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Yamaha 150 engine noise ?

C

Chillywilly

New member
Hi all, on the weekend I ran the engine and identified this engine noise. From the video it appears that the noise gets louder towards the from of the engine. It's a 2005 150 and at first I thought this is the harmonic balancer, so I called Yamaha CS and they confirmed that this was replaced in 2009. So what could this be - appreciate the wisdom. You Tube vid is there. Thanks image.jpg
 
I can't run the video, but a new balancer in 2009 may not have been a permanent fix. I believe that Yamaha went through a few iterations of the balancer before they finally got it sorted.
 
Apologies, having a bit of trouble with the You Tube load, however the video is there. Hope you can access it to hear the noise. I suppose everything is possible, just surprised that it's a balance issue, again
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Can't run that one either sorry. It may not be anything to do with the balancer this time. Just saying that the first replacement may have been no better than the original unit. 30 to 60 minutes to pull it and check if there is any concern, although a 'mechanics stethoscope' may eliminate this anyway.
 
If it wads me I would be checking that balancer. It might not be, but it sounds a lot like one. Be aware that if you leave it you will either destroy the powerhead or at minimum need the powerhead removed for major clean up. I just checked and if you type 'yamaha balancer' into youtube you will pull up other recordings of the noise to compare with.
 
Thanks, in your experience do you think Yamaha would cover the repair, get that it's off warranty but the repair part was upgraded and its a recurring issue...just trying to map out a strategy to get this addressed. Reality....it was fixed once and the issue is back.
 
My experience with Yamaha is that they won't help you at all unless you are in warranty. We are gradually getting rid of all our fleet Yamahas and replacing them with Hondas due to the numerous problems with design and quality in the 4 strokes we bought. Their 2 strokes were world class, but they totally dropped the ball on the 4 strokes as well as leaving their customers with huge repair bills on poorly designed engine parts. The good news for you is that the balancer replacement is just about the cheapest of the generic Yamaha problems to fix. There are a couple of choices - 1) get a mechanic to replace it (approx 1hr of work) 2) Replace it yourself (pretty simple task. Maybe 2 hours, but be careful to check the timing marks), 3) Pull it off and assuming it is faulty) grind off the remainder of the fibre gear that is failing and reinstall it. The engine doesn't need the balancer and this way it will never fail again. Yamaha apparently sell a 'commercial' version of that engine without the balancer, and I can't tell the difference between our two engines - one with balancer and one without. Might take 3 to 4 hours to do this yourself. Whatever route you go, the first thing is to pull the balancer and check it. It should only cost you an hour or so of labour to get it checked. If you carry on running it and the balancer is bad you will soon get to where you must pull the power head off and midsection apart. That is a good 8+ hours of labour and then you have to hope that you haven't wrecked anything due to low oil pressure.
 
Simply great advice aliboy. I sure would like Yamaha to step up, the HB 03 version was installed but clearly its failed. So now the 04 version is supposed to be the fix....whats next the 05 version. So every few years the owner needs to step up and pay for this...smells like ? Apologies for the 'vent'.
I appreciate your guidance, at this point I just know that I can't keep using the boat as is.
 
Please keep the thread updated with what you find. I know others who are wondering about their balancers and would like to hear how you get on and what version of balancers fail etc.
 
FWIW, my experience with the balancers. I tried running my engine without the balancing shafts and experienced a pronounced vibration from idle up to around 1200 RPM. Not only in the engine but the boat itself. I ended up replacing the balancer, (04) series. I still have a slight vibration, but not as bad as without the balancers. Guess the effect of the balancers may vary from engine to engine?
 
That's interesting l71. You can't tell the difference between our two engines side by side even though one doesn't have the balancer operating. I suspect that maybe the vibration could be more noticeable on a smaller boat and maybe that is what you experienced. The good thing is that you can try running without it and then fit a new one if needed for very little labour.
 
Have it in at Yamaha dealer, tech doesn't think this noise is the balancer. Had a stethoscope on it and the noise is coming from upper rhs (when in the boat) of the front. Thinks it's a bearing. So not sure how to proceed.
 
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