Reply With QuoteNot a good sutuation Ed with the missus on board, lucky these newer engines have limp mode if that were an old 2 stroke you would have had to anchor
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Well the stars aligned today, the weather was great, sunny day, sea was flat, the missus wasn't working so we left Bribie Island headed out to Hutchinson Shoal. Got to Morton Island and headed out to the Shoal, about 15 minutes from reaching it, the motor just went into limp mode. No warning or alarms, wouldn't go over 1600RPM, temps were fine, water coming out of the tell tail, plenty of fuel and oil, nothing. So radioed the VMR and told them we were returning.
So did a U turn and limped home, at a blistering speed of 3.5-4.5Knots all the way back, at that stage it wouldn't rev past 1200RPM, my missus reckoned she could walk home faster, you know the saying "are we there yet!" 3.5hrs later we reached the ramp. Not happy Jan!!!We had the motor checked out about 8 motor hours ago and also the impeller changed, pulled the cover off it at home but no obvious clues, oil bottle full and no loose cables or anything, so looks like it will be back to the mechanics. Even threw out some lures on the way home but no takers. The only alarm we got was about 2 hours in on the way home and it was a single long beep of about 5-8 secs and then nothing else.
Not a good sutuation Ed with the missus on board, lucky these newer engines have limp mode if that were an old 2 stroke you would have had to anchor
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Yep, but if it had been an old 2 stroke it probably wouldn't have played up, it most likely is a sensor issue or such which caused the motor to go in to a protective mode and idle only. I will see if I can book it in and get it checked out in the next couple of weeks. The missus actually suggested a couple of times that I should do some fishing whilst we were out there, but I didn't want to risk it in case it decided to not switch back on. I did see some rather nice shows of bait fish stacked up with some larger blips on the bottom.
At the moment I am welding up a 60L ally spare fuel tank and need to repair the seats on the boat as we are planning to go to 1770, this is assuming I can get the problem resolved.
What breed Ed?
Good to hear your missus was in good spirits usually other people on the boat can panic and creat a more serious situation when they are not a keen boater
3.5h battle back i too wouldnt have wanted to stop for a fish
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I feel for you Ed and have indeed been there, only we were 100 km's out from Mackay when the Yamaha HPDI on my mates Rebel went into limp mode upon arrival at reef right on dark!
Decided to anchor for the night and then head back first thing in the morning and yes we had stopped and started a few times to make sure she would fire up again..
Throw in the wind coming up to 20 knots from the south east (not forecast) it was a slow, long, rolly trip back!
It was taxing to say the least and myself and mate had to take shifts as it was a hand full trying to drive back while being dictated by the sea all the way in a 6.8m platey..
Took us all of the next day from first light to got back to Mackay harbour just on dark...
At least we were able to get back I guess but don't really want to have that experience again if possible!!
His turned out to be a major issue which resulted in an upgrade to a 250 4 stroke Yammy and he has had no issues since thankfully..
Hope you get it sorted Ed.
It's never good when you have to limp home, especially with her in doors on board...
Col
Something to keep in mind here "limp mode" is not designed to allow you to run the motor, even at low RPM, an engine not getting oil, or not cooling will die an agonising death, RPM reduction (as it should be called) is set to tell the owner that the motor is sick and dying, and since most find the alarm annoying, either ignore it, or cut the wires, do NOT "limp" home unless safety is an issue.
here in Brisbane we had a work boat that had a 115etec which went int limp mode due to a low/no oil alarm. issue ended up being the oil primer bulb. anyway, the dealer said, at least for this type of limp mode, it was ok to idle home indefinitely, as there were enough lubricating qualities in the fuel alone to avoid it seizing up. not sure if i would want to prove the theory!Originally Posted by Noelm
If your asking about the motor it's a Mercury 150 HP XS Pro 2012 two stroke.
That's the thing, there was no alarm, although we did get a single blip just as we left the jetty it just went in to limp mode 45 minutes later, then nothing else till about 2 hours after we were limping home there was a continuous 5-8 sec. beep and then again nothing. The engine temp was normal and water was coming out of the tell tail. Anyway rang up this morning and will probably get it checked out next week. Spoke to one of the guys there and he said that if there was a faulty oil sensor or other major sensor it would do that, even though the oil would be going into the fuel.
Anyway I will let them sort it out!
From what i have read continious beep can be low oil and intermitten beep is over heat
I remember one night i took out a brand new rebuilt mercury 25hp i left the oil cap off drove down stream and the alarm sounded was only a beep beep beep i turned around started coming back and it turned into a continous beep
A guy was riding a jetski and wouldnt even assist so i had to drive back low on oil all because i left the cap off was a bugger
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About all I can add is I have seen two Mercs, both optis with intermittant shorts that caused similar issues via chafed wiring touching the block.
Took the boat in to the mechanic at Brisbane Marine, he connected the computer to it and found the problems and they can be be fixed without me having to sell a kidney. Two faults found, first one is a faulty alarm speaker hence the reason for not having heard any alarms and the second one which actually caused the problem was the sensor in the reserve oil bottle in the motor. Bottle was full of oil but the sensor was faulty and so reported that there was low oil hence the reason it went into limp mode.
Ordered the parts and will cost a total of $537 for parts, labour and today's diagnostic check. So a doable repair, will bring the boat back to them next Wednesday as the parts should be in by then.
So at this stage, 1770 is looking good.
Good to have the oil float system checked. A mate's failed earlier this month, causing it to not detect low then no oil! The opti made it home at idle but that was the end of it. Your fix was much cheaper than his. Moral of the story, always manually check the oil bottles each trip!
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