Merc 150XL Power Trim Quit Working
 

Kind of surprised and disappointed to say the least. Last outing in August I pulled the boat out of the launch at the cold lake marina. While getting the boat ready to tow home I went to raise the motor to put the transom saver in place and the motor would not lift. The pump motor sounded perfect but something was amiss. The motor would not move up or down. Ended up having to hold the motor up by the lower unit, have my wife back off the bleed screw and the young kid we took fishing that day aligned the transom saver before I set the motor down on it and tightened the bleed screw. Then I dug around in the truck got out a ratchet strap and a rubber pad to place between the strap and lower unit to protect the paint before strapping it in place.
Now the kicker. Yes the boat & motor are 6 years old but the engine has 50.5 hours on it in 6 seasons.
I baby my stuff. It is so well maintained and never abused that it is very disappointing that after only 50 hours something like a power tilt and trim assembly quits working. Most of them last forever. There was no oil leaks, the boat is stored indoors 12 months/year. In 50 hours the motor just had it's 5th annual winterizing including an oil and filter change each year and lower unit oil as well. As I said this thing is babied. Spoke with a couple shops and all said the most economical way to go is replace the entire assembly. It's only 3 pins and unplug the wiring to pull the original off and to remove it, troubleshoot and replace needed parts /repair it would cost considerably more than a replacement unit and two hours labour to uninstall/reinstall.
The motor was out of warranty 3 years ago but I am wondering given the low hours(have a diagnostic print out and all service records) if Merc might help me out with a replacement unit. A new one is $1597 +gst.

Are you saying BOTH the kicker AND main engine power trim/tilt have crapped out? One would be rare, both is a lottery ticket ......

I'd get it to the dealer - not sure what, something is strange - I'd check the power and voltage delivered to both power trim/tilt units ...... seems really strange

I've had it in already. The kicker is fine. It works perfectly. Just the 150 crapped out. They figure the pump or valve system quit working. You can hear the motor running when you hit the switch to raise or lower. Sounds 100% normal and it's full of oil.

these mercs are not that good ,my 150 developed an engine oil leak after the warranty was off , once again not many hours on engine, very disappointing . never had a problem with my omc products .

I had the same thing happen to my Evinrude 250. Same low hours, but luckily it was still under warranty.
Mine crapped out 25 miles from the marina in Tahsis..... long long ride back to the marina with 15HP kicker on my 26' ft Striper.... (Motor was up from trolling with the kicker, and at the point I didn't know about bleeding the motor to lower the main engine...Something I learned really quickly after that experience!)
I definitely feel your pain.

Hopefully it's something simple and cheap ...... being a boat owner is an expensive club to be in ....... I got to buy a new trailer last year on a 10 year old boat during the shortages post covid and in the middle of nowhere BC ..... which was EXPENSIVE (I had no choice).

B.O.A.T. = bring out another thousand