Leaking helm pump hose

Hello All, Just found this site and in hope of anyone that can offer any personal insight or similar problem to my issue.

Special ordered my 2075 Tyee Magnum (boat only, had my own motor and trailer) and took delivery spring of 2018. My dealer sold me on a local canvas shop to do my full cover and enclosure(s), they did a fantastic job using a heavy duty material…..the only down-side, it doesn’t vent well (3 pole vents) when the temps get high and boat is sitting in full sun and covered it gets to 140* PLUS.
Since the first hot sunny days last year, any time I went boating I would find a wet spot of hydraulic oil on my vinyl flooring right under the dash / helm from the expansion of HOT oil. Laying on the floor looking up I could see the path of the oil down the side of the helm pump dripping off the bottom. Of course I notified the dealer and told them what was found and what I planned to do as not to make another 2 hour round trip visit just for them to tighten a hose clamp.

Easy fix I figured….. tighten the hose clamp a bit more, problem solved ! yah should be, but it’s not,, finally wrapped a paper towel around the fitting and went on with my summer.
Come fall and storage time I phoned the dealer, made appt to bring it in for the oil leak, fuel sender not reading correct and shifter / throttle handle mounted crooked – not straight up at neutral – no idea HOW that happened.
Picked the boat up a week or so later and the mechanic replaced the fuel sender with new, showed me the end of the oil line with a split in it causing the leak and a straight shift handle, PROBLEMS solved, GREAT.

Fast forward to this spring, it’s been lousy wet and cool, my first time using the boat was early June, get out on the water and bring it up on plane, go to open it up to full throttle and my tach stops at 4500 with no more throttle….this is a 5600rpm 250 Etec and last summer I had ALL 5600rpms available….just have to shake-my-head as what kind of service people the dealer has working for them.
Another trip to the dealer, another 2 weeks for them to get to it. Now I’m told there was a “pin” in the throttle mechanism preventing full rpms…..just by straightening the handle.
Oh and now that summer has finally arrived with it’s HOT sunny days, I got oil leaking again, same fitting / hose clamp. And yes I’ve tighten it a bit more than the mechanic did last fall and it still leaks,, another paper towel wrapped at this time.
Quite an adventure for my first NEW LUND boat purchase?

Welcome to In-Depth. Do you get the fluid leak if you leave the cover off or run a fan? Could it be expansion of the fluid? Go to the profile page and edit yours to show where you are located. Somebody may have a different dealer close by for you to try.

Thanks for your reply Dutchboy, the issue is clearly caused by heat expansion of the oil. With boat sitting uncovered at a dock for hours in a hot sun I notice no leakage.
I have run a industrial 24″ floor fan under the cover venting out the un-snapped back during the high sun hours of the day and it does help, also no leakage.
It is just frustrating that I need to go through this to solve what should be an EASY fix problem.
My next inquiry to the dealer will be that the helm pump be removed and the brass elbow fitting be replaced with NEW epoxy….as it is IMPOSSIBLE even with a small dental mirror to see if the factory installed fitting could have a slight epoxy fracture, or possibly cross-threaded, and is actually leaking NOT around hose / clamp end.
But for the remainder of my boating season I’ll again be using the wrapped paper towel fix.

So it’s at a fitting and not the cap?

Correct, no oil pushing out at the fill cap, only from under the dash / hose that connects fill port to helm pump – brass 90* fitting, and that fitting is SO tight to the aluminum dash structure at the highest point makes me wonder if during assembly some sort of damage occurred to the fitting / epoxy sealant, unknowingly causing my issue.
This isn’t my first boat with hydraulic steering and I never had heat expansion leakage with those. But I must also say that my other boats were fiberglass and I also had a lesser quality canvas cover that vented heat better.