2003 Mercruiser Silent Choice problem

[Juha]

What a bummer the silent choice system on the 232 has proven to be so unreliable. First there was only one recurring issue - there is enough give in the actuators for them to sometimes misplace themselves and get stuck. Usually it was the starboard actuator and when it happened the valve in the pipe would always stay open and the fuse for the actuators always blew. I'd have to replace the fuse and then disassemble the actuator-valve pair and assemble in the correct position.

I asked the previous owner about this and he knew enough to tell me it was an adjustment issue. Indeed the "arm" in the actuator was incorrectly adjusted for the length it needed to be. (The arm rotates like a screw inside the actuator, enabling fine-tuning of its length.)

Having fixed that, there was a new problem. The joint between the exhaust valve and swivel arm above it seems to leak and sprays water all over the place. Anyone got any idea how to compensate for that?  Or can I at all. There's one screw in the swivel arm, what does that do? It doesn't seem to connect anywhere relevant but that's the only option I can see, unless rotating the valve adjusts the seal like rotating the actuator arm adjusts its length.

Check out this pic. http://jupix.info/kuvia/IMG_0162.jpg
It sprays water from underneath the L joint there. (the swivel arm I was talking about) How do I seal it up?

And as if that's not enough, now I've got one totally dead actuator!
It just worked one day, and the next it made a horrendous whirr like it was dying and didn't move at all. I took it apart and a screw in it appeared to have come loose, because the thread on the other side had given up. It doesn't hold the screw at all. I'm thinking it'd make sense to replace both actuators but that works out to over 400€ and it looks like they wouldn't be easy to wire up, the wires disappear into the top of the engine bay.

Anyway, if anyone has info on the exhaust valve seal I'd very much appreciate it!

[Juha]

Well, it's been an episode in itself to deal with this before even fixing anything.

I contacted the Rinker importer in Finland and was soon forwarded to the guys at Brunswick Marine. Well, both were not helpful at all, all my e-mails and a lot of my calls went unanswered and I never got the information I wanted. Mostly it was just "I don't know" or "the people you want to talk to aren't in at the moment". I did get the proposal from one of them (forgot which one at this point) to have the leaking Y-pipe resealed. After about 4 months of dealing with the crappy customer service I decided to not do any business with them whatsoever and turned to my marina who have access to the Brunswick parts import list.

So they finally were able to tell me the "genuine" Mercruiser part costs about 1300 euros. As I suspected the price is completely bonkers so I decided to go with the Getrago set I'd found by searching some names on the old parts on Google. It turned out with the help of some German family members that despite their "questionable" web presence Getrago do business in fluent English and are very helpful & customer friendly. The total cost door-to-door came to 475 euros (incl. 50 euros in UPS fare) for a set of 2 Y-pipes and actuators, including the switch, which makes some sort of sense.

In addition to getting the parts very quickly I was able to ask the manufacturer some questions about using the system, mainly if it is harmful to adjust it under power. They said pretty much what I expected which is that the actuators can handle reasonable force, but they are designed to be used at idle. I also asked them if it's ok to set the flaps to a "slightly open" position in order to hear the nice V8 exhaust tone but still muffle it (to both save my ears a bit and avoid breaking the EU noise pollution law for boats), but they wouldn't answer that, only said that they don't understand why I would want to do that.

Well, the parts are now at my marina who will go ahead and try to get them to fit. The parts are not 100 % identical but very close. I should imagine there will be no problem installing the parts, and if some slight modification has to take place, the total cost will come to damn sight less than 1300+installation.

Look at those nice clean parts:

[Dan&Darci]

Good luck    Let us know how they work out for you! 

[Juha]

Well, not going as well as I'd hoped. The Y-pipes, particularly the downward pipes (going to the outdrive) are angled differently than those currently on the boat, and the diameter is wrong, and there is not enough clearance to compensate with an adapter.

Check this out.




Won't fit.

So, I contacted Seatech and apparently they had a mixup with the type of Y-pipe they should send. These are a new design that isn't even supposed to fit. So they went ahead with a replacement and that was fine. I asked them for the tracking code and how they want me to handle returning the "old new pipes". This was 2 weeks ago. No pipes or response to my questions as of yet. I've sent them 2 reminders. UPS won't help me because I don't have the tracking #. All I can do is sit at home and wait for the doorbell or my inbox to chime.

Just ventin' my frustration. I could be on the water if it wasn't for the damn mixup.

[alswagg]

The OEM silent choice in 2003 was from Corsa,  not Mercruiser.  The Mercruiser versions had not been used since late 1997 as an OEM installataion.  Each version of silent choice system for a Rinker is custom made to fit the particular model.  Al

[Juha]

Does the Y-pipe in the picture on the right look like the Corsa part? Because at least the actuators were the Seatech ones and identical with the ones I got from them. So I'm thinking the system in my boat is not OEM.

[alswagg]

What  is shown in the photos is acutally the diverter,  Not the actual Y pipe.  But the diverter looks like the OEM Corsa with the paint removed.  The Original Corsa exhaust is SST painted black.  The what is photo'd looks like Corsa Exhaust.  Al

[Juha]

Does Corsa get the actuators & other electrical parts from Seatech?