This review is long overdue so here goes; I brought a 28' fiberglass boat to Pro Boat as it wouldn't run right after an overhaul which I had done at a shop in Kansas City but did the R&R at our full service automotive shop which was also in KC. It needed hooked up to a computer for a proper diagnosis to see why the engine didn't idle (rpm up and down) and also wouldn't take quick throttle. Our automobile diag scanner/computer was no help since marine software and hookups are completely different. After looking at it Pro Boat said it needed a new wiring harness as the old one was in rough shape.
After waiting 3-4 months on the harness (boating season was over by then) they worked and worked on it trying to get it to run right (mostly over the winter I suspect it kept a mechanic employed and off unemployment), ended up pulling the engine, etc etc and finally they discovered a missing 1/4 inch plug on the intake manifold which was letting air in and messing up the fuel/air mixture. Also one of the fuel injectors was bad so they replaced it. Why was that not found out in the 1st place with the computer diag?! They could have saved themselves a lot of time and me thousands of $$. They also replaced the bellows, etc which was not in the billing so that added to the cost.
What really got me even though I stopped by there frequently for updates I was never informed that they had blown past the original $$ estimate and it would be MUCH more. When I got a bill I was SHOCKED and we had a hard time scraping together that much money so it took 2-3 weeks to pay the bill, during that time we got put back to the back of the repair schedule (yes it was an interim bill they engine still had to be put back in the boat and test run!) so it was still another month or so after the check had cleared before we FINALLY put the boat in the water 11 MONTHS after bringing the boat to Pro Boat Marina!
So after 11 months and 5 figure repair bill, we get it in the water and it leaked power steering fluid (I got a rebuild kit and fixed it myself works just fine) and they told me the bilge pump "might not work". REALLY! It would of been a 10 minute job for a mechanic to replace the bilge pump while the engine was out, later on I had to by crawling by the side of the engine in a very tight spot took me 1-1/2 painstaking hours! Oh the pump did work for a little while, then quit while we were washing the boat filling the bilge that had to be pumped out. Then a few days later the fresh water impeller failed and a their mechanic had to stand on his head to reach the pump to replace the impeller. The 2 invoices were $600 that could have been easily avoided had those items been replaced while the engine was out of the boat.
What irked me so much is I had no idea how much money I was going to be billed. I would ask and they said invoicing was done at the end of each week but apparently that wasn't done in the winter months when the bulk of the work was done. Apparently they figure they could just bill whatever they want "because people at LOTO have a lot of money ". NOT! If we'd run our automotive repair shop like that (oh sorry Mr/Mrs customer oops we had to do extra work sorry I didn't call you and get approval and now instead of the original estimate of $2500 it's now $5200 {for example} we'd lost a lot of customers!
The real final insult was the engine only lasted 20 hours before developing a bad knock. I didn't take it back to Pro Boat because I knew I'd get a run around and they didn't rebuild the engine anyhow. When I did get it out and to the engine rebuild shop they discovered a burnt piston. Why did the piston burn I asked (pretty mad too!). Too lean of a fuel air mixture they said and not their fault. OH remember the fuel injector that PRO BOAT replaced? I took all 8 to an independent testing shop and the "new" one flowed 25% less that the other 7 originals causing a too lean/hot condition and screwed up the engine on it's 1st full throttle run. Pro Boat Marina said it wasn't their fault because of blah blah blah so hence the 1 star review. read more