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TXI muffler cracked


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We have a 2013 TXI with the Centek mufflers. As we were skiing today we noticed the boat was not getting up to speed and then a loud boom, similar to a back fire. Next thing we noticed was the bilge pump turning on and so we started looking for the source of the water. Long story short, we found a hole in the left centek muffler about the size of a fifty cent piece. Has anyone had an issue with a muffler like this? What would cause the muffler to "explode"? Will be calling the dealer tomorrow to see about a warranty replacement but really would like to know what caused this.

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ahopkins22LSV

Well this is ironic. When I ran ours on a fake lake this season I noticed water in the bilge but couldn't track it down to any of the hoses. Went out and skied out first set and the bilge came on twice. Took it back to the dealer and they figured out that the drivers side muffler had a hole in it and was leaking. The baffle came broke loose in it somehow and Wore a hole through the side of it. It was about a half hour for them to replace it and fully covered on warranty.

Our boat ran fine though. The way you describe it sounds like there was almost a blockage and the pressure built up so high that it blew and hole in it and didn't allow you to get to speed. :dontknow: Were there any engine fault codes?

Edited by ahopkinsTXi
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I was skiing at the time, so information on what happened at the time is coming from my wife. She said the boat gave some warning lights for a second and then would only idle. The weird thing I noticed other than not getting up to speed was that the wake looked different. It was like the wedge was down about 6 inches causing a drag and a rough wake. I suppose one of the baffles broke loose and the exhaust was at least partially blocked. Did your dealer do the repair or did centek just send you a new muffler? I already took the muffler out and was planning on calling centek this morning. It's supposed to have a five year warranty. Hopefully they will just ship me a new one.

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ahopkins22LSV

They had a muffler in-stock so they just replaced it. I don't know how you would repair it and I would not have accepted a repair.

If there was a fault code you should be able to access it in the LCD screen on the dash. They are stored in Service --> Fault Codes --> Active or Inactive

Sounds like the boat may have gone into limp mode if it wasn't getting up to speed.

Edited by ahopkinsTXi
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Alright, so here is an update. The muffler has a 1.5" hole in the side of it. Again it is a 2013 TXI with 200 hours. With the hole and the engine running, water is being pumped into the bilge at a higher rate than the bilge pump can remove. Barely made it back to our dock and got the boat on the lift, water was coming up on the carpet. Anyway talked with Malibu who told me to call the dealer. Called dealer and he wanted me to bring the boat into the shop. Explained to them that the ramp to load was three miles away and I was afraid boat would sink before I can get it there. I already have the muffler removed anyway. I have offered to send the muffler to them, pay for the replacement muffler, and then get reimbursed. They say Malibu will not warranty it unless the dealer installs the new part. What to do????

I am thinking about just buying a new muffler ($130). I know its under warranty but do I really want to take the risk of the boat sinking and if it doesn't, dealer has quoted at least 2 weeks before they will look at it. To be honest, I can probably repair the hole in the muffler with a fiberglass repair kit for $5 or so. Ofcourse, doing this would definitely void the warranty.....

Worst thing is I don't want to be without a boat for 3 weeks for such an easy part to replace. It would litterly take 5 minutes to install the new one.

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ahopkins22LSV

I would just buy the new muffler and put it in yourself. The money is well worth the time you would spend without your boat. I would buy from the dealer though and just explain the whole situation to them to keep your relationship good with them.

IF there are no codes thrown for the engine, you still don't know why this happened right?

Edited by ahopkinsTXi
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I thought of the duct tape idea just to make sure there wasn't anything else wrong. Obviously something happened to create enough pressure to push a hole out of the muffler in the first place. Wife was driving at the time so I don't have any first hand knowledge of what the boat was doing other than it was not getting up to speed. I think I will duct tape tomorrow and see how it runs. If all is ok, I may just order a new one and see if Malibu would at least sell at cost.

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They say Malibu will not warranty it unless the dealer installs the new part.

Bologna. I've had a couple of warranty items shipped to me (transom light and stereo cable). I'm in a similar situation as you are with boat on a lift.

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I thought of the duct tape idea just to make sure there wasn't anything else wrong. Obviously something happened to create enough pressure to push a hole out of the muffler in the first place. Wife was driving at the time so I don't have any first hand knowledge of what the boat was doing other than it was not getting up to speed. I think I will duct tape tomorrow and see how it runs. If all is ok, I may just order a new one and see if Malibu would at least sell at cost.

I am not an engine guy, but a hole in the new muffler would lead me to check things out carefully. Those stories of cylinder misfires on the newer boats would make me dig deeper. I don't even know if a cylinder misfire could go that or not, maybe someone else does.

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I might think a down stream backfire could pop a muffler. It would need to be quite rich so I might look at a bad injector. Something would need to be very rich. I have seen backfires in intake manifolds blow them off or a hole in them. They were the new composite manifolds.

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@jloven: If the baffle is broken off and restricts water flow out the pipe enough to allow water to back up and subsequently enter the cylinder via an open exhaust valve, serious damage could occur. This may not only happen at speed but on shut down as well. As the exhaust gases and engine cool down, there is a draw back up the exhaust manifold in to the cylinder with an open exhaust valve. The exit point (vertically) of the water in to the exhaust manifold is carefully designed to eliminate draw back. Hotter cams in marine boats actually require a different riser or water exit point to reduce this occurance. If in your case, you trap more water in the exhaust pipe (thus higher vertically in the system), when you shut down you might injest some water to the cylinder.

If you are confident that the water level is not changing, I would suggest a short term "fix" (pun intended for both you and the boat) would be to use an inner tube and hose clamp(s) to create a seal rather than duct tape that is really not waterproof. You will also not leave any residue on the pipe from the inner tube method.

  • Like 2
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Alright, so here is an update. The muffler has a 1.5" hole in the side of it. Again it is a 2013 TXI with 200 hours. With the hole and the engine running, water is being pumped into the bilge at a higher rate than the bilge pump can remove. Barely made it back to our dock and got the boat on the lift, water was coming up on the carpet. Anyway talked with Malibu who told me to call the dealer. Called dealer and he wanted me to bring the boat into the shop. Explained to them that the ramp to load was three miles away and I was afraid boat would sink before I can get it there. I already have the muffler removed anyway. I have offered to send the muffler to them, pay for the replacement muffler, and then get reimbursed. They say Malibu will not warranty it unless the dealer installs the new part. What to do????

I am thinking about just buying a new muffler ($130). I know its under warranty but do I really want to take the risk of the boat sinking and if it doesn't, dealer has quoted at least 2 weeks before they will look at it. To be honest, I can probably repair the hole in the muffler with a fiberglass repair kit for $5 or so. Ofcourse, doing this would definitely void the warranty.....

Worst thing is I don't want to be without a boat for 3 weeks for such an easy part to replace. It would litterly take 5 minutes to install the new one.

It would be a good idea to know why this happened! If you have the muffler out can you tell if it was a build quality problem ? Very tin glass, This is why I liked it when Ron K. was running the show. He would send me parts under warranty and I sent the bad part back.

I will say nothing as big as a muffler but.........

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I'm just gonna go out on a limb here and say that your dealer is trifling. Weaksauce as SD would put it.

New boat? bought from them? and they wont make a quick service call out to your lake to get you back on the water?

just sayin

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if you have a hole in the muffler you have carbon monoxide being pumped into the bilge and, because of the pressurized exhaust gas fed from that hole, it's going to seep into the cabin, too. watch your step.

is that an argument to force the dealer to your dock?

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Ok another update. Woodski you are certainly spot on with your suspicision, at least from the standpoint of the exhaust path being blocked. Upon insistence from the dealer, I duct taped the hole, reinstalled the muffler, and eased it back to the ramp and loaded it on the trailer. Really didn't try to run it very hard as I was afraid of putting too much pressure on the taped up hole. After loading the boat on the trailer, I did a quick walk around and looked into the rear end of the stainless steel exhaust port. Surprisingly, i noticed pine needles hanging out of it. As I tried to pull them out, I found the port to be completely clogged with pine needles and a few small sticks! Once I got the boat back home I spent over an hour trying to get all the junk out, finally using a drain cleaner to pull out most of the stuff. I have no idea how this got into the exhaust port, but I suspect some sort of animal / bird???? In any event I hope this doesn't void athe warranty on the muffler as I plan to take it to the dealer on Saturday. They already have the part. Never thought this could be a problem with the turn down exhaust but I now wish I had the simple flap exhaust that would have kept this from happening. This was really packed in tight. I decided to take it to the dealer since they would not come out and I wanted the work to be done under warranty and also to have everything else checked out.

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ahopkins22LSV

I was actually wondering this if some rodent had gotten in there and made a nest over the winter months. Makes sense now. Pressure built up because of the blockage and burst out of a weaker part of the fiber glass muffler.

And I have heard of this happening. With rubber flaps though too. No personal experience with either but now I have heard of it with both the rubber flaps and ste.

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The time frame had to be over night, the boat was fine on Saturday. Do you think dealer will balk at replacing the muffler now that problem was not a manufacturing defect? Also, how is the best way to get all the trash out? The the stainless steel tip makes it difficult to reach in and simply pull it out. Is there anyway to remove it? I tried taking the three screws out but it was like it was attached from the inside as well.

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The time frame had to be over night, the boat was fine on Saturday. Do you think dealer will balk at replacing the muffler now that problem was not a manufacturing defect? Also, how is the best way to get all the trash out? The the stainless steel tip makes it difficult to reach in and simply pull it out. Is there anyway to remove it? I tried taking the three screws out but it was like it was attached from the inside as well.

So is this thing up on a lift? With the pine needles it sounds like a bird making a nest. Not sure what you could do to discourage that.

As for the muffler, I guess you'll get to find out how far your dealer will go and what you feel like telling them. Its clearly not a warranty issue, but they might let you slide. If it were me I'd buy the new muffler myself since there isn't a valid claim.

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ahopkins22LSV

So is this thing up on a lift? With the pine needles it sounds like a bird making a nest. Not sure what you could do to discourage that.

As for the muffler, I guess you'll get to find out how far your dealer will go and what you feel like telling them. Its clearly not a warranty issue, but they might let you slide. If it were me I'd buy the new muffler myself since there isn't a valid claim.

This very well may be the case. I had a similar situation on our last boat that it was user error on my part and we paid to replace the part to keep the relationship good. I am not saying your situation is user error, unless you are building bird nests in your free time :Tease3:. But, for the $130 dollars and pretty easy install as you mentioned above, I would pay the money and keep the relationship with your dealer good - plus you won't be effecting your warranty (to my knowledge).

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Tell the dealer service manager what you found and pay for the replacement. Save the chips for when you really need the dealer to help.

Edited by Bozboat
  • Like 1
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