2011 oil cooler

[robert843]

Well this is disappointing. For those familiar in the oil cooler bolt issue am I correct in assuming my 2011 has the old oil cooler with the issue?

 

[Bill D]

@robert843 I know I've read that the problem oil coolers and the updated ones have different part numbers. That being said, I have no idea what those part numbers are. The coolers on my boat were changed out before I bought it.

Hopefully someone chimes in with more better information.

 

[Ronnie]

@robert843 , I had my oil coolers on my 2010 replaced in 2013. The new coolers have an arrow stamped on their faces that points to the third bolt down, and the head on that bolt is different than the rest of the heads (it is rounded rather than crowned like the other bolt heads). I could not tell from your video but the four bolts I am referring to are on a vertical on the straight side of the oil cooler looking at its face (that is they are in a straight line going up and down). Here is a pic of the page from the string on the other site of one of my new coolers. My old coolers didn't have arrows stamped in them and only had one type of bolt head on their faces. See the second pic for reference (no bolts because the pic was taken post removal but no arrow on the face either).

 

[robert843]

There is no arrow on mine. The only difference between mine and all the other pics I have seen of broken ones is mine has some kind of blue stamp on it but I have yet to see any of the broken ones with this blue stamp. In the same sence I have not seen any of the pics of the new ones to see if they have that same stamp.

 

[Ronnie]

I don't recall any blue stamps on my old or new coolers.

If or when you remove the coolers you might want to check to see if they are not warped with a straight edge. In my situation one cooler cracked at the third bolt hole and the other cooler had a warped face. Both of the third bolt heads were fine .

 

[GTBRMC]

I have no direct experience regarding this subject, BUT, I thought this issue was specific to the 2010 model year. Am I wrong?

 

[GiddYupJoe]

I have no direct experience regarding this subject, BUT, I thought this issue was specific to the 2010 model year. Am I wrong?

Some people have had the issue with early production 2011's from what I recall.

 

[GTBRMC]

Some people have had the issue with early production 2011's from what I recall.

Ah, ok, I missed that. Thanks.

 

[SCSTWG]

From what I can see in your video, you do in fact have the older style oil cooler (as do I) and I have around 100 hours on my 2011 AR240. I believe @motorboater has a 2011 AR240 with the older style oil cooler as well, but he has over 200 hours on his boat. Neither of us have had any issues as of yet (knock on wood). I look at mine before and after every outing and pay special attention to any sign of oil leakage. I have read through every post on this site and the other site regarding this topic and there is no consensus on if anything should be done proactively. We all agree that this is disappointing and something that Yamaha should have stepped up to the plate on. What you will see is that some people have had free replacements under warranty and other haven't. Those of us that are off of warranty are on our own.

 

[rkluck]

I haven't had any issues either until two weeks ago. Looking from the top the third bolt down towards the bow of the bolt (under the oil filter) sheared off. The cover itself is fine. I really couldn't tell from the video if a bolt was sheared or what was going on. I have another post on this as well, but my dealer stated Yamaha had a problem and over torqued these bolts. If you try to loosen the bolt it will probably break off as well. Anyway, my dealer is going to see if Yamaha will cover this. If so he will put in new coolers. If not the dealer will fix this for a little over the price of an oil change and fix the other cooler as well. They keep a few coolers just for this so it is easy to swap them and get the customer out. So all in all, not too bad in cost and fast. I am glad this happened now and not May or the summer!

 

[robert843]

I have no issues at this time with it was just verifying that it is something I need to watch for.

 

[jawsf16]

I haven't had any issues either until two weeks ago. Looking from the top the third bolt down towards the bow of the bolt (under the oil filter) sheared off. The cover itself is fine. I really couldn't tell from the video if a bolt was sheared or what was going on. I have another post on this as well, but my dealer stated Yamaha had a problem and over torqued these bolts. If you try to loosen the bolt it will probably break off as well. Anyway, my dealer is going to see if Yamaha will cover this. If so he will put in new coolers. If not the dealer will fix this for a little over the price of an oil change and fix the other cooler as well. They keep a few coolers just for this so it is easy to swap them and get the customer out. So all in all, not too bad in cost and fast. I am glad this happened now and not May or the summer!

You definitely got lucky with that dealer. Awesome service. I proactively replaced both of my third bolts down on the coolers.

 

[Ronnie]

My boat's first owner had it maintained by the dealer with Yamaha oil and filters. It had 100 hours on it after two seasons and no oil leaks (I checked thoroughly before taking possession of the boat). Soon after I got it I switched over to full synthetic oil and had leaks in both coolers before I put another 100 hours on it. I don't know for sure if my change to full synthetic caused the leaks, caused them to appear faster or had no impact at all but I've since switched back to standard Yamaha oil (and filters) anyway even though I now have the newer coolers. I figure it may not help but it can't hurt to follow the manufactures recommendations on this.

 

[motorboater]

From what I can see in your video, you do in fact have the older style oil cooler (as do I) and I have around 100 hours on my 2011 AR240. I believe @motorboater has a 2011 AR240 with the older style oil cooler as well, but he has over 200 hours on his boat. Neither of us have had any issues as of yet (knock on wood). I look at mine before and after every outing and pay special attention to any sign of oil leakage. I have read through every post on this site and the other site regarding this topic and there is no consensus on if anything should be done proactively. We all agree that this is disappointing and something that Yamaha should have stepped up to the plate on. What you will see is that some people have had free replacements under warranty and other haven't. Those of us that are off of warranty are on our own.

Yup I've got around 250 hours with no signs of trouble. Doesnt mean it wont become a problem but in my opinion this is still a relatively rare failure. I suppose now that the boat is 5 years old with 250 hours on the meters, even if I do need to make this repair, I wont be too upset about it.. although sure would be nice to have the peace of mind that it isnt going to fail at some point. I too open the hatch and look at them often.

If nothing else Yamaha should offer a goodwill repair to boats now out of warranty that have this issue crop up or a significantly discounted preventative repair to any boat that has the old coolers. It is certainly a physical design fault or quality control failure on their part. But none of this is going to happen. My experience with Yamaha standing behind their product has not been good. I think its part of the overall low-cost, assembly line type of product strategy. You get what you pay for.

 

[JetBoatPenguin]

Did anyone have an issue with the new oil cooler with the arrow? Just wondering.