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Hello all,

This is my first post on this forum as I am a new Four Winns owner. I have a 2006 210 Horizon with approximately 50 hours on it. I purchased it a few months ago and took it to a dealer for a full service (it had not been used for a year and a half). The first couple of rides on the boat I did not notice any strange noises coming from the engine, but recently I notice a high-pitched whirring noise coming from the engine compartment the whole time that the engine is running.

I asked one of the marina mechanics (merc certified so won't do any actual work on my VP) to have a listen and he suggested that it is possibly a power steering bearing going bad. Has anyone encountered this in the past?

I also have a belt that is squealing when the engine rpm's go above 2500, if anyone has any insight as to which belt may be causing this it would be appreciated as well!

Thanks in advance for any insight/help!

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2006 Four Winns H210 Horizon
5.0L GXi VP

I suppose it's also possible that something running off the belts is out of true due to wear and is causing both noises. If a pulley is crooked you'll get belt noise (among other reasons). Doesn't take much.

When buying a used boat it's almost always a good idea to just replace all the belts. That way you know exactly how old they are and when they were last replaced.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Fuel pump.

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1996 205 Sundowner DLX
5.0FL Volvo SX Cobra
Tow Veh: 2012 Nissan Frontier Pro-4X

"Fuel pump"

You think it's about to fail? I wonder if this is something that the dealer should have found while doing the maintenance on the boat. They did take it for a test ride after all of their work.

Is there a way to test to see if it is indeed the fuel pump before making the decision to replace it?

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2006 Four Winns H210 Horizon
5.0L GXi VP

yep the dreaded EFI $700 fuel pump. One way to rule out the belt/pulleys is just remove it for a min and run the engine, if the noise goes away then its the pulleys or belt.
The fuel pump is a common problem unfortunately.

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

Unfortunately, this is a common problem with the early 00's EFI pumps. If it is the fuel pump making the noise, it should be too hot to touch, that is a sure sign of impending failure.

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1996 205 Sundowner DLX
5.0FL Volvo SX Cobra
Tow Veh: 2012 Nissan Frontier Pro-4X

Ok, I will check it out later today. Thanks for the help.

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2006 Four Winns H210 Horizon
5.0L GXi VP

I.had that same whining noise last trip but it stopped before I got engine cover opened to inspect....I knew it was nothing cheap.

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http://i1339.photobucket.com/albums/o71 ... wqm355.jpg


08' H210SS
VP 5.7Gi

Here is a link to a video clip of the engine running. You can hear the noise in the background.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCZ5qG-B0vU

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2006 Four Winns H210 Horizon
5.0L GXi VP

Is it that 'chirp-chirp' sound that happens intermittently?

Don't rule out ignition. Never had this problem on the boat, but in past cars I've had occasional sounds like that caused by problems with a spark plug wire. Modern systems tend to be higher-voltage and typically make more of a SNAP sound. But with engine control systems being involved you don't always get a detectable 'hiccup' in the combustion cycle. As in, older engines would run rough because of it and you'd hear that too. Newer engine management systems do a lot of work behind the scenes to smooth all that out. This can make it harder to detect issues. But they're usually ones that show up quite readily of the engine computer has a diagnostic port.

Back to the chirp, sounds more like a bearing than a belt. Belts typically have a bit softer of a sound. That sounded more like metal-to-metal than the usual rubber-to-metal sound of a belt.

I'd start by trying to isolate which side of the engine the sound is coming from.

That and put the boat in neutral and bring up the revs a bit. See if the chirping keeps up. As in, if it does then it's definitely something on the engine related to how fast it's turning. Do this in stages, bring it up a few hundred RPM and keep it there, listening for the noises. Don't just rev it up and back down.

Also do you see any black dusting anywhere? When belts are failing there's typically a fair amount of that thrown off them. You'd typically see it more where the belts have just rounded a pulley.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

The very high pitched constant whine is the fuel pump. That supposedly happens when there is a bit of air getting in from somewhere. Mine has had a slightly less audible whine but of same pitch for a couple of years with no issues. One test, as someone noted, is whether it is overheating or not. If it is overheating the life will be decreased.
(I went through all this a couple of years ago when one pump failed on my boat)

There is also some other lower pitched noise -- that could be pulley / belt / power steering related.

good luck ====Dale

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DaleG -- West Palm Beach FL
2003 240Horizon -- 5.7Gi -Duoprop

Take off the belt(s) and spin the water pump, alternator, sea pump etc and feel for grinding, noise, free spinning to rule out any bearings.

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'96 200 Horizon 5.8l VP/SX

I had a similar sound on my boat and it was the fuel pump air issue. We had taken the water separator out to replace and the noise started after that. We bled the fuel pump from a fitting on it and the noise went away. Not sure if this helps but it worked for me. Good luck.

Was it difficult to bleed the air off? I would be interested in trying that before taking it to a mechanic who will want to automatically replace the pump without knowing the true root cause.

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2006 Four Winns H210 Horizon
5.0L GXi VP

It wasn't hard at all but you really want to do it with the engine cold because it will spit gasoline through the fittings. There are actually two that we bled, One was on the fuel pump, the other one was under the plastic cover on top of the engine. They are pretty much just like the valves on a tire. I took a nail and pushed it in and lots of air came out and a little bit later a lot of gasoline came out. We did that a couple of times while just putting the key in the position that makes that annoying noise before you start the engine. We bled it out a couple of times while switching the ignition on and off and the noise went away. Hope this helps you out because if it's the same sound I heard in my engine that sucker can get really annoying!