FCT3 Freeze damage warranty assistance ending 2009-2010 Nautiques equipped with FCT3

[Montana Boat Guy]

Notification to all owners of 2009-2010 Nautique boats equipped with an FCT3 Tower. Roswell Wake Air will no longer be offering assistance to towers which experience "freeze damage" due to the lack of the required modification to the tower. This modification is described in a technical service bulletin which was released in January of 2010. Since its release both Roswell and Nautique have sent out multiple reminders to its dealer base to inspect all FCT3 towers for proper drainage holes. Although Roswell had officially closed warranty assistance to this TSB in 2012 we continued to aid in the repairs of the towers as many have you have seen in posts on this forum. We are now closing the door to any further claims indefinitely. We feels both Roswell and Nautique have provided more than enough time and notification to all dealers in order to get these boats modified. Through this great forum we have also been able to make the greater Nautique community aware of the requirements. If you have any questions please feel free to e-mail or call me directly. tracy@roswellwakeair.com 321-638-1331

[Nautiquehunter]

Isn't there a way to track all of the questionable towers? Was a notice sent out to the owners? There cant be that many out there? I received a recall notice on my Chevy and I'm sure there are tens of thousands more of them on the street.

[Zach@n3]

I received a recall notice on my Chevy

Recall=forever TSB=Warranty period. The tower modification was a TSB as stated by Roswell and Nautique and something that should have been taken care of during the warranty period. Go ask a car dealer to take care of a few thousand dollar repair on a car you just bought because a TSB wasn't performed by a dealer during the warranty period. Watch how much they will laugh at you.

[Nautiquehunter]

Isn't the warranty 5 years? What I am saying is if a dealer sold a number of boats with a known problem and a simple fix did they notify the owners of the issue? I was a tech at a Olds-GMC dealer TSBs were never used to prevent a problem only to help the tech to repair the problem. If the customer didn't complain until after the warranty too bad for him. I would think with such low numbers of the towers being sold I would have though it should have been recalled and corrected before it got out of hand. Are there any records of the towers and what boat they were installed on? I'm not putting blame on anyone but this was clearly a design flaw from the factory . Mistakes don't go away with time. I would hold then accountable to make it right no matter how long it took.

[scottb7]

No one is accountable for design flows forever. Just for warranty period. This has been tested in courts "forever". Mercedes had an engine with a known design flaw. e.g. the gears that ran the timing chain were made of too soft a metal (and they knew it). The gears simply wear out. Some in the warranty period. Some not. No recall mandated by law. And they won the class action lawsuit against them. If yours broke during warranty period you got a free re-build. If it did not you paid $5k for the re-build.

Summary>>>As warranties end>>>buyer becomes responsible regardless of why.

Do I think it is bs. I don't know. I bought the mercedes and was too stupid to search the internet to find out about the known problem. Just like the guy that boat with the bad tower was too stupid to search this site. Probably need to protect the companies and get stupies like me out of the gene pool at some point. A little dramatic but the courts agreed and protected mercedes. The warranty period was deemed reasonable protection to the consumer.

[madcityskier]

So Mercedes didn't want to fix the problem if they could duck out on it. The questions the op asked sounds very different to me. I never heard a complaint about stopping coverage. There has been an attempt to repair the problem. Much netter than the Mercedes example. The question is, can Nautique check records on who these towers were sold to and let them know repairs need to be made. Seems like it should be pretty easy to search for the info. Then again, I could be wrong.

No one is accountable for design flows forever. Just for warranty period. This has been tested in courts "forever". Mercedes had an engine with a known design flaw. e.g. the gears that ran the timing chain were made of too soft a metal (and they knew it). The gears simply wear out. Some in the warranty period. Some not. No recall mandated by law. And they won the class action lawsuit against them. If yours broke during warranty period you got a free re-build. If it did not you paid $5k for the re-build.

Summary>>>As warranties end>>>buyer becomes responsible regardless of why.

Do I think it is bs. I don't know. I bought the mercedes and was too stupid to search the internet to find out about the known problem. Just like the guy that boat with the bad tower was too stupid to search this site. Probably need to protect the companies and get stupies like me out of the gene pool at some point. A little dramatic but the courts agreed and protected mercedes. The warranty period was deemed reasonable protection to the consumer.

[NautiqueJeff]

I believe they did. As I understand it, Nautique sent multiple notices to the original boat owners as well as all of their dealers. Nautique and Roswell have no way of tracking boats sold secondhand.

[AirTool]

... Nautique and Roswell have no way of tracking boats sold secondhand.

The majority may be (easily?) found through registrations.

various statements

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Maybe a short grace period to repair those that are already damaged should be declared....posted on CC and Roswell site. That would be fair. I understand and somewhat agree that if there is no damage and nobody has taken the preventive measure to drill the hole...shame on them. But in the case of the damage already being there...some relief could be offered now with a fair deadline.

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Contrary to what I said on the other thread... maybe Roswell should state if operating the tower with cracks is dangerous.

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Related to the comments above on design flaws and "wearing out" and such, I've bought several new and used Chevy's and Fords (and one other) over my lifetime. Almost all of them have had some major design flaw. GM always stuck it to me...and millions of others. Ford took care of me even on one that was out of warranty. I paid a 500 deductible. It was part of a "save the customer" program. A year later, they bit the bullet and recalled the design and extended the warranty for everyone new and used. I filled out a form and got my money back. Had I paid the 3K for the repair, I would have received that back. As pi55ed as I was at the event, it didn't cost me any money. The GM events....always cost me money.

I've spent over 100K with Ford since then....and have the itch for another. The only time I visit my local GM dealer, is to pick up parts for the two I have. One I bought new in 93. Maybe someday,.....I'll buy a brand new Corvette.....but probably not.

just sayin'

[Nautiquehunter]

Air tool has Ford done any save the customer program fixes lately? My nephew bought a 2011 Mustang GT with the 1st 6 speed manual trans. at 30k miles the clutch that worked fine the day before wouldn't disengage. Thinking it was still under the 36k warranty he took it to the dealer. They told him the master cyl was bad and it would be 550 to fix. He agreed and they replaced the master . It didn't fix it now they want 1700.00 to pull the trans and replace the slave cyl. At this point he called me . It seamed strange that a master and slave could go bad over night by just sitting. I researched on the web and found its a common problem on 2011 6 speeds to have the bolts holding the pressure plate to the flywheel back out causing this problem. After many calls to ford and the dealer it was agreed to pull the trans and replace the slave( per the ford tech advice ) for 100 more 650 total. They pulled the trans and informed him the clutch ,flywheel master and slave were all bad and it will be 2200 to fix it. We requested to see the all the parts before they continue. I was a mechanic for 20 years ending as a journeyman at a Olds GMC dealer. I know what a bad clutch looks like and this one was not bad. Funny I saw shiny marks on the pressure plate and just under all the mounting bolt heads as well as all the line up pins were broke off . It was exactly like what was described on the web. The mechanic, service adviser and Ford rep knew nothing about this problem but the flywheel and clutch were both redesigned in 2012. They ended up putting all the old clutch parts back in with a new master and slave for 650.00 then told him how the master and slave fixed the problem. All his car needed was to tighten the pressure plate bolts. It will happen again but he traded it in on a new Camaro . Seems like No company wants to own up to their defects I wonder how many sales are lost because of this?

[Sac Surfer]

Here is what it looked like if anyone cares. My dealer took care of me.

[Zach@n3]

Gahh. original dealer? If they didn't perform it technically its their fault unless the original customer didn't cooperate.

[shag]

If I spent 100K (or anywhere near what some houses cost) for a boat, I would expect it to have NO issues like this.... If it did, within a reasonable time frame, I would expect it to be fixed with little to no out of pocket expense.

[RideButter]

I think its reasonable to have a time restriction on this. I would imagine almost all towers have been modified at this point.

[max 1.6]

I'm bumping this thread up. I'm having this problem on my boat. It's already resolved with my dealer but I need to cover installation. Can someone point me some instructions on how to remove this part from the tower? Thanks

[Montana Boat Guy]

max 1.6 feel free to email me at tracy@roswellglobal.com or call us at 321-638-1331 and we will happily assist!