Shimano Stella FJ (2018 Stella) Defect Warning

(UPDATED- Scroll down to updates in red font)

Earlier this year Shimano released the 2018 freshwater Stella, known as Stella FJ in export markets. The reel first appeared in shows in Japan at the beginning of the year, then they went into serial production and were sold retail beginning April-May 2018.

During the 4 months since its release I received reports of a problem where the bail wire hits the spool when the spool is at the highest position or close to it. Sometimes the wire hits the side of the spool's lip, other times it hits its centre of the spool. Here are some video samples of reports I received, sizes 2500, 4000, and 5000

Once I received a sizable number of these reports, I made some enquiries with contacts in the trade in Japan, and was told that the first production runs did have this problem which was not in pre-production exhibit reels. I was informed that the issue is being rectified in subsequent production runs. The problem is not limited to a size or a geographical region.

If you have one of these reels in any size check if your bail clears the spool at the highest position, and if it has the problem get in touch with your seller or Shimano to get a replacement, and send me an email using the CONTACT form and let me know which size and what's the code on the round sticker located in the foot.

Update March 2019 - 6 months on, I can confidently say that all reels produced now are free from that ridiculous fault. I will no longer add to or update this page, and hopefully anglers with affected reels who haven't got a replacement yet will be able to do that with ease. When someone spends hundreds of dollars on a reel they shouldn't have to worry about such nonsense.

Final Update - Shimano did what in my opinion is an inappropriate "silent recall", where without ever publicly acknowledging the fault they redesigned the bail wire on reels manufactured after I published this warning and quietly replaced the old short wires on reels whose owners complained. I personally believe this to be harmful, since the new wires slightly throw out the balance of the rotor due to their weight being different to the original short wires that the rotor was originally balanced for during rotation. Here is the proof;

The original schematics, here for the 4000XG as an example, where the original short bail wire had a manufacturer's code 18974, and it's located in the middle of the parts' list naturally and normally surrounded by adjacent bail parts.

And here are the quietly updated schematics for the exact 4000XG after the "silent recall", in which the replacement bail wire has the different code 19061, and it's now located at the end of the parts' list away from other bail parts since it is newly added.

A side note, in the updated schematics they also added a washer #19029 beneath the ball bearing in the rotor nut (highlighted in yellow) because in the original design the ball bearing rested against the nut's recess fully impeded from rotation and was actually adding friction to the operation of the reel. Another unfathomably elementary fault that even Chinese OEM reel manufacturers know to avoid.

Cheers

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Alan Hawk

September, 14th, 2018

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