Buddy just bought a new FX 21 w/250sho. Question is why are they telling him he has to run ring free on a 4 stroke and not let anyone but a Yamaha certified tech touch it, or the warranty will be void. Would`nt they have to supply the ring free and service it for free. I really think this is a salesman not knowing because he also told my bud when trimming the motor down on the support to trim down untill the trim rams go in. Trimmed down for 10-15 seconds and they never moved.

LOL........salesman..

built with the sevice man in mind

Hey Gary Purdy, Have him check with Yam. to see if his motor has the bad castings /pours manifolds. i understand that Yamaha is having some issues thats causing water intrusion and motor failure.

We do recommend running Ring Free every once and a while. As for the servicing of that motor anyone can do it but it is a new breed of motor and I would recommend a cert. Yamaha tech to help you out with any issues. If you can get me the serial number of the motor I can check to see if it needs any updates.

Gary if I understand you right--this rig is new..

I run ring free in all our outboards 2-stroke and 4-stroke.. It's great protection, worth the money IMO...

Unless they say different I'm going to run what it takes to keep up my warranty. Thats an expensive gamble to save a few bucks, let the experts take care of it.

You don't have to do either legally, but I wouldn't run mine without ringfree. And why not just let a yamaha certified tech work on it? Its under warranty for at least 3 years, hopefully you wont have to do anything. Oil changes is all I've had to do at 20 and 50hrs and did those myself. Tell them the most important thing is to really get the motor extra warm soon after break-in, run it real hard for a good time as soon as possible, like 30 minutes hard running across the lake not at full trim, probably about 60 on that rig, the rings won't seat well if you don't and you will get fuel in the oil and a rising oil level until you do. Mine did until about 30hrs when I figured that out.

I have no problem with anyone using a case of Ring Free a week, if thats what you want to do, but I have a problem when someone tells me that I have to use this stuff or else. Buy this dealers statement balata9999 your warranty is void. He said you ca`nt do anything to this motor, unless your a factory certified Yamaha tech, period. My understanding is, if a product rep. tells you that you have to use a certain brand of oil or additive, they are required by the Federal Consumer Protection Law to furnish, at no cost, that oil or additive. I am waiting on a reply from Yamaha customer service.

I agree Gary, I think the salesman was wrong. They have no legal way to enforce that. Anyway unless you did something to it that changed a part or something in the computer there isn't anyway for them to know if you changed the oil or filters though. My dealers been great, I have taken it in for a few tsb's to be updated and everything has been great, I bought one of the first ones available 2 years ago, the rep in this area went out of the way to make sure everything was right as it was the first install the dealer had done and the first sho they had ever seen. I dropped it off for the 20hr service, they looked it over, hooked it to the computer to make sure there were no codes thrown, changed the oil for me and were done in a few minutes