustable. Hopefully some of the Suzuki techs like lakensea will see this thread and explain the posible causes of this.
As to internal corrosion, I hadn't heard about that but I spoke to three different dealers about the 140's (all of them also sold other brands) and they told stories of commercial guys beating the crap out of these motors and they just keep on going. Some with thousands of hours. I will rinse longer with fresh water now though. Thanks for the heads up on that.
I just got to wonder about a situation where something completely visible like the power head is allowed to get so badly corroded it won't start.
__________________ "If you think health care is expensive now, wait till it's free!"
I still do not understand. Components on a marine outboard motor should not rust regardless of how much salt water they come in contact with. Is this a fair statement? I am not talking about a motor that is submerged for a long period of time, just one that gets salt spray on it under normal operation. If the motors have been on the back of this boat and the boat has not submerged for a long period of time, then why is there corrosion or rust? Are the components not made for salt water contact?
Cracker, lets face it, even the best stainless will rust and corrode under certain conditions, and lets also assume the manufacturers don't always use the best stainless, and some parts arn't stainless at all. Yes there are other protectants that work as good as CorrosionX, i just use it religously and have had zero corrosion or rust problems, so that's what I preach.
My tech a the dealership tells me that a full 50% of all the outboards he works on (merc and Yam) have never had the cowl taken off except when he services it....outboards need periodic mainteneace - a CRC spray down every 30 days or so for me...behind and under the dash too...
I saw a 140 with rust under cowling before. the dealer who serviced the motor chafed a hole in one of the water tubes right above the oil filter when it was being changed. Could not see the hole with out close inspection, but it sprayed a very fine stream of water when running. i would check for that as well as a loose cowling. We have three df140's here in Savannah with over 5000 hours on them on crab boats. They are tough. They will corrode around the water passages if not flushed out SOMETIMES. The crabbers are not known for maintenance, and the motors are still running. These engines are all 2001 models I believe. The motors on some of the offshore boats are 3-4 years of age with around 2000 hrs. and show no signs of corrosion because they have been flushed regularly after use. i have seen yammies do the same thing around the passages from not flushing as well. A piece of iron will corrode if left unchecked with salt.
Thanks for the insight I have passed this on. I did ask a few questions and learned a little more, he is anal about maintenance and is adamant that he has not neglected something. About a year ago when the problem first showed the motor was cleaned up and greased by the dealer. Beacause he knew about this problem he has stayed on top of it but it only got worse as time went on. I suspected some sort of electrolisis (sp) but the boat is kept on a trailer when not in use, he does live within a mile of salt water.
Lakensea..any comment on this one? A plumber showed me a trick to find a leak one time. I build houses and we had water on a basement floor. We looked and looked and looked and there was NO visible leak. Well the plumber grabbed a newspaper page and held it real close to the pipes. Sure enough after 30 seconds or so a wet spot appeared. It was a pin (and that's agross exageration of its size) hole in a piece of PEX. A manufacturing defect. You COULD NOT see the stream peeing out with the naked eye. Maybe he's got something like that?
__________________ "If you think health care is expensive now, wait till it's free!"
Suzuki Corrosion Issue? 
