Honda Outboard Starter Blues..

The starter crapped the bed on my Honda 60 horse for the pontoon. It couldn’t be rebuilt. New one ran just over $550! Amazon had a knock off for $300 but I wasn’t going to trust it.

No idea what the prices are for other makes, but I can’t help but think the way Honda runs their outboard business doesn’t help as their low volume must mean less parts out there, too.

Ice Cap wrote:

The starter crapped the bed on my Honda 60 horse for the pontoon. It couldn’t be rebuilt. New one ran just over $550! Amazon had a knock off for $300 but I wasn’t going to trust it.

Honda is the Japanese John Deere when it comes to outrageous parts prices. When I’m fixing Honda power equipment and need parts, whatever I think the part should cost, if it’s a Honda OEM part, it’ll be 2-3 times more.

Just a word on so called “knock off” parts. Often it is worth it to buy them and compare because the knock off parts is the same. Honda buys in parts from suppliers like everybody else does. Just because it says made in Japan doesn’t mean all the parts were made in japan. Think about it, would it really pay for a Chinese company to go through all the work to copy an outboard starter? What can the worldwide demand really be?

I’ve had so called knock off parts that had the exact molding lines and scratches as the OEM part. The only difference was the OEM part omitted the “made in China” stamp.

I had a starter go bad on a E-Tec 225hp, and I think it was about $200 for a new one. It was the starter drive that was bad, but you had to buy the whole starter, and couldn’t buy just the drive.

Mine got hung up and stayed engaged and fried itself. They tech who looked at it and said it couldn’t be rebuilt said it happens and sometimes caused by a weak battery. My battery had plenty of voltage but tested marginal under load so I replaced it too. The same guy told me it was a roll of the dice on the Amazon knock off. Sometimes they work out sometimes not. Said if it was his motor he’d buy a OEM one. A marine mechanic told me the same thing.

I got the OEM one for dealer cost at $525 less tax. Pays to know people I guess. Everything else I could find was $600+. It stings paying that much for a starter but if you wanna play ya gotta pay I guess.

It’s a ten year old motor and this has been the first issue of any kind so can’t complain too much I guess.

I give lots of deals at dealer cost, cause nobody but me knows what cost really is.