Fuel Tank Issues

[Brian S]

I have had my 2520sl for 1.5 years and 370 hours. I have never had a issue until the last two times I was out. The fuel/water seperator indicator came on twice, so I decided to open up the deck hatch to get to the sender and take a look into the tank. Let me first say that I love everything about my boat, but am quite disturbed with what I saw. The deck plate was cut out two inches too far forward on the boat, so in order to get to the sender, I needed to cut a bigger hole and will eventually need to get an 8" deck plate installed now. Once I got into the tank, there was a very small amount of water in the back corner, easily siphoned out. But I saw a bunch of what looked to be sand and small rocks in the tank. I siphoned all the gas out first the got a nice sample of this stuff into a clear jar with some of the gasoline. It was small metal beads, which are a biproduct of welding (when the tank was made). I took it to my yamaha servie center for their opinion, and they said the same thing. Now I'm sitting on a boat that needs a polished fuel tank, new deck plate and I am highly, highly concerned about the life span of my injectors since I have run 370 hours before identifying this issue. I have read the threads on injectors and I know Yamaha is not going to pay for a new one because of contaminents in the fuel tank. As of right now, the boat runs perfect and it's a non issue, but who knows what the injectors look like. I guess is was a blessing that I looked in the tank, but I'm waiting to hear back from Robin to see how this can be fixed.

 

[gw204]

You're engine and injectors are fine. There's no way those beads would get past your filters (water separator, under cowling filter and/or VST tank strainer).

 

[HM5]

Having serviced the fuel system on my 250HPDI in Oct, I also feel that it is highly unlikely that anything beside water might get past the filters; and that water would be trapped by the water sensor filter. You can see the issue I had with the "gunk" I found in my fuel system at the following link, text and pics:
http://www.classicparker.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5325&highlight=

Hope this helps

 

[MaxOut]

Brian, I have the same model, year boat as you do and the fuel sender went bad @ 11 months. Was unable to get the boat to the dealer for two months and was stuck with the out of warranty repair. They ran into the same issue with the deck plate in the wrong position and had to cut up to an 8" deck plate to get to the sender. I waited for Parker to send the dealer a plate that was supposed to match the existing plate only to get a totally different color and style plate installed that sticks up off the deck 1/2 " and looks like shi%!. Parker did step up and pay for the plate but charged me $30.00 to ship it to the dealer??? (SUCKER :? ) In retrospect I should have done it myself and saved the headache. I thought Parker would step up and cover the costs since it is there screw up and I called the dealer while it was in warranty and told them I was out of town and could not get the boat to them for two months. The fuel sender was $100.00 and add labor.....$300.00 later...Done with that dealer unless I have major engine issues. I contacted Robin and she responded saying she would look into it and never heard back from her . I inspected there installation of the deck hatch and noticed no sealant was used to seal the screws and only a clear bead of silicone was smeared around the top side of the hatch. I could go on and on but will spare you. I am disappointed in the entire situation and once again proves to me that if you want something done right you do it yourself. I would suspect times are bad at the boat dealers with sales so low and the economy in the shape it is in they will be less likely to go the extra mile for you to keep there costs down. DO WHATEVER REPAIRS YOU CAN YOURSELF AND CHAULK IT UP TO THE COSTS OF OWNING A BOAT EVEN IF UNDER WARRANTY.


Also See This Post-
http://www.classicparker.com/phpBB2/vie ... php?t=5511

 

[grouperjim]

i removed my fuel sender on my 2320 once to check out the inside of the tank. i have to admit the hole for the deck plate was pretty far forward of where it needed to be to gain access and initially looked as though it would be impossible to pull it out. however, after removing the screws which were a bit awkward to get to, the upper flange did shift forward enough so that i could pull it out of there. but that's my boat, it may be totally different from yours. i'll check out the Otherline's 2520 next time i am over there.

as far as doing it yourself to make sure it's done right........except for engine warranty issues ( i had an ECM go bad), NO ONE touches my boat but me. i just thank God i have the ability to do those things, and Classic Park is an invaluable reference as well.

there are good and bad Parker dealers like anything else you buy. we finally have a good one in St Pete. i am surprised Robin didn't get back to you. they definitely read CP.........so what may have fallen through the cracks inthe past may finally get addressed.

 

[MaxOut]

I hope Robin is reading this. I am suprised I did not hear from her as well but I was out of warranty and there was probably nothing she could do. I agree this forum is a big help for do it yourselfers like us.

 

[TheOtherLine]

i'll check out the Otherline's 2520 next time i am over there.

:shock: Hey! quit pointing out more things for me to fix! :shock:

 

[grouperjim]

ah, there you are.......now go out back and pry up that rear deck plate. Take an overhead pic to see if we actually have another project on our hands.

 

[Megabyte]

ah, there you are.......now go out back and pry up that rear deck plate. Take an overhead pic to see if we actually have another project on our hands.

Well... he did say "we".

 

[MaxOut]

Let's all quit our jobs and start a Parker service center??? :lol: We are more qualified then most. :shock: :shock: and we could have a keg machine instead of a water cooler. 8)

 

[HM5]

Let's all quit our jobs and start a Parker service center??? :lol: We are more qualified then most. :shock: :shock:

Nah! we'd loose our shirts because we care too much

and we could have a keg machine instead of a water cooler. 8)

I'm up for that! ooops, see we'd loose our shirts :lol: :lol:

 

[Brian S]

Sundance Marine drove all the way up from San Diego to pick up my boat to take care of her. I'm really impressed with these guys and their responsiveness. The guy that came looked at the sample of fuel I had and he also said the metal was from welding and he was pretty surprised. It looks like the boat is in good hands and on track to be serviced properly. I will let you guys know how it ends.

 

[Megabyte]

Wow! Sounds like Sundance is customer service oriented! 8)

 

[MaxOut]

Wow! Sounds like Sundance is customer service oriented! 8)

What a breath of fresh air. I hope they come through for you. I suspect they got a call (Robin).

 

[Brian S]

As a follow-up to my post I am happy to report that Sundance Marine completed the service on my boat. They installed a new deck hatch, polished the fuel tank, changed all the filters (which were fine), replaced the sea star system on the motor and even replaced the helm as they said it wasn't engaging properly once they fixed the steering. The helm was never an issue for me but I'm glad they discovered it while it was in the shop. Everything was warrantied and they discovered one last bug in my wiring. I posted a while back about charging batteries with an generator overnight when I'm out on a trip because my battery would sometimes die overnight. Well the battery is being drained from something grounding out on the negative battery terminal. When they hook up the circuit tester it lights up as if the negative cable going to my first battery has a complete circuit somewhere. They took everything apart that was installed from the factory and could not find it. The electronics guy who installed my electronics is going to look that portion over next week. Has anyone ever had an issue like this?

And I reccomend the service center at Sundance, I think they have made some good changes over there and I think they went above and beyond in inspecting my boat while in for service.

 

[Brian S]

I'm thinking it has something to do with my raymarine c80, the screen resets sometimes when I start the enging after running it and I also get the "no data source" screen that pops up for a few seconds.

 

[MaxOut]

I'm thinking it has something to do with my raymarine c80, the screen resets sometimes when I start the enging after running it and I also get the "no data source" screen that pops up for a few seconds.

The "No Data Source" comes up from the interference from the bubbles the engine makes when starting interferes with the Transducer. I get the same thing not a problem. If like yours it will geta signal within a minute or two.