Mercury Warranty - DIY Maintenance & Modifications

Will doing your own maintenance void your Mercury warranty? The short answer is no. Your Mercury warranty will not be voided if you perform your own maintenance. However, you need to be familiar with Mercury's policies when it comes to warranty service work and engine or sterndrive modifications. Maintenance work is straightforward. Your maintenance can be done by you or anyone you authorize to do it.

Actually, if an issue arises from the lack of proper maintenance or service, your warranty likely will not support that issue. We strongly advise that you review your owner’s manual maintenance chart or online maintenance schedules to plan the maintenance that needs to be done. However, we always recommend considering your repair and maintenance capabilities. Some more complicated or precise tasks will likely need to be done by an authorized Mercury dealer. If you perform your own maintenance, please remember to help protect the environment by properly disposing of oil and other engine fluids.

Also, if you need help finding the right Mercury outboard parts or Mercury maintenance kits for your specific engine (including parts for your Mercruiser engine), check out our Mercury Maintenance Parts Library.

Common Mercury Warranty Issues & Questions

Mercury warranty work

Any warranty work done on your engine needs to be done by an authorized Mercury dealer. Your dealer will perform the work on your engine and file the claim with Mercury for you.

Will modification of your engine or sterndrive void the warranty?

Your Mecury's warranty does not apply to damage or failures caused by use of an accessory or part not manufactured or sold by Mercury. See the appropriate Mercury or MerCruiser warranty policy for your product or in your Operation, Maintenance & Warranty manual. In other words, if you modify your engine with non-Mercury parts and those parts cause damage, you will likely have a problem.

Will the use of fuels containing ethanol void your engine warranty?

Fuels containing up to 10 percent ethanol are considered acceptable for use in Mercury engines. Fuels containing higher levels of ethanol are not considered acceptable for use, and can void the warranty.

How can you tell if your engine is still covered by warranty, or how much coverage is left?

Using the serial number of your engine, your local authorized Mercury dealer can quickly check your warranty coverage. They can verify that your engine is registered with Mercury, whether it is covered by Mercury's standard factory warranty, if there is any additional promotional coverage, or if it is covered by a Mercury Product Protection plan. Source: Mercury FAQs