Oil Pressure Problems

R

RonG

New Member
Nov 14, 2011
178
Cape Cod
Boat Info
2014 210 CC
Engines
Yamaha 150 4 stroke
Was out yesterday and my alarm went off and saw the oil pressure gauge go to zero. Stopped and anchored to go check things out. Plenty of oil on the dipstick and no signs of leaks or anything anywhere. Started it back up and idled a bit and watched the gauge came up real slow. Came up to ten to 20 psi and no alarm. Pulled up anchor and moved out and right back up to normal (40psi). Was fine the rest of the day except I noticed whenever I brought it back down to idle it would fluctuate between 10 to 30 psi. Any thoughts?
 
RonG said:
Was out yesterday and my alarm went off and saw the oil pressure gauge go to zero. Stopped and anchored to go check things out. Plenty of oil on the dipstick and no signs of leaks or anything anywhere. Started it back up and idled a bit and watched the gauge came up real slow. Came up to ten to 20 psi and no alarm. Pulled up anchor and moved out and right back up to normal (40psi). Was fine the rest of the day except I noticed whenever I brought it back down to idle it would fluctuate between 10 to 30 psi. Any thoughts?
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I would change the oil filter and keep a close eye on it. The relief valve in the filter could be bad.
 
Thanks for the advice. Any chance this could be a sender issue?
 
RonG said:
Thanks for the advice. Any chance this could be a sender issue?
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it is possible but, not likely. Check the connection at the sender. Normally they do not come and go. They either read steady (wrong) or not at all.
 
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Sprint is right, for the most part. But, I have personally experienced a wildly fluctuating gauge and know of a few similar issues that came through the shop. It does sound like a bad sender to me - but checking and cleaning the connection is a good first step (both at the sender and the gauge).

BUT, you say you had an alarm AND saw the gauge read low? That one is a bit odd. As you probably know the alarm and your gauge get their input from separate sensors/senders. Could the alarm have gone off for low drive fluid or something else? Could the oil pressure sensor also be getting flaky? Could there have been a spec of dirt on the pressure sensor? Normally if the gauge and alarm are both low and sounding, it means a major problem. But, it could have just been a weird coincidence, too.

Also, just as an fyi, when the gauge is reading funny, most times the sender is bad not the gauge. It's pretty rare for a gauge to go bad.
 
Thanks guys. This does worry me because as you said the alarm and sender are two different warning systems so it seems something had to be going on. The only weird thing is that as fast as the pressure crashed it came back and was fine the rest of the day. Probably was not smart to stay out after the oil pressure crash but I did and everything seemed great. Motor ran like a champ. The only other thing I noticed was when coming down off plane the pressure seemed to drop lower than what I have seen before at idle speed but came back again when hitting the throttle. So question is if I had a real oil pressure issue wouldn't it be constant and not intermittent like it seems to be? Could it be maybe the oil pump going bad? My mechanic is already talking about a new motor. His arguement is do you want to spend thousands repairing a 12 year old motor or is it better to start new. Yikes, wasnt ready to hear that but his arguement does make some sense if I do have a larger issue here....thoughts?
 
Who replaces a motor that runs like a champ? Sounds like an intermittent bad something, but not an oil pump or a motor. Hook up a temp mechanical oil pressure guage for a while and monitor that. Change your oil and filter, oil might be thinning out.
 
I have to ask... when you checked the oil, did you wipe it off first?

Could the alarm have been from one of the other sensors?

There could have been a spec of dirt on the oil sensor. Granted, a big coincidence.

Check the connections. If gauge still fluctuates, replace sender. Post back.

Sounds like the mechanic is looking for some work.
 
Lazy Daze said:
I have to ask... when you checked the oil, did you wipe it off first?

Could the alarm have been from one of the other sensors?

There could have been a spec of dirt on the oil sensor. Granted, a big coincidence.

Check the connections. If gauge still fluctuates, replace sender. Post back.

Sounds like the mechanic is looking for some work.
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Dennis,
yes wiped it off and checked multiple times. I also checked again after returning and letting everything settle for a bit. I guess it's possible the alarm could have been from another sensor since I have had alarms before due to knock sensor and lube oil. I've had those alarms checked and they are never just one thing but multiple things. One thing that was different this time was the alarm was a constant alarm sound when the pressure gauge fluctuated where all the others were a constant beep and no gauge fluctuations.
Do you think this could be an electrical issue? Reason I ask is that I've had multiple alarms that seem like false alarms and it looks like the PO had been doing something with the wiring harness (looks like someone was in there working on it). Another symptom is before this happened I would experience an alarm once every say 5 or 6 times out and each time the gauges look good. I would shut the engine off and start it back up and no alarm for the rest of the day. I keep getting these intermittent alarms but the reason this one scared me was that for the first time the pressure gauge went low and started to fluctuate. So I guess I am building an arguement for what you say could be a coincidence but it sure seemed different this time. Thanks.
 
Sprint7TW said:
I would change the oil filter and keep a close eye on it. The relief valve in the filter could be bad.
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Seen this happen more than once. Could also be bad connection on sender (happened to me 3 years ago). Don't jump on a new engine yet. If it is fresh water cooled it has many years left, If raw water cooled in salt water it's about time.
 
It is raw water cooled. I know it has been salt water for a few years now but don't really know its entire history. You seem to be saying the same thing my mechanic is saying....That they have a 12 to 15 year life expectancy in salt water so you have a choice to either keep throwing money at this one and fairly soon you will be repowering any way or bite the bullet now. Just seems crazy to me since the motor is running great other than these few intermittent alarm issues. I'll see how it goes for now because I am of the opinion of not replacing anything until it breaks. Just have to stay fairly close to home port until I figure it out.
 
Electrical gremlins can be a real pain in the butt to figure out, especially via a forum. I don't think I can say anything else at this point as we'll probably just start going around in circles. I'd start with electrical connections at the senders, sensors and gauges. Also check and clean battery and ground connections. Once those are done, and if the problems persist, start in with the suggestions given above.

As far as engine health, it's very possible that it will go another 10 years. Or, it could crap out tomorrow. Point is, based on what you are saying in this thread, I don't see anything that points to the engine being on it's way out. It might need some attention to electrical connections and/or senders/sensors.

A couple easy things you can do to check overall engine health...

-- Pull and visually inspect spark plugs (how many hours on them?)

-- Compression test

-- How much sediment/scaling comes out of the block & mani draincocks?
 
I agree on the mechanic looking to make some quick $$$$. Your lifters would be clacking pretty bad with no oil pressure in the motor. I'd change the sending unit first, Mike.
 
I had a distributor/oil pump shaft break where the pin goes through (weak link) in the oil pump gear once. The engine still ran but the oil pump did not. If that's it and you catch it real fast, easy fix.
 
The problem is intermittent which is most likely electrical issues. Take Dennis's suggestion and screw a manual gauge in where the sensor is. Check your PSI there. If it is good then you have electrical issues. If not then the PSI will be consistently low then build with RPM. The internal oil pump has a PSI control valve that could stick but then the PSI would still be consistent for where ever the valve is stuck at.
 
Thanks all for the advice. I agree I think it is an intermittent electrical issue. I cleaned the oil pressure sender contacts and it was pretty corroded and green. Couldn't find the oil pressure switch to check that out. Dennis if you can give me a clue where that is it would be greatly appreciated. I assume it is near the sender and believe it is a blue/tan wire but couldn't find it.

Just an update...took it out today and on my way out I had five alarms which were a constant beep. Oil pressure gauge was solid and did not move off 40 psi when doing about 3000 to 3400 rpms. When I stopped the boat the idle oil pressure was about 15 psi. So I think the oil pressure is ok.

So the weirdness continues, as i said on the way out on about a 15 to 20 minute ride I would get an alarm, stop the boat and shut it off. Restart it and go another few minutes and again it would alarm. As I said this happened 5 times. Anchored off for a few hours and on the way back had no alarms. Boat ran perfect both on the way out and back. It's driving me crazy but I think the engine is fine and will have to try to dissect the problem until I find the SOB.

Thanks again for listening and replying!
 
RonG said:
Thanks all for the advice. I agree I think it is an intermittent electrical issue. I cleaned the oil pressure sender contacts and it was pretty corroded and green. Couldn't find the oil pressure switch to check that out. Dennis if you can give me a clue where that is it would be greatly appreciated. I assume it is near the sender and believe it is a blue/tan wire but couldn't find it.

Just an update...took it out today and on my way out I had five alarms which were a constant beep. Oil pressure gauge was solid and did not move off 40 psi when doing about 3000 to 3400 rpms. When I stopped the boat the idle oil pressure was about 15 psi. So I think the oil pressure is ok.

So the weirdness continues, as i said on the way out on about a 15 to 20 minute ride I would get an alarm, stop the boat and shut it off. Restart it and go another few minutes and again it would alarm. As I said this happened 5 times. Anchored off for a few hours and on the way back had no alarms. Boat ran perfect both on the way out and back. It's driving me crazy but I think the engine is fine and will have to try to dissect the problem until I find the SOB.

Thanks again for listening and replying!
Click to expand...

Ron, Now don't get pissed but, are you sure you are hearing a warning alarm or could it be the sounder.
Don't ask why I am asking.
 
Sprint7TW said:
Ron, Now don't get pissed but, are you sure you are hearing a warning alarm or could it be the sounder.
Don't ask why I am asking.
Click to expand...
Sounder as in the gps sounder or the depth gauge sounder? No it's the warning alarm. I can't believe that the depth finder alarm would be as loud. I don't have a sounder connected to my gps. Now you got me double guessing myself. No way it's the warning alarm.
 
You know, I always forget which one is where, but... one of them (sender or sensor) is back by the distributor and the other is by the engine block oil filter adapter.
 
On my 300, (88 model) the low oil psa, over heat, and low drive oil are the same alarm)
Drove me nuts once thinking it was an over heat issue. Turned out to be low drive oil in the resevoir.
Just throw ing that out there. Yours is much newer and probably completly different.
 
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