Yamaha 250 HPDI lower units?

I need some help from some of my fellow Skeeter owners. This weekend I was fishing a tournament and my engine was making a low pitched whine. Long story short my lower unit took a dump. This boat is a 2007 20I demo boat. I have used it 5 times since I got it and it has 65 hours on it. A friend of mine that used to work as an outboard mechanic told me about Yamaha engines burning up lower units. He told me about them having aluminum exhaust tuners and how they would get hot and "burn down" until eventually all of the exhaust would get dumped into the down housing and burn out the top seal on the lower unit and you would lose all of the oil. Thus your lower unit takes a dump. Well when I pulled it out of the water I noticed that the paint was burned off on the left side of the lower unit just below the cavitation plate. My buddy also said that now they have replaced these aluminum exhaust tuners with stainless. Another guy in my bass club has a 2006 HPDI and he has had 3 lower units. What is weird is that I have heard this from more than one person and you think if it was so common that I would find it on here. I did a search on lower units and can't find anything that even sounds like that. Can anyone steer me in the right direction or give me some sort of idea about how reliable these lower units are? I appreciate your help and thank you in advance.

Cant recall ever hearing that. I would think warranty would cover it.

the same lower unit is used in the 225, 250 and 300 HDPI's so its not just related to the 250 lower units. the only issue i have had with mine is if you hit a stump running about 50 mph, it will bend the prop shaft. if it not do to hitting anything and, warranty should cover you. Yamaha will stand behind it.

I can't believe no one else has had an issue with their lower unit. I guess that makes me feel better. I guess my problem was isolated. It would be nice to get some positive feedback though. I'd sure feel better knowing that a lot of people are trouble free.

We've sold hundreds of them and I haven't heard of that problem.

I had 499 hours on my '06 250 HPDI and I never had any lower unit trouble. I would think it would be covered under warranty as long as your prop shaft is straight. Definitely worth checking into.

Good luck.

I ve been around alot of them to havent heard of this issue either. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/doh.gif

Thanks for the replies guys. I appreciate it. This makes me feel better, it must just be a fluke deal with mine.

I'm on my third Yam, haven't heard of that before.