My Yamaha 250 HPDI started dropping on its own just in the last few days. I have twice tried topping off the hydraulic fluid for the trim motor. It lifts just fine, but drops slowly right back down. I have loosened and tightened the release screw. I had the trim rods replaced in January and the tilt/trim motor replaced last fall. Does anyone have any suggestions that I can try because the mechanic says I am probably looking at a $500 repair job.

If your mechanic has given you an estimate.....he should know what is wrong.

Once you know what is wrong...you should know what to try.

My suggestion would be a new mechanic.

Trim seals ?????

Is it loosing the fluid you put in it.

Look for a hairline crack in one of your trim cylinders too, it took me several sets of seals before I realized I had an almost undetectable crack in the cast housing.

Had the same problem. Took it to Service Marine, few hundred bucks and they rebuilt the trim cylinders. Works great.

I have not seen any sign of leakage, but will look closer. If it is the trim seals wouldn't those have been replaced when the trim rods were replaced in January?

That would be the right way to do a rebuild, Did they charge you for a seal kit?

Sounds like there is trash in the valve you can open it and close it and should work fine seen this several times in other boats if it's not leaking fluid

Mine was doing the same thing ended up being a trim seal was nicked and leaking by. If the trim seals have been replaced recently I would check or just replace the seals on the manual valve , real easy to do.

sounds like a half arse job when they were in it a few months ago. trim seals are leaking most likely

Branden, I am not much of a mechanic. What valve are you talking about to clean out the trash? I would like to try that before taking it to the shop.

Thanks

ill get you a pic this afternoon pointing at the valve to make it easy for you.

It's a little flat head screw on the passenger side of the motor next to your jack plate, raise the motor all the way up , and loosen it off once the motor starts to drop tighten the screw back up and you should be good to go.

Now I know the screw you are talking about. Yes, I have loosened and tightened it several times lowering the motor slowly all the way down. Is it okay to take that screw all the way out to see if there is trash in there or to see if it has a worn o-ring? It appears to me I maybe getting water in the hydraulic fluid. There have been a couple of times where the motor will only go down half way, but if I take it back up and down a couple times it does go down. It always goes up fine, but drops back down in about 60 seconds.