Mercury 250 Pro XS
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2015 engine-----awesome power, awesome spped and awesome idle quality! Can't say enough good about Mercury's. Let's hear about yours.
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2007 150 Opti…LEMON that Mercury got me out of and gave me a 175 ProXS replacement for my troubles.
2008 175 ProXS Great motor first 100 hours. After that it needed coils, more coils, problems with poppet valve caused me several trips to dealer (not a manufacturer issue), finally had to have an entire wire harness replaced, 100 hour routine maintenance was expensive, spark plugs were about 20.00 each.
Current Mercury 2008 225 Opti (standard Opti) Knock on wood not one issue to date, 88 hours with one water pump impeller changed. Estimated cost on 100 hour service is 400+/- depending on reeds. If reeds are cracked price will jump about 600.00 more. The standard Opti still uses metal reeds. -
2007 150 Opti…LEMON that Mercury got me out of and gave me a 175 ProXS replacement for my troubles.
2008 175 ProXS Great motor first 100 hours. After that it needed coils, more coils, problems with poppet valve caused me several trips to dealer (not a manufacturer issue), finally had to have an entire wire harness replaced, 100 hour routine maintenance was expensive, spark plugs were about 20.00 each.
Current Mercury 2008 225 Opti (standard Opti) Knock on wood not one issue to date, 88 hours with one water pump impeller changed. Estimated cost on 100 hour service is 400+/- depending on reeds. If reeds are cracked price will jump about 600.00 more. The standard Opti still uses metal reeds.
That's an expensive outboard to maintain
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Wow!!!!
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2006 250xs. I've ripped the lower unit off twice and it still runs perfectly 8 years later. It has never not started right up, it still idles perfectly. Still cruises at 70mph and I never never had any work on the motor other then a yearly tune up. The lower units were my fault not the motors. Great motor to own.
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2013 250 Pro XS. I keep hearing how great these are but I'm still waiting for mine to show. 88 hours on it and I've had constant thermostat troubles all 2014 season. Still haven't got it straightened out. I bought it with 49 hrs on it. Put in the new water pump kit, replaced the starboard thermostat, cleaned and tweaked the poppet valve, removed and cleaned the cooling strainer. Still pulling my hair out. Motor pees great but refuses to rise on the mercmonitor to operating temp. Next thing I know I'm getting a starboard 195 degree overheat warning. I swapped the temp sensors the other day but haven't been to the lake yet to try it out. Maybe tomorrow.
The motor befor this was an 08 300XS. It was a beast ! -
I have had 2, a 2008 and now a 2013. Mercury has a good warranty or at least I had good experiences (3 power heads, lower unit, coils on 2008) My 2013 has over 200 hours with no issues though this one has smart craft gauges and I am sure they have saved me more than once. The thing that I notice that I do now that I didn't with my first is always waiting until the engine warms to 120 before going on plane. and watching the temp to make sure thermostats are working properly.
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The thing that I notice that I do now that I didn't with my first is always waiting until the engine warms to 120 before going on plane. and watching the temp to make sure thermostats are working properly.
Good info, @Eric Low ! Not enough people let their outboard warm up sufficiently before running it at WOT
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Curt 3L Opti's are expensive to maintain if you do it by the book. Actually, most of the EPA mandated DFI's are expensive to maintain. My 175 HPDI was REAL expensive to maintain by the suggested schedule. The high pressure fuel filter was 100.00 plus another 100.00 in labor, just for that filter.
Some people get lucky and run these things until they break and never have a problem, others don't get so lucky. I think people that neglect routine maintenance will find manufactures are not so quick to warranty things in the future. -
@n2ratfishin It amazes me how expensive it's getting to run a boat and outboard. It's definitely not a sport for people on a tight budget!
And when you get into some of these outboards, like you've mentioned, it gets even more ridiculous
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I've got the smartcraft gauge/mercmonitor. It provides an awesome amount of info. I keep the screen set to display water pressure/rpms/ and engine temp. It frustrates me to be idling around waiting for it to rise to 120 and the next thing I know I'm getting an overheat warning. If the temp sensors check out and it continues to give overheat warnings and failing to climb to operating temps then I guess I will take it to the shop. It never has shown any indication of overheating other than the gauge reading.
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Well the "paperwork & inservice date" says my Mercury Racing 225 SportXS is a 2008 but the id tag on the clamp bracket is stamped 2006. There's also a sticker inside the top of the cowl that is stamped 2005, 250XS (yes 250, these were basically 250s with "cooled off" electronics put on them) and I still have the MSOs on my rig and the engines MSO states it was originally ordered by and sent to Bullet Boats in 2005 (Which tells me it was likely from the first batch of 225 SportXSs built because they were "commissioned" by Paul Nichols and Bullet Boats after Paul wanted them for testing and selling on their 20ftrs. It came from Bullet because my dealer was both an Allison and Bullet dealer and the quickest source they had for that particular motor was at Bullet.) I picked up the brand new rig Aug/2007 and it's been FLAWLESS ever since! I've fed it a steady diet of 87 reg with 1oz per 5gals of Stabil Marine and Merc Racing specified Quicksilver Plus (Their synthetic blend recommended for higher perf over their regular Opti oil), I'll run a bottle of B12 Chemtool thru it for DEEP CLEANING 1-2x a year & I change the water pump and gearcase oil each season or two depending on use. I just switched the original spark plugs lastyear after 150+ hours of 0 trouble use!
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My 2012 250XS has been flawless. Ran nothing but 87 octane and premium plus oil through it, always dosed with Quickleen.
Had one little hiccup on my previous 250XS. Somehow Merc put the wrong flash on the ECU from the factory. The rev limiter was set at 5850 instead of 6300. I ran into that rev limiter several times before I figured out what it was. And let me tell you, it ain't fun when the computer cuts power when you've got it strung out! Computer went back to Merc and they flashed it correctly, and that one was flawless for the next couple years.