Centurion Problems

Well, I read all the posts previously about Centurions and said, "Man, I'm glad I'm not having the problems these guys are having." Well, things have changed and I should have knocked on my teak. I have an '02 Hurricane and have the following issues:

-Ballast failure after ballast failure. Works fine at the dealer where they are not sucking hot exhaust water into it. Service says Fineline agreed to replace the ballast pumps....will call when they come in. Don't think that will solve the problem because the water is sucked in right at the exhaust and above the trim plate.

-Getting a repetetive lull in the tranny at WOT. This one scares me. When I had the 3 blade on there, the RPM's were dancing all over the place (Ex. RPM 3300 at 19MPH), but the lull has happened before the prop was changed out, just not as bad as it was with the 3 blade. It lulled repeatedly and I brought it back to neutral and the engine shut off! Started right back up though. Any advice???

-Had a bent 4 blade prop, got replaced by a 3-blade (thats another story) now there was severe vibration out of the hole and at very slow speeds. Generally, when I would slow down and turn around to pick up a boarder that fell. Worse when at full port or starbard rudder. Replaced it back to a 4-blade. I hope this takes care of the vibration. Service guy said it was prop wash???? Does that sound right??

-Pilot I Thermometer not working

Mainly I'm writing this thread to see if anyone else has had these issues with their Centurion and what they have done to fix them. Not to bash Centurion, since all I've dealt with are Service Departments so far.

Pilot 1 is crap. I think the thing is a waste of money. Our ballast level reading is never right and our water temp has read around 87 since March. The prop thing could be propwash, I know they tested different props before they found the right one. Are you using nibral or stainless?

My speedometer has been acting up on my 02 Hurricane, you could be crusing at 19 MPH towing a rider and it suddenly slikes up to 20 or 30 MPH. Also, my ballast pump only works when it's in want's to.

Scott I have a 2002 Centurion Hurricane and am very pleased with it so far. I noticed on mine when out of the holeshot pulling up a rider I was getting a clicking noise under my dash. I spoke with Centurion and they said it was the steering rack under the dash rattling from the rudder fluttering. I noticed it worse with the rudder turn full port or starboard. It is just one those boat things. It does not bother me though.

Hey Brad the guages on the Centurion have a lifetime warranty so you might want to get a new one.

I have to admit I have been very pleased with my boat and extremely pleased with Centurion's customer service.

P.S. When I get home I'll knock on my teak!

Scott, I have an 03 Supreme, but it basically has the same running gear as your boat (Mercruiser 350 MPI, same tranny, similiar ballast). As far as the ballast, I had a problem with the pumps not filling. Mine uses Jabsco Waterpuppies. They are reversible pumps so they can fill and empty. It turned out that the impellers freeze in the housing in one direction and cannot reverse. The impeller is rubber and is very tight in the housing because it is designed to create a vacuum to suck the water up the tube. I removed the cover to the impeller and put grease around the impeller. This solved the problem.

I am also having a transmission problem. When I pull a rider up I get major cavitation or transmission slippage. Not sure which. The boat is at the dealer right now. I will let you know what they tell me the problem is. I did notice that there was some red fluid under the engine and beginning to think that the transmission oil level might be low. Someone else told me that if there is no fluid in the tranny it would slip.

The Jabsco pumps that several manufactures used in there ballast systems are not reliable they do exactly what Mark says. I had a friend with a Elite V drive that had the same problem you are describing. Centurion replaced the one pump with 2 bilge type pumps one to fill one to empty.....problem solved. The problem has nothing to do with hot water.

If you have vibration out of the hole either the new prop is bad or you did more damage than the prop. Most likely you have a bent shat and or strut. This need s to be fixed before trying to figure out your lul

Well, I spoke with Centurion. Their customer service was very helpful. John Boncher, I think his name was. He thinks the vibration, engine lull, and the RMP deal is probably the prop too. So we'll see this weekend. John said the lull was a Over-Rev Protection that the engine has on it. As far as the ballasts go. We tried replacing the impellers once. Didn't work. John, said that once the Jasco pumps go bad they'll never work right. They are getting replaced with new pumps soon hopefully.

Lance, A little vibration IS normal, but the vibration I was having was pretty violent, like the entire dash was about to fall off. }

Mark, Please do let me know what they say about your cavitation/slippage deal. It sounds like we may have a similar problem. You can email me at shensurfer@yahoo.com">oshensurfer@yahoo.com if you want. Thanks.

Kevin,
We replaced the shaft and the strut just to be safe after the Folsom Rock incident.... so, I'm hoping that is not it. I should have mentioned that earlier.

Thanks for the posts guys.

Sounds good you either have a cavitation problem or a trany problem. The prop is the first place to start.

Are they putting in new Jabsco pumps or different ones?

Cavitation problem or bad transmission??

I just found out that the transmission in my new boat needs to be replaced. Apparently there is a known problem with the Borg Warner transmissions having leaking seals. Once the tranny fluid empties and you run it without fluid, it burns up the tranny, causing what feels like cavitation (actually the tranny is slipping). My dealer told me that he has been replacing 2-3 transmissions a week. These transmissions are used by Malibu, Sanger, Centurion, Supreme, and probably others. They will replace it under warranty.

Sounds like I better buy a Warranty Extension for the $1000.

I ran the boat this weekend and the prop made a huge diff. Still a little vibration, but a noticable change. It was weaker with the 13:13 rather than the 13:14 I had on there previously. The only thing now is the ballasts and the Pilot 1. I'll keep an eye on the tranny fluid. Thanks for the tip Mark!

slippage can come from a bad prop if it slips that is called cavitation.
Obviously if you have a bad tranny it can also cause slippage.

Scott, I have a brand new 03 elite V-drive. can you be specific about the initial indications of your ballast issues, so that i can identify any problems that might occur early on? I'm bummed for you but glad to hear Centurion is handling it well. No big problems on my (knock on wood) but i'll let you know how things go.

Tell ya what. I have a video of what they do that I can email to you if you want. Basically, they will work ok for about 45 seconds and then quit. Then not work at all. Then I run the boat a little, then they work again. Fortunately for you I don't think they have the same pumps or set up in the '03's for the ballasts.

Scott

I have a 99 Elive V and had a vibration problem since it was new. I took it to the dealer and they said it was no big deal. I replaced the prop with an Ambush 4 and have not felt any vibration since. It was like getting a new boat!

I have had no other problems except replacing the impeller on the water intake pump, which I consider routine maintenance.

Good luck with your boat.

Kris