Fortunately everything that I've heard about the issues have been hearsay and I haven't experienced any of the issues personally, knock on wood. I again heard that Yamaha was trying to lighten up the weight on their 4 stroke motors so they made the mid sections out of lighter weight materials, and yes I did hear something about the corrosion resistance not being added originally. That is frustrating as hell that they could've likely avoided the whole issue if they'd done their due diligence and made the correct parts, regardless of the weight. My biggest question though was that I've heard of guys, and I think maybe even one or two on here, that have done the exhaust replacement kits and then 1k or so hours later had to do them again. Again, that's just hearsay and it could've been something where the original damage was worse than suspected and it came back. But I was just curious about what the service manager had to say on the matter as a lot of people online make it sound like every motor will have the issue at some point, though I have to imagine there are tens of thousands or more of owners out there that have never had the issue before. I've considered selling my Yamaha and putting the money towards a repower but then haven't pulled the trigger for multiple reasons. Mainly because the motor that I have is running well, the midsection was checked right after I bought it and all the dealers around here want top dollar and then some for just about everything.
