Boat is leaking water?

It appears as if yesterday when I was on the Delta my boat was taking some water on. I noticed several times when riding the automatic bilge pump was kicking on? There was only 3 of us in the boat and we where riding with ballast full and the wedge down but we didn't take any water over the bow or anything. Also when pulling vests out at the launch ramp the carpet in the right hand side compartment was warm and wet? I'm going to put the boat in the water tomorrow to look for leaks. Where do you sugest I look? Anyone else had that problem? My boat is a 2006 VLX if that makes a differance. Thanks!

On a side note, something I was thinking about. Last week when we rode the right hand side ballast tank wouldn't fill and was tripping the circuit breaker. I pulled the fill pump and it was frozen. I turned the impeller by hand and it freed up and started working perfect again so I reinstalled it. Do you think the o ring might not of sealed or do you guys put silicone on them when you reinstall them? The pump appeared to work perfect and filled the ballast tank no problem.

Time to pull the boat out of the water, sit it on level ground (on the trailer), and fill the bilge up with water. Then watch for the leak.

I just did this & it was the prop packing. One day it was fine, the next day I had 5" of water on the floor. I'm going with the new "virtually dripless" Gore-Tex packing from Skidim.com.

Check your fittings on your hard tanks if you can get to them. On mine the hard pvc caps they used to plug the unused ports cracked and fell off. These unused ports are at the tops of the tanks. This would allow water to slosh out. I went to hardware store and bought new plugs, coated them with teflon tape and screwed them back in. Also every one of my tanks where the drain pump screws in developed cracks over time. I tried to silicone the cracks but they still leaked. They ended up getting replaced under warranty. I would check there for starters.
I am still noticing a little water in the rear compartments in my boat even with the new tanks.
I am going to look at the swim platform bolts next to make sure the water is not coming in there.

Warm water? Sounds like the exhaust might be leaking. Hard to see in a boat with little room around the engine. I suppose it could have warmed due to the engine in the compartment next door though, or even the weather, something to check anyway.

If it's not ballast related check your shaft packing. I just had a leaking issue with my Sanger and all it needed was the shaft packing to be tightened. Good luck!

Warm water makes me think heater core if you've got one. Does your boat have a heater? My heater core on my X2 leaked at one point.

The ballast pump deal is pretty normal. I used to get that on occasion. As long as it doesn't happen regularly you should be fine.

The other leaks that are common are prop shaft packing, but the warm water thing makes me think something engine related. Keep an eye out around the manifolds and plumbing to/from them.

How difficult to change the shaft seal on a v-drive? How much to have a mechanic do it?

Maybe it's those baller on a budget lights that are leaking?

Do you think if its engine related if I hook my fake a lake up I'll be able to find the leak that way? I do have a heater core but its under the dash I suppose a line for it could be leaking though?

I was taking on a bunch of water the first time out this summer as well. Once I got home and after further inspection it turns out the smart guys I had winterize it not only broke one of my drain plugs but also managed to put one back that was missing an o-ring. So water was just squirting out of these two plugs every time the motor was on. Luckily they only managed to screw up on two of these plugs as there are at least 6 all around the motor. Anyhow it might be something worth checking on your boat.

Well living in Cali I take my boat out every month I never lay her up so I've never winterized anything just no need. But I'm going to hop in it right now and see if theres anything obvious then I'll lake test it tomorrow.

Funny John, unfortunatly haven't been able to install the lights on the boat yet. But after I do at least I'll be able to find my boat if it does sink! lol

This year when we dropped our 07 VLX in the water and switched the engine on we started to have massive leaks coming in right at the driver footwell. Immediately after noticing this smoke also started coming out from the electronics under the dash. We killed the engine and got a tow back to the dock 100 feet away.

We leave it at a dry stack and they also did our winterization and de-winterization. Got two stories from them, first they hadn't de-winterized two weeks after they said it would be complete and still put the boat in. The next story they gave was that something had gone wrong in the process. Needless to say they fixed it free of charge, but we are fairly sure they hadn't reattached some exhaust hose. Bilge had filled up a good 5 inches in 5 minutes though.

Does anyone else have a theory of what might have been causing water at driver feet when the ballasts weren't filling?

Heater core popped.

britshorty-does your boat have a heater?If it does the heater is sometimes behind the panel at the drivers feet under the dash.

Something that happened my first trip out after winterizing this year. I noticed warm water in the bilge, but didn't see it leaking from anywhere on the engine. I started checking around the boat and found that my shower nozzle had been left on in the locker.
Something you might check out...

Check where the shower is mounted you could have dissconnected or leaky fittings.

We do have the heater back there. Is this something that we should make sure they winterize next time. Sadly the lot we keep the boat at won't let us perform our own maintenance and lock us into a full year contract...

I found a hole this year in my muffler, from a grab handle stud on the boats transom. It had wore a hole right through it. Might take a look for something similar.

Also make sure no casting plugs fell out.

Warm water = engine cooling / heater leak. Put in water or fake a lake turn on and inspect around engine and all the hoses, plugs, and connections to anything that is hooked up to the cooling system. I had a hose clamp that was not fully tightened cause something similar, but there are dozens of places where water can escape from the cooling system.

Its the heater. Mine froze too. I looked for replacement coils online with zero luck. So i dismantaled it and took the coil to a radiator shop and they repaired it for 50 bucks. I had never thought to winterize it in the past but will now!!! LOL

Well found the leak this past weekend, its not the heater or any of the engine lines its the middle ballast tank! It appears as if either where the hose plugs into the tank or the hose itself has a leak where it connects and it shoots half the water in the tank and the other half of the water into my bilge! Now the question is how do i get to this tank to repair it? Doesn't seem as if theres enough room in the little tiny access hole to get to anything. I think I need to pull the floor up there? If so how do i do it? Thanks Robert

Well the malibu seats are only screwed in (this is the one time I consider this a good thing). So get in there w/ a drill and start unscrewing them. Once there out, you should be able to pull the floor. It might be screwed in too, I honestly don't know. Haven't pulled the floor on a bu.

Pulling the floor is actually alot scarier looking than it really is. Once you get it in there, and get started, it goes really fast on most boats.

I have two leaks now?

I still haven't fixed the ballast tank leak because, well, I've been too lazy to rip the hole floor up. But noticed this afternoon when we yanked her out of the water I'm leaking from where the propeller shaft goes into the hull!

Does anybody know how to fix this? Is this something i can handle or do I need to take it in?

There should be nuts either side of the packing, crank them up and see if it makes a difference.

Robert if you don't have the dripless shaft seal option on your boat it's normal for the packing gland to leak slightly. You are supposed to tighten it every year or it starts to leak more than it should.

I've never tightened anything! I just add gas and change the oil! I'll check for nuts tomorrow, on the boat that is, and see if I can tighten them.

On another note we weren't ballasted out that heavy and had no power this weekend. Once we plained out we where good but pulling riders it was like I was missing a fin on the prop it took forever to plain. Do you think it was the altitude at tulloch? J-Rod mentioned that but it was seriously slugish. My boats getting wore out! Maybe it's time for a performance prop, time to ditch that stocker!

Robert when you tighten the packing nuts don't do it with a wrench and if you do don't over tighten. After you tighten them rotate the prop by hand and make sure it spins freely, if there is resistance you tighten too much. Also you may need to check shaft alignment. If shaft is out of alignment you will get more leaking then normal, plus you wear out the shaft bearing. I have a mechanic next door that is cheap and does great work. Aligned my bu up last year, was only off a little bit, no big deal