I bought a RT188 with a 2013 115 HP ETEC on it in 2017. Literally every single year since I've had it, an alarm of some sort has gone off cutting short 3 day fishing excursions, ruining tournaments, and otherwise just totally sucking.
I baby this motor, always winterize it, and don't beat on it. Usually just fish smaller local ponds and rivers in my area.
The first few times the hot engine light came on and the mechanic put a new impeller in it. That seemed to fix it for a little while. Then in May of last year, I was at Lake George and went for about 15 min run, as we pulled up to the spot - my hot engine alarm went off again, it would do this periodically throughout the rest of the day as I tried to limp back to the marina at 5 mph.
Took it to an actual ETEC mechanic and they discovered when my first mechanic put the impeller in, he screwed up the seal and I was slowly leaking gear case oil out of the engine. They fixed that issue and everything seemed to be OK for the rest of the season. We took it to Lake Champlain and ran around the Ticonderoga area for 2 days without issue.
This year, I went back to Lake George for a 3 day trip. On day 1 I ran all around the lake for about 6 hours. Then at the end of the day after about a 15 - 20 min run back to the dock, my check engine alarm went off and the motor began sputtering (I'm thinking this time it popped into SAFE mode).
I had my mechanic print out the Engine History Report the last time I took it in, and it has a history of Crankshaft Position Sensor loss of SYNC (prior to me owning it), the Engine Above Temp and Above Temp Range Low speed codes on it. I'm brining it in today to find out what this issue is.
I have absolutely had it with this motor. When I bought the motor, I bought it because I had it low hours and had heard ETECs were reliable good motors. I gave it a test run and it sounded great. This thing has ruined so many trips and tournaments I am at the point where I just want to get rid of it and buy a KAYAK.
Anyone have any ideas or recommendations on what to do? I live in the western part of MA and am looking for someone who can fix these issues once and for all.
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Originally Posted by wsdv135
