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Tried to Sink my boat!


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Had the boat out Sat, saw the bilge light on...hmmmm...that never comes on! WTF? Tried to shut it off...wont go off.

Open seat cover over tranny....holy crap...FULL of water! Yikes, high tail it to the landing, put it on the trailer and look it over.

Plugs are in, didnt hit anything......

Look into the engine compartment and realize there is a clear tube sitting there....hmmm...also a fitting unoccupied near the shaft seal.....

Then I recall reading about this on TMC forums!

Sure enough, it came off and was filling the boat with water!

Make sure you guys/gals check that hose as mine was held on by one single little zip tie! All other hoses have clamps on them.....

I called dealer to dbl check, and the service guy has not had his malibu training yet.....NEVER buy from a dealer who doesnt know his stuff or has poor service. Next time I will drive out of my way for the dealership, even though this one is 90 minutes from me, its at least in the direction I go to the cottage.

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Glad to hear you kept the boat from going down & had no real long term problems as a result.

But that has nothing to do with lack of training or being a Malibu, or even being a boat! What idiot would put on a pressurized hose of any kind on any motor with a zip tie?! On your truck, your I/O, your motorcycle, whatever. It's common sense to use hose clamps. I'd question whether any amount of training could give a guy much common sense. Hopefully the dealer will hire someone with an ounce of it!

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Glad to hear you kept the boat from going down & had no real long term problems as a result.

But that has nothing to do with lack of training or being a Malibu, or even being a boat! What idiot would put on a pressurized hose of any kind on any motor with a zip tie?! On your truck, your I/O, your motorcycle, whatever. It's common sense to use hose clamps. I'd question whether any amount of training could give a guy much common sense. Hopefully the dealer will hire someone with an ounce of it!

Plus1.gif

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Glad to hear you kept the boat from going down & had no real long term problems as a result.

But that has nothing to do with lack of training or being a Malibu, or even being a boat! What idiot would put on a pressurized hose of any kind on any motor with a zip tie?! On your truck, your I/O, your motorcycle, whatever. It's common sense to use hose clamps. I'd question whether any amount of training could give a guy much common sense. Hopefully the dealer will hire someone with an ounce of it!

Plus1.gif

Id like to think that was done by malibu when the made the thing......but a fricken small zip tie?? Cmon, thats pretty weak. Ill be calling customer service again....

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My dealer found the same zip ties being used on the clear tubes too. He also had a boat filling up from tube blowing off. He went back to the shop and found other new boats with same ties. He changed them all to stainless clamps. I checked mine and it is clamped with stainless. Looks like MAlibu tried to save a buck and switched to zip ties. Somewhere in the 08 model year maybe. CHECK YOURS OUT!

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Had the boat out Sat, saw the bilge light on...hmmmm...that never comes on! WTF? Tried to shut it off...wont go off.

Open seat cover over tranny....holy crap...FULL of water! Yikes, high tail it to the landing, put it on the trailer and look it over.

Plugs are in, didnt hit anything......

Look into the engine compartment and realize there is a clear tube sitting there....hmmm...also a fitting unoccupied near the shaft seal.....

Then I recall reading about this on TMC forums!

Sure enough, it came off and was filling the boat with water!

Make sure you guys/gals check that hose as mine was held on by one single little zip tie! All other hoses have clamps on them.....

I called dealer to dbl check, and the service guy has not had his malibu training yet.....NEVER buy from a dealer who doesnt know his stuff or has poor service. Next time I will drive out of my way for the dealership, even though this one is 90 minutes from me, its at least in the direction I go to the cottage.

Yep, I had the exact same thing happen on my '06 for the exact same reason, a plastic zip

tie instead of a stainless hose clamp on the distal side of the clear hose to the water-cooled

shaft seal. It was a gut-check, but 30 minutes later and a buck fifty for a proper clamp

at the marina store and we were good to go.

I called my dealer to give them grief at the time. They apologized and said they'd make a note

of it in case I had any problems with the starter motor or steering cable because of excessive

water in the bilge (IIRC, that sucker pumps like 12 gallons/minute). That was two years

ago. No problems so far.

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Whoa now....

Just for reference, the bilge pump kicks on when the float switch contacts. The float switch only requires 3 inches of water or so (maybe less?) to start pumping. So before we all run scared let's evaluate what the possibilities are. First, the boat will not sink even with water over the floor (which will take another foot or more of water). Second, this would require the bilge pump to not be working for some time, or have been running for hours.

Something that is very hard to do when people in boats see water in the bilge, is to first shut off the engine. While this may be a debatable decision, I have found that more water is pumped into the boat from an engine supplied hose than from an external leak, such as a drain plug. So, the faster you run the boat back to the ramp the faster it pumps water from a blown circ hose, supply hose, loose connection, or otherwise. In my opinion a good thing to do is first stop the engine and look for the source.

Even if the source of water is the drain plug, there is no water pressure into the bilge from a forgotten drain plug. While it's difficult to swim under the platform and install a transom plug, the plug drains under the engine and/or in the center locker are an easy install, even if you have filled up the boat with water before you notice. While I can't tell you do try it, it is a confidence builder to unscrew the bilge drain plug and then put it back in while floating in the lake. You realize it's a non-issue.

In regards to the water cooled shaft seal hose, I believe the first hoses used were a smaller diameter, and the pressure was non-existent. It appears to me that the newer boats have a slightly larger hose, and the ability for more volume, thus they seem to use a hose clamp. I'm not making excuses or approving of any particular installation, just stating what I've seen.

Hope this helps.

Peter :)

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....

Something that is very hard to do when people in boats see water in the bilge, is to first shut off the engine. While this may be a debatable decision, I have found that more water is pumped into the boat from an engine supplied hose than from an external leak, such as a drain plug. So, the faster you run the boat back to the ramp the faster it pumps water from a blown circ hose, supply hose, loose connection, or otherwise. In my opinion a good thing to do is first stop the engine and look for the source.

Even if the source of water is the drain plug, there is no water pressure into the bilge from a forgotten drain plug. While it's difficult to swim under the platform and install a transom plug, the plug drains under the engine and/or in the center locker are an easy install, even if you have filled up the boat with water before you notice. While I can't tell you do try it, it is a confidence builder to unscrew the bilge drain plug and then put it back in while floating in the lake. You realize it's a non-issue.

....

That is some really good advice, all of it. Even in the event of the rear plug being left out (& none of us have ever done that, right? ;)), if you stay calm & take the correct measures, it's not a huge deal. The biggest thing though is to not panic & realize that you have some time to work with.

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