Hi all. I posted a few weeks back about my Sahara...I was looking to get a new reel. Well, I sent the Sahara back, and the good folks at Shimano sent me a whole new reel. Needless to say, I was a very satisfied customer. Well, that turned to dissapointment when I got it on a rod. It still makes a horrible noise. Mind you, when I say horrible, it's not really that bad. I just like a silent reel. This is not silent. The odd thing...if I hold the rod parallel to the line coming in, there is not nearly the same amount of noise. Also, if I hold the rod upside down and retrieve, also much less noise.

Any thoughts? I can't stand the noise...I'm about to go buy a new reel. I put the reel on a different rod, still got the noise.

Help!!

Some new Shimanos have a slotted screw near the handle that, when removed, open a port to oil the reel. Before giving up on that one, why don't you add of few drops of good reel oil in there and spin the handle to coat everything? You might find it smoothes out and quiets down.

Are you using braid by chance? What you're hearing may be the braid through the guides. Especially since the noise changes with the rod orientation.

I think its just the nature of them. I have one and have tried everything to it. Complete tear down and cleaning, iv'e even tried to shim the noise out.

I would agree with the braid hypothesis, except that I've had other reels with braid on them, on the same rod and no noise at all.

Driving me nuts!

I own two Sahara reels and other than an occcassional noise, they're good reels. I've always considered these reels to be Shimano's mid- priced reels and I don't think that the noise you hear is serious. I learned a long time ago that when it comes to Shimano and quality you have to be willing to spend the dollars. I've always been a loyal Shimano user and there was a time when I said I'd never spend over $100 for a reel, however, I'm fishing with their upper-range reels today and don't have any regrets. Their Calcuttas, Calais, and Stellas are the smoothest reels I've ever used and I wish I would have pulled the trigger on reels like these years ago.