Brand New Boat - Grinding/Rattling at Low RPM's - Video

[Seattle-Wind]

We took our brand new Yamaha AR190 out for its maiden voyage yesterday. Below 2,500 RPM there is a distinct grinding/rattling noise that is coming from either the engine bay, pump, or shaft. It sounds like something is loose or not aligned properly. Once revved above approximately 2,500 RPM the sound completely goes away and the engine is much quieter. Please watch the video and let me know if you've seen this before, or if this is just normal for these boats. If it's normal, why is it doing this?

For the first 5 seconds of the video you'll notice everything sounds normal, then we drop the RPM's and you can hear the difference.

 

[Weeb]

When the shifter is in the forward no wake indent the buckets is still down a little creating a lot of noise. Once the bucket opens all the way the jet stream isn’t hitting the bucket, that’s what I’ve noticed with my boat.

 

[mwalker4]

Same noise on my 190. Not my favorite feature of the boat.

 

[haknslash]

Sounds like they all sound to me.

 

[FLBulldogger]

Annoying, nothing to worry about, but unfortunately very common for our Yamahas. I agree with @Weeb the bucket is probably the main culprit, but the engine itself has been described as having a sound similar to nuts and bolts being shaken about. It actually sounds better than our 2013 SX190 we had and about the same as our 2018 SX195. Congrats on the new boat!

 

[Gym]

Welcome aboard @Seattle-Wind. I believe you were running that out of the water? If so were you running it on the hose? These engines/drive trains do make more noise out of the water and a little more so if you're not running on the hose which you can safely do for 20 to 30 seconds on a cold motor.

That being said...Have you sucked anything up into your impeller? Rope, stone, shells or a stick? I would take a close look at the impeller & wear ring to see if the impeller shows any signs of damage or if the wear ring shows any signs if impact from the impeller. It's not impossible that the dealer may have had an issue with this boat, either on a demo ride or a test run before delivery to you. Keep us apprised.

 

[swatski]

We took our brand new Yamaha AR190 out for its maiden voyage yesterday. Below 2,500 RPM there is a distinct grinding/rattling noise that is coming from either the engine bay, pump, or shaft. It sounds like something is loose or not aligned properly. Once revved above approximately 2,500 RPM the sound completely goes away and the engine is much quieter. Please watch the video and let me know if you've seen this before, or if this is just normal for these boats. If it's normal, why is it doing this?

For the first 5 seconds of the video you'll notice everything sounds normal, then we drop the RPM's and you can hear the difference.

Yes the 190 especially are known to develop a bit of a ramble at those rpm.
Nothing to worry about if performance in the water is good!

—

 

[Fordman]

Totally normal, all the 190's do it

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

Didn't they change over to the nylon pump liners in 2019? I had that noise until I went to the nylon pump liners.

 

[Dwrat]

My 190 does the EXACT same F-ing thing.
I hope it's normal.....

 

[Seattle-Wind]

Thanks for the replies everyone. The video was filmed when we were on the water, I know not to run the boat out of the water and not hooked-up to the hose.

I had a thought - do you think the noise could be from lack of any grease in the intermediate bearing housing? I've read that Yamaha ships these boats without grease in the housing, hence why we're supposed to add grease at the 10 hour mark (the break-in service).

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

Greasing the intermediate is a whole different story do a search about that I make my intermediate bearings last 650 hours and by pump bearings have 800 so far with no issues , as for the noise check the water box see if it is loose.

 

[sunbyrned]

I agree with @Cobra Jet Steering LLC You should search about adding grease. If you do add, make sure you understand how to measure the proper amount and know how many pumps it takes to produce that amount. Mine called for 30 CC's for example. I had to figure out what that meant first off and how many pumps it took to produce that amount., which took some time and experimenting. Overdoing it is not good. I also agree with @Gym and that you might want to take out the impeller and see if any debris is in there. A little stick, piece of plastic, etc. caught in there can produce the vibration. I've done it several times actually. The last time I didn't even find anything but just going through the process fixed the problem. I don't have the AR190 but you should consider what @swatski is suggesting. How is the performance of the boat at the time of vibration? For me, the grind coincided with loss of power. If that's not the case for you, then you're probably good to go.

 

[MorrisonJan]

Have the same issue on my 2017 AR190. Have you found anything out?

 

[Seattle-Wind]

Have the same issue on my 2017 AR190. Have you found anything out?

I haven't found anything out about it. Our boat still does it (205 hours on it now), I'm actually used to it and subconsciously bump up the RPM's to 2,300 - 2,400 rpm after the engines warmed up for a few minutes just so it doesn't rattle because it sounds annoying. The noise doesn't have anything to do with greasing the intermediate bearings as far as I can tell. Apparently it's normal.