Expert Advice Needed on Regal2100 Maintainance!!

[matt2807]

Hi All,

New to this forum (and boating) and need some advice.

We have just taken over our mother in laws boat, its a 98 regal 2100lsr. My advice concerns the maintanance.

We have just had an invoice from the marina for $600 dollars, $500 of that being just for labour. As far as i can tell from the invoice all they have done is replaced the plugs, dizzy cap, leads, and 3 fuses. I have been a car mechanic in the past so know myself that these jobs would not take more than an hour at most.

I feel they have been taking advantage, my father in law passed away and the M-I-L has just been going along with these big charges. They state on the invioce that some noise reducing panels need to be removed on all regals so they can get to the engine - and blame this for the extra cost. What i want to know is can anyone confirmt this to be true - how much longer does it take to remove these panels?

I need to hear it from some experts who do not have a financial gain from doing the work so your advice is greatly appreciated. I have not heard good reports about the marina in question, but before i go down there all guns blazing i need to find out exactly where i stand.


Matt

 

[bomar76]

Re: Expert Advice Needed on Regal2100 Maintainance!!

Hi All,

I have been a car mechanic in the past so know myself that these jobs would not take more than an hour at most.

Matt

You are sadly mistaken.....and there is no correaltion 'twix repair times on a car and that of a boat.

 

[JustJason]

Re: Expert Advice Needed on Regal2100 Maintainance!!

Matt,
Before you go yelling ripoff.... anything is possible and it can go either way.
There's boats that you have to pull the engine just to change a starter.
I've done tune ups that have taken 5-6 hours.... that's 5 to 6 solid hours... not dilly dallying. In some boats you have to remove seats, hardware, panels, trim... do the tune... then put it all back. Take that into consideration... Sometimes plugs wont come out... and need some babying in order to avoid breaking them in the head.... and sometimes distro caps have 4 screws that are all stripped out. At 80 to 100 bucks an hour its easy to rack up a 500 bill.
Post as many pictures as you can of the engine compartment. I would'nt be surprised if the bill is pretty fair.

 

[bomar76]

Re: Expert Advice Needed on Regal2100 Maintainance!!

Hi All,

I have been a car mechanic in the past so know myself that these jobs would not take more than an hour at most.

Matt

You are sadly mistaken.....and there is no correaltion 'twix repair times on a car and that of a boat.
Be glad it was just some panels that had to be R&R.....a lot of boats require an engine pull to replace spark plugs.
You failed to post their shop labor rate...

 

[HT32BSX115]

Re: Expert Advice Needed on Regal2100 Maintainance!!

You might ask them what their labor rate is. If it's $125/hr, that's 4 hours.

While that might be a little longer than it would take me to change them on my boat...you probably need to ask them what they have to take apart to get to them.

I would have to remove the back bench seat just to get to the engine. That's about an hour alone. I would want to check the timing after replacing all that stuff. there's a little time (sic) there too!

Before you go in guns blazing, ask some questions. Keep the guns in your pocket until you at least get their "story".


Cheers,


Rick

 

[Don S]

Re: Expert Advice Needed on Regal2100 Maintainance!!

Why did they replace 3 fuses? Obviously what ever wasn't working and it took time to find out why.
What engine and drive is this boat, as mentioned, many things can be in the way and take way more time than you might think.
What was the boat in for to begin with?

 

[matt2807]

Re: Expert Advice Needed on Regal2100 Maintainance!!

Thanks Guys,

I will wait till the boat comes back from them (they have it in storage) and have a look.

Matt

 

[matt2807]

Re: Expert Advice Needed on Regal2100 Maintainance!!

Why did they replace 3 fuses? Obviously what ever wasn't working and it took time to find out why.
What engine and drive is this boat, as mentioned, many things can be in the way and take way more time than you might think.
What was the boat in for to begin with?

The boat was in for storage over the winter - this was regular maintenance - apparently the horn and a light didnt work which would explain the fuses.

It has a merc 4.3l v6

 

[Don S]

Re: Expert Advice Needed on Regal2100 Maintainance!!

Here is a checklist I put together some time ago, for getting boats ready for our customers. A tuneup is only a small part of getting a boat ready for the water and the upcoming boating season.



Runup Checklist

Customer_______________________________________________

1.______ Check battery acid level & Load test

2.______ Check battery cables clean & tight, check for corrosion

3.______ Check fluid levels ____Engine Oil, _____Power Steering,
____ Coolant, ____Gear Lube, ____Trim Pump
____ Trim Tab Pump

4.______ Check belt tension and check pulleys for rust.

5.______ Run engine, check for water flow, check gauges for oil pressure,
temperature and charging.
_____ Operate steering both directions
_____ Check shifting, fwd, neutral, reverse

6.______ Tune up engine if required.
Compression check, check static timing, advance timing, engine idle rpm and mixture.

7.______ Check bilge pump & Float switch for operation

8.______ Check bilge blower for operation

9.______ Check navigation lights, Nav and Anchor

10.______ Check horn & windshield wiper/s

11.______ Look for loose or missing cotter pins or nuts on shift and throttle
cables.

12.______ Check trailer tire air pressure, lube hitch mechanism, check brake fluid reservoir if equipped, check trailer lights.

Engine Hour Meter reading/s ________________________________

Date of inspection: ___________ Technician _______________


NOTES:

 

[a70eliminator]

Re: Expert Advice Needed on Regal2100 Maintainance!!

I can change all 8 plugs, wires cap points and rotor in less than an hour on my 20' chaparral 351OMC, also change the starter in 1/2 hr nothin to it. all I have to remove is the engine cover, I guess it's just the boats design that can make it difficult, it wasn't much different than doing the same thing on my V8 Ford truck.

 

[Don S]

Re: Expert Advice Needed on Regal2100 Maintainance!!

I can change all 8 plugs, wires cap points and rotor in less than an hour on my 20' chaparral 351OMC

But that is not a Regal 2100, so it means nothing. I also had a customer with an older Campion that had to have the engine pulled to even touch 5 of the 8 spark plugs. Pulling the engine took over 5 hours. Most boats it's an hour to hour and a half job. Also had a Chaperell (SP) with twin 5.0L engines that I don't know how you would get them out. Short of using a chain saw and removing the seat and aft deck overtop of the engine. Changing cap and rotor was done by brail as the cap was only a few inches from the overhead with no access to anything.

Blame that kind of crap on the engineers, not the mechanics that get stuck having to work on the garbage.

 

[buggiedad_67]

Re: Expert Advice Needed on Regal2100 Maintainance!!

i know here where i am its the fact that there isnt many boat shops, when i asked about changeing my bellows, shift cable and gimble bearing, they told me 10 hrs at 75.00 a hour, plus parts, since i have been doing repair work all my life i thought i could do it, it took me 5 hrs, i know that there are guys here that could do it faster, but i thought my first time not bad, what took the longest was the exhaust bellow and i had to build my on tool to put it back on, i am not saying that all shops are bad but there is some that is, they see a widow woman and charge what they want, get the boat back take it to another shop and ask them how much it would cost to do what the other guys did, then you can compare if they had taken advantage of her.

 

[Coors]

Re: Expert Advice Needed on Regal2100 Maintainance!!

As an ex-auto mechanic, I can vouch that an i/o is a different animal. It may be the same engine you know, but-you can lay under a vehicle and get to the starter bolts; not in my boat.
And if not properly kept up with- rusty frozen bolts.
And the risers sometimes need pulling just to replace a rocker cover gasket.
It's a new world to me, also.