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Vinyl Yellowing on a Brand New 07 VLX


phil17

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I am looking for some advice. I am a first time boat owner and I bought a new BU! Here is the background and my questions:

I purchased a new 2007 VLX in december 2007. The boat had never left the showroom floor, not even for a demo ride. The dealership is about 2.5 hours from my house. I drove to the dealership to inspect the boat and after inspection I purchased. During the inspection I noticed that the boat had some dirt and dust in most of the seams on the seat cushons, and it appeared to be dirty from sitting on the showroom floor for about 9 months. Some of the seams appeared to be slightly yellow. The salesman assured me that the boat would be perfectly clean when I take delivery of the boat.

As part of the purchase, the dealer agree to store the boat through March. I called to schedule to pick-up my new boat in two weeks and I was told that unfortunately the yellow stains in the seams of the bow seat cushions did not come out.

At this point it is not clear what the dealer intends to do. I believe the dealer is concerned about the problem and is making another attempt to remove the stains. I purchased the boat and I am making payments. So, here are my questions:

1. What are my options?

2. Has anyone else experienced the yellowing issue I am describing?

3. Should something like this be covered by the Malibu warranty?

4. Wahat is the approximate cost to replace the vinyl seat cushons covering in the bow area of the boat?

To be clear, I do believe that the dealer is working to make this right. However, he has not said that he absolutely will rectify the situation. I may be overreacting, but I bought a brand new boat so I would avoid any issues.

Any feedback would be helpful. Thanks.

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Those seat's are under warranty. Have the dealer order new skins from the factory.

The down side will be that you will have to drive the seat cushions to the dealer to get the new skins put on. But that's better than having yellow seams.

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Actually, you said that the dealer was going to store the boat until March. So they should have plenty of time to get the seats fixed before you pick it up.

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It is a warrenty/dealer issue, should be no problem for malibu to replace them, the boat hasn't been outside!

Could take time though, the factory takes time to make those things.

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The good thing is that you can use is as is, & when the skins come in you can have them do the work when you take it in for service. It most definitely is covered under warranty, particularly since he knew about it from the very start.

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The ski deck on my boat was in pretty bad condition when I inspected my boat. I called Malibu and was told that "they were not responsible if the boat was not properly stored."

I expected a new boat with a full warranty to be covered, seems to be Malibu doesn't always agree.

I would be very careful and make sure your dealer agrees in writing to replace the seats before you take delivery.

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  • 1 month later...

I'm been in the marine industry for years, and thought I could weigh in on your problem. Vinyl yellowing typically comes from 2 sources.

1) An improper cleaner has been used and caused a chemical reaction with the vinyl to cause the yellowing. Because the yellowing is at the seams, its possible that the cleaner pooled there long enough to cause damage.

2) Flame Lamination, Most vinyl sold from the vinyl producer is in a flat rolled form. Boat builders use a flame lamination process (outsourced) to add 1/4" foam to the back of the vinyl. This is a burning process melts a small portion of the foam and attaches it to the back of the vinyl. Burning the foam accelerates the oxidation process and the foam begins to turn yellow. The free amines then migrate into the vinyl and turn the vinyl yellow. This generally happens fastest where air contacts the foam at the sew seams.

As for your situation,

Since there are 2 prominent sources for yellowing the boat builder usually blames the dealer for using an improper cleaner, and the warranty claim goes no-where.

If your boat was stored in a building heated with natural gas... that might have even compounded the yellowing problem.

The good news is that you now have the knowledge to defend your position. If you end up not having the interior replaced, the yellow color will fade away over time with UV exposure, but it cannot be cleaned or conditioned away.

Hope I was helpful.

Edited by Industry Vet
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  • 7 months later...

I just purchased an 08 VLX that was a showroom boat and stored inside most of 2008. I have 14 hours on the boat, and like any new owner, spent more time cleaning it then driving it. I used "Babes" interior vinyl clear and conditioner on the vinyl seats....Malibu changed out a few "recall" pieces for me the other day and the Malibu factory reps noticed the "yellowing" of the vinyl...they asked what product I used. I told them Babes. They said that Babe's products had a chemical reaction with the sun and caused yellowing. I looked harder at my new vinyl..and never wiped down a portion of the back of the captain's seat..it was still white...and the rest is "yellowing." Malibu knows about this product problem and have asked all dealers to pull Babe's products from the stores. Needless to say, I'm bringing it to Malibu's attention as I have a brand new $60K boat and my white vinyl looks like someone wiped it down with coffee.

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I just purchased an 08 VLX that was a showroom boat and stored inside most of 2008. I have 14 hours on the boat, and like any new owner, spent more time cleaning it then driving it. I used "Babes" interior vinyl clear and conditioner on the vinyl seats....Malibu changed out a few "recall" pieces for me the other day and the Malibu factory reps noticed the "yellowing" of the vinyl...they asked what product I used. I told them Babes. They said that Babe's products had a chemical reaction with the sun and caused yellowing. I looked harder at my new vinyl..and never wiped down a portion of the back of the captain's seat..it was still white...and the rest is "yellowing." Malibu knows about this product problem and have asked all dealers to pull Babe's products from the stores. Needless to say, I'm bringing it to Malibu's attention as I have a brand new $60K boat and my white vinyl looks like someone wiped it down with coffee.

WHAT! i use babes on the interior all the time. The boat came with babes sample products in the glove box, the manual recommends babes.

I haven't noticed any yellowing but won't see the boat again until April.

Do let us know what Malibu has to say.

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Working at a boat dealership i see a lot of discoloring especially on the white vinyl. A lot of it can be cleaned up our detail crew gets a lot of the yellowing out with simple green for the crazy stuff they will even use soft scrub. Malibu is great about covering upholstery on legitimate problems. That being said remember in your owners pamphlet it tells you to use 303 products. One other problem we see see is browning from the black covers cooking the vinyl seems to be happening more with the commercial sewing cover than the great lakes.

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I sent an email to Babes last night, got a reply this morning (I missed that malibujw was a first poster, possible troll)

Hello Bob,

We reviewed your e-mail and are quite concerned as we have no knowledge of the comments made by the customer nor are we aware of any recall on our products involving Malibu dealers. We will be in touch with our contacts at Malibu.

On a personal note you may be interested to know that the principal owners of BABE's of which I am one are a group of active skiers and boaters who obviously use our products every day we are out on the water and have never experienced any of the issues described in the e-mail. We also support a promo team of individuals with complimentary products to obtain quality feedback on our products performance on the various brand of boats including Malibu, Mastercraft and Ski Nautique. We have close relationships with our promo team members and also have never experienced any adverse effects from the use of our products.

However we will in contact today with Malibu to obtain comments and find out more about this issue.

Regards,

Bob Phillips

BABE's

Edited by Cervelo
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I just purchased an 08 VLX that was a showroom boat and stored inside most of 2008. I have 14 hours on the boat, and like any new owner, spent more time cleaning it then driving it. I used "Babes" interior vinyl clear and conditioner on the vinyl seats....Malibu changed out a few "recall" pieces for me the other day and the Malibu factory reps noticed the "yellowing" of the vinyl...they asked what product I used. I told them Babes. They said that Babe's products had a chemical reaction with the sun and caused yellowing. I looked harder at my new vinyl..and never wiped down a portion of the back of the captain's seat..it was still white...and the rest is "yellowing." Malibu knows about this product problem and have asked all dealers to pull Babe's products from the stores. Needless to say, I'm bringing it to Malibu's attention as I have a brand new $60K boat and my white vinyl looks like someone wiped it down with coffee.

Shocking.gifROFL.gif

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I use 303 and have no problems at least not yet. My boat is stored in outside covered storage. Mine is a 2007 VLX also. Regarding Babes products, that is startling as my boat also had Babe samplers in the glove compartment, luckily I used it only once, will throw the rest out now.

I have heard of the cussions yellowing mostly when the boat is covered in direct sunlight (probably due to heat build up, which also might support the theory of yellowing if stored indoors when there is gas heating) but have heard it fades away if the boat is uncovered and in direct sunlight for some time.

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I use 303 and have no problems at least not yet. My boat is stored in outside covered storage. Mine is a 2007 VLX also. Regarding Babes products, that is startling as my boat also had Babe samplers in the glove compartment, luckily I used it only once, will throw the rest out now.

I have heard of the cussions yellowing mostly when the boat is covered in direct sunlight (probably due to heat build up, which also might support the theory of yellowing if stored indoors when there is gas heating) but have heard it fades away if the boat is uncovered and in direct sunlight for some time.

I use babe's all the time. have never had a problem. This guy comes on the board with this story that does not appear to be accurate according to the response I got from babe's boat products. Then you see he is a first poster who hasn't been back with any verification of his story and i'm thinkin BS. Until I hear something from a Malibu dealer, I will continue to use it. Don't give in to unfounded fear.

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I heard that using 3M wax on the boat will eventually disintegrate the gel coat. But before completely destroying the finish and delaminating the hull, the decomposition of the gel emits fumes which are toxic--but only to dogs. So those of you who use the above product AND take dogs on your boat. . .WATCH OUT! Crazy.gif

Whistling.gifBiggrin.gifROFL.gif

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