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 (Cobalt R5 - VolvoPenta DPS Drive), all it ended being on the trim was it needed to be blead, I did that this spring and it has 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. Pretty certain I do not have a leak as the cap was not tight, but 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? Or if you know of a better/easier way to do this speak up. 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.