SEASTAR Warranty What was your expereince. DEFECTIVE?

[vcimav]

I have an 08 Parker 25. Single engine. And my steering is doing the slack thing and doing the slow turn and no response.

Took to dealer on Thursday and watched as they used the pump and filter to clean. Some bubbles and some black sludge went through he lines. HE explained that the black flakes and sludge are from the coating on the cylinder.

So I said That should be covered under warranty? HE said good luck.

So what has been the approach to getting seastar to handle.
Would be nice if they would send out a unit and replace, but sounds like I have to take down my boat and send them my unit?

PM me with any names and numbers. I need to go to the top.

Does this not sound like a defect?

Thanks.

 

[jcmcclellan]

Should be a two year warranty from date of purchase. My steering rod that passes thru the cylinder had two small scores on it. They were only visible if the engine was turned all the way either left or right. Seems like something inside the cylinder somehow wore the rod in two places. The scores compromised the seals causing them to leak. Cylinder was replaced under warranty. Would have liked to know what caused it. Think replacement cost for cylinder is over 700 bucks.

 

[TunaJoe]

You can start with speaking to Marc at Seastar.
Here is his email.

He's been excellent with replying to my emails.
Very knowledgable too.

[email protected]

Good luck!

 

[CaptainJim]

anyone have experience changing out the wipers on the steering? I'm going on 7 seasons with no problems on my seastar with fairly heavy summertime use, and 9 seasons since install.

my wipers leak a LITTLE (maybe an ounce or less a month) but I just keep a bottle of fluid in the toolbox and top it off from time to time.

I suppose eventually ill need to re-do the seals/wipers but I'm in no rush

 

[CaptainJim]

The seal kit is really easy to install. If you leak fluid out, you will suck water in the system. This might be less of a problem for you as I think you have a notch transom vs. a bracket.

I would change out the seals asap. Hope you have been spraying down the bolt heads....if not yer in for a chore.

i'm a notch transom, and my motor and steering are regularly greased and only get wet during rain and washdowns....I'll start spraying some wd40 on the bolts while I wait for the seal kit....thanks for the heads up

 

[CaptainJim]

to original poster:

sorry to thread jack you teehee

 

[CaptainJim]

Cherry Universal Marine
Clarence Cherry
843-833-3998
[email protected]

Clarence is by far the best price/service I've found. They are actually SeaStar wholesalers. Buy the seal kit with spanner wrench the first time (unless yer already have spanner wrench). You can remove ends with pipe wrench, but of course it really scratches stuff up.

If you want real SeaStar hyd fluid, Cherry has it at a price I can afford. He prices shipping very reasonable and can ship extra stuff for same price.

nice thanks!

i have the qt of seastar already...ive been adding fluid for 2 seasons and still have 75% of the qt left. I get it pretty cheap with the port supply commercial discount at west marine. I'll grab my part numbers off the boat this week and order it...i'm running out of projects to do (theres plenty i WANT to do but can't really afford, like trim tabs, sidescan, etc etc) so this will be useful.

 

[jrannestad]

I just replaced my seals and since I thought the brown stuff would be in the helm, I took that apart and cleaned it as well. The seal kit for the helm is $45 bucks and contains a bunch of orings but it seems to me that all you really need is the flat gasket for the housing and the seal that goes around the shaft. However, I think it was worthwhile because the steering seems to work much better now.

 

[vcimav]

New system under warranty due to stray current corrosion. must be causing the internal coating to flake off and damage the system.