Trim Fluid Flush

[billk2632]

So a bit of a boneheaded move, or at least my mistake. Had been having issues with the trim since I bought the boat last year (R5 - VP 300 - DPS), all it ended being on the trim was it needed to be bleed, I did that this spring and it is been fine. Except -- when I blead the trim and removed the hard to reach fill cap (I have the pump on the outside of the boat) I either did not get that cap on tight or it loosened up somehow. Started seeing traces of fluid in the water and when I check it yesterday it looks like water has gotten into the trim fluid - not sure how much (milky residue when I removed the cap) but the trim had been working flawlessly. Feel like I need to flush the trim fluid.

Anyone done this on a VP? On my Mercruisers it was a matter of emptying the reservoir, disconnecting the trim lines and running the trim up/down until clean fluid was through the system. Disconnecting the trim lines looks pretty straightforward, but does anyone know if you can get a tube down the reservoir fill to pump out the fluid? The VP pump design on the transom like this is a nice neat package, but a real PIA to work on.

I hate to go through all of this, but I know the cap was loose enough to leak some fluid out, and based on the milky oil I could see when I removed the cap, at least a small amount of water has gotten in - how much I don't know.

[billk2632]

Well no one responded on this, so either no one has done it or no one wanted to tell me what a messy job it is. I did it yesterday -- not hard, but messy. I like my Volvo Penta, maybe better than the Mercruisers I have had, but there are some things that definitely have the Swedish engineering. I see some similarities with the Volvo cars we have owned - some good, some not so good. The trim pump is one of them. This thing is a bear to work on, just getting the fill cap off and adding fluid is a chore. You cannot insert a tube into the reservoir to suck out fluid and subsequently it is impossible to get even a small funnel to re-fill - lots of spilled fluid ends up everywhere. Also, does not seem to hold much fluid at all - maybe a pint at most. Anyhow, I removed the trim rams (in order to remove the trim hoses) and then ran the trim up/down while adding new fluid until everything ran out clear. My VP manual specifies their PS/Trim fluid, so I put PS fluid back in. The fluid was a milky mess. All of this was probably my own doing, when I bleed the system earlier this year I did not get the cap on tight enough and it looks like the O ring on the cap was damaged. Once I cleaned out as much of the old fuild as I could, I filled / bleed the system and it seems to be working fine! I'll check it in a few weeks - if there is still some milky fluid in there (double I was able to get it totally flushed) I might do it again this fall or let the dealer do it when they service the outdrive.

[AsLan7]

.
Never did it or had to do it.
Thanks for posting though!

[Krob1114]

I've never done a trim fluid flush, or even knew that you might need ont.

We've had a trim issue, I started to say problem, since we bought our boat. Sometimes I'll hit the button to trim up 2,3,4 times and nothing happens.
Then I'll barely touch it and it might go from 6 to 12. Could I need a trim flush?

[billk2632]

The only time you would need to flush the trim fluid is if it gets contaminated somehow - ie water in it like mine. Normally look at it like power steering in a car, no real reason to ever change/flush the fluid and if it is low, there is probably a leak. Only reason I even messed with my trim is it was not working correctly - would not stay up - I fixed it by bleeding the system. To do this you remove the cap, make sure the fluid is topped of and trim the drive up/down 5-10 times, this purges any air out ot the system. Problem is when I replaced the cap I did not get it on tight enough (it's plastic and in a PIA place) and it allowed some fluid to leak out and since the whole thing is below the water line, when fluid leaked out, water leaked in. I could see traces of some time of oil (trim fluid) in the water behind the boat when we anchored.

What you are describing sounds more like a gauge / sender problem - does the drive move the first couple of times you hit the button, then the gauge jumps?

[dustinm]

BBP can tell you his flush methods....

Krob I agree that it sounds like a sender problem. Mine doesnt show movement at the very start either.

[Big Block Power]

BBP can tell you his flush methods....

Krob I agree that it sounds like a sender problem. Mine doesnt show movement at the very start either.

Mine was power steering and it just dumped it all in bilge while driving. Yep it's a mess.

[Krob1114]

When I had our dealer's "captain" ride with us to answer any questions. He said there was nothing wrong with it. I works, so I'm not messing with it.