She's sick...

[sailor55330]

I'm curious if anyone has had this happen. It happened last fall, but thought I'd ask. If nothing else, call it a watch out.

At the end of the season last year during winterization, my dealer caught a problem with the boat. On the new 5.3l 300hp, the coolant tank and the power steering tank are one unit with a divider. My coolant had leaked into my power steering reservoir as a result of a faulty gasket. The dealer tried to get the part in before she went into storage, but it didn't arrive in time due to back order, so the part is on the will call shelf till the spring. They said they had seen it a few times and that VP had a recall on it. The mechanic caught it because the PS fluid wasn't the normal dark red color, but rather a salmon color which was a good catch. Apparently due to the viscosity, the coolant can get into the PS fluid, but not the other way around. This is not supposed to cause any damage to the PS system or the coolant system.

Either way, they are going to fix it in the spring and it should be a fairly straight forward fix. For the winter, they ended up doing the winterization plus draining the coolant and PS fluids, so those will be fresh.

Here's hoping that this is not an omen for my boat--only 12 hrs!

[Big Block Power]

Good catch. I never heard of this happening. Just make sure they flush it and flush it very good. Which I'm sure they will.

[Fun2Fish]

Yikes! I'm going to be checking mine now, 2.8 hrs on it.

Thanks for the heads up!

[AsLan7]

Wow. Had not heard of this recall.
Good info to pass along, S55330.
Sounds like an easy fix too.

[cmattj]

Good catch. I never heard of this happening. Just Manhee sure they flush it and flush it very good. Which I'm sure they will.

Yes.. powersteering fluid contamination on the inside of rubber hoses is the fear.

Warranty?? Have them change the hoses as consiquental damage and or customer enthusiasm.

It may be slight so at least inspect and as stated.. rinse thoroughly!

Not a big deal! You would have had steering fluid puking out if the cooler let go..nice they caught it.