Mercruiser Bravo III fluid in bottle color

[wish2fish]

When I drained my outdrive fluid the fluid came out the right color for the first approximately 2+ quarts. Normally I would have said cool and replaced the fluid as normal. Since I'm sanding and repainting my outdrive I continued to let the fluid drain overnight. At the end I started seeing a small amount greyish fluid. Being a little confused I went up in the boat and looked at the outdrive fluid bottle by the engine. There I could see a layer off grey at the bottom.

How does it get grey up in the bottle?

Is there an issues since the fluid was normal where the gears are located?

I did find this comment on Sterndrive.com. It doesn't say anything about an issue with this stuff in the reservoir bottle.

"If you have an internal Remote Gearlube Reservoir, remove it from it's bracket and pour it out. Look in the bottle and if you see muddy goo or an oily slime, remove the reservoir and clean it out in a parts washer making sure it's clean and dry when complete."

 

[BillK2632]

Yeah, you tend to get a gooey mess in the bottom of the gear lube bottle. I clean mine out each time I change the lube. I would clean the bottle up and keep an eye on it, but I don't think you have a problem. Water in the gear lube would come out first when you drain and excessive wear would show up as metal flakes on the magnetized drain plug.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Yup, that's a normal thing to happen. Especially if it's not cleaned out every year, but can even get like that in a single season (although typically not as much as in that picture). Brakleen works great to clean out the bottle. I clean mine (and any boat I personally service) every year - in most cases, it's just a little thicker and a bit gooey, but the color hasn't really changed much.

There shouldn't be anything wrong with your drive because of that. But it's best to not let that goo build up since it may impede the flow of fluid down to the drive - in case you happen to sometime have a small leak.

What I would probably do in this case (and some might say it's overkill) is pour some new fluid directly into the hose, after you remove it from the bottle. This would "flush out" any remaining gooey stuff that might be in the hose or left in the drive.