I have had a set of new Shimano 14000 XTE reels for a couple of months. I recently went on holiday and used them quite extensively for 7 days. I caught a lot of fish and most of these came from 150-180 yards dropped with the boat. Towards the end of the holiday I noticed all of them starting to make noises and they certainly were not as smooth as when I bought them. One of them in particular is really bad and grinding when the spool is at its lowest position. It seems that these reels are probably fine if you only catch a fish once in a while but a heavy week of hauling and reeling from distance and they simply can't handle it? I am going back to AD this week for them to check them over. No idea what the outcome will be but I am not prepared to accept them as they are. Anybody else experienced this?

Its usually just dirt in the line guard channels. I've had loads of different Ultegras over the years and never had an issue.