No Oil Alarm - 200 ETEC HO

[dodgeman9]

Picked up my new Stratos 294 with a new 200 ETEC HO last week. 15 minutes out NO OIL alarm. Shut down, restart, no alarm. Go about a mile, same thing. Alarmed 4 times just getting back to ramp. Had about a gallon and a half of oil in tank and never went over about 2800 RPM. Looked when we got back to ramp and thought I saw some air in line but very, very tiny amount if any.

Went back to dealer the next day. They pulled the codes and the engine had not set a code. They ran it for awhile on the muff and all was working. Thery was just some air.

Went back to lake that afternoon. Ran about a mile. Alarm. @#$%^&. Tried again. Same thing. Really @#$%^&. Decided that if it had air in line I would run it out. Ran it up to about 3200 RPM and never had a problem. Ran it about 2 hr and never had a alarm. Dropped it to about 2800 on the way in. Alarmed within a mile. Tried it again. Same thing. At least now I've got something to work with. Well.....

Got back home and while messing in the garage I put another gallon of oil in the tank. Next day my son and I went out to put some hours on it. Ran it a couple of hours at various RPM above 3000. Dropped it to 2800 and ran it for 20 minutes. Never alarmed.

Since then I've taken my son skiing and ran it a hour or so almost all below 3000. No alarm. I'm starting to think that the tank sensor is bad or miswired or something. When the dealer looked at it he said that the only code in the puter was something about low voltage that was usually caused by a flakey ingnition switch. The switch is bad. I lose power to my dash occasionally. Could this be causing a false alarm?

Sorry about the long post. If you've stayed with me this long, do you have any ideas?

[lkhartwl]

dont know but have you thought of this, that there may be a alarm that when you get to a certian level in your oil tank the sending unit sends a no oil/low oil alarm. ? A lot of people do not check oil until it is too late. as for the switch if it is an ignition switch I could be did your dealer replace it asap? since it is a new boat ( both boat and motor) he should have right away.

[jimh]

A modern outboard engine is run entirely by a computer. If you have a bad ignition switch and the voltage to your engine is cutting out, this is more or less the equivalent situation to walking up to your home deskto computer while it is running and pulling the AC plug out of the wall, re-inserting it and jiggling it around a few times. Not many computers survive that kind of interruption in their power, and I don't think it is reasonable to expect the computer in your outboard motor to tolerate it. I'd fix the intermittent ignition switch problem. It will probably help the E-TEC outboard motor/computer run more like it was intended to.

[marinemech1]

system check gauge is probably defective if no service codes have been set

[SEAHORSE]

I'm surprised that the dealer could not find a code in the motor, usually it is #38.

The next time you put it in the water and if the NO OIL alarm goes on again, run the winterizing procedure, it's in the owners manual. That should get any trapped air bubble out of the line. Then go run the boat. If it happens again, especially at low speed, have the dealer's mechanic call the factory hotline about how to check the oil pump output.

[ezellmer]

We had this exact problem on our 200DHLSD early this year. You could run it for 2 days and not get a horn, then get 4 in 30 min the next night. They performed a fix to the sensor on the oil pump by securing it better, but that did not fix it. Apparently they thing a harmonic can develop at certain rpms on certain boats to give a false signal. BRP sent out an entire new oil pump manifold assembly and there has been not one horn since.

[F150owner]

My 225 ETEC HO did the same. . .no oil alarm at very low rpm. Tech feels pretty sure it was an air bubble in the sensor. They reprimed the oil with the laptop hooked up to the motor and no probs since. I've heard this is a common thing.

[brunton7]

I had the same problem yesterday with my '07 225ho. "No oil" would pop up on dash, and the oil reservoir is full. It would do it between 3,000-4,500 rpm's. Above 5,000 rpm's, no problem. The motor has under 10 hours on it. Thanks for any input.