Lowrance elite 4 repair question

What's happening?!
So... Ive got a used lowrance elite 4 fish finder I've used last season.  It came with my yak (used). I'm going into my second season this year.  I've had good times and bad times with the fish finder.  More good than bad but not by much.  Maybe you all can help me witha few questions.  Before I pony up and get a new one.

1) is it worth sending to lowrance and having them give it the once over and maybe refurbishing it.

2) I'm assuming it's the head and not the transducer. Not much to go wrong with it (transducer) right? I'd hate to dismount the transducer if not necessary.

3) has anyone had luck going this route?

4) what kind of turnaround you think I could expect form their support / repair dept?

5) if you were to replace and or upgrade what's a good option with similar features?

I've tested my unit off the water but cant mimic the problems and when I'm on the water it's to frustrating to work with it there.  This is I consider a crucial piece of equipment and am tired of f'en around but am also to cheap to just drop cash without knowing what's up.
I probably wont get a used one just cause now I'd want to know full history of the replacement.

Thoughts?
Thanks
J. Ice

My $0.02 .... as follows.....regardless of how useless it really is......

If you know someone that has the same finder try there head on your transducer and yours on there’s.
Take a day to go on a local quick lake trip just to f#[k with it no fishing involved see if it’s a connection issue.
No idea about Lowrance service as I have 3 of them with no issues except  occasional connection corrosion.
If I have one fry I’ll likely just buy a new unit same model I have.

Dude.....
That is the smartest and simplest idea. 
Any one out there want to let me borrow their head unit?
Bueller....

J. Ice

Yep, that's a simple test, but what's yours doing?  Always helps to know what the problem is before making a suggestion on whether or not it can be fixed.  If you thinking the transducer needs to be tested against a known good head unit, it doesn't need to be from the same model.  Any model that used the same cables and transducer would work - all of the Elite finders in your series and any of the first series of HOOK units use the same transducer and cable.

Lowrance likely won't help you.  When my brand new Elite failed (it was the head unit) right after Lowrance replaced the Elite with the first series HOOK finders, I sent it in under warranty, they duplicated the problem I was having, told me they stopped repairing the Elite models and sent me a new HOOK(1) as a replacement.  Maybe that will still happen with an out-of-warranty used unit, but I kind of doubt it.

On the plus side, if it proves to be the transducer, some are still available through mail order if you search around.  Good luck and I hope it works out.

Yes, describe the symptoms. Someone might have had the same problem already.

I`ll take stab...clean the connections, retry ...