oil pump malfunction alarm on my Mercury

Well I come to you guys asking for your superior wisdom. Here is the deal I let my brother use my boat for a tournament a few weeks ago. Motor is a Mercury XS 250. While he was using it it ran low on oil as soon as the smart gauge sounded he shut it down and found that the oil level had dropped to about an inch. From that point on it was time to use the T-8 to get back in. once he got it in he put a gallon of oil in it and had not used it after that other then to load it up.

Well today was the first day I had it out. I started it pulled away from the dock as soon as I got deep enough I got on the gas. The smart gauge sounded and I stopped to see what was up. The book said that the indication I was getting was an oil pump malfunction. Well I pulled off the cover of the motor the reservoir on the motor was almost full but not all the way. The remote oil tank was up a third to almost half. The screen on the end of the oil intake was clean. Oil psi was at 3-4 psi at an idle and 16-18 running wide open. I was able to run up and down the lake about four times and never had a problem after that. I spent some time trolling around and the kids swam. When it was time to go in same alarm went off. Oil psi at time of alarm was 15.

Not a mechanic but it seems as it may be air in the line or something like that.

I hope someone can help me out I have a weekend trip next weekend and am planning on bringing my boat. HELP ME PLEASE!….well my brother really. but me too.

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Well I pulled off the cover of the motor the reservoir on the motor was almost full but not all the way. The remote oil tank was up a third to almost half.

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That is low enought to set off the alarm. Actually it can set off the alarm at about 1 inch down. You are OK. Fill that resivour all the way up. Run it for 15 minutes. Check it again. If it went down a little, top it off. Then you are good to go. When I say top it off I mean all the way to the cap.

You did no harm to the motor. The alarm system appears to be working fine.

-J.

That is low enought to set off the alarm. Actually it can set off the alarm at about 1 inch down. You are OK. Fill that resivour all the way up. Run it for 15 minutes. Check it again. If it went down a little, top it off. Then you are good to go. When I say top it off I mean all the way to the cap.

When you say fill the resivour are you talking aobut the one mounted to the motor under the cover? That one is about 2 inches low and the whole thing is maybe 6 inches high.

Yep, the one under the hood. The sensor that sets the alarm is in the cap. Easy to test. Take the cap off, turn the ignition to on. Move the slide up and down. Down sets it off, up turns it off. 2 inches down will definatley set it off.

-J.

Thanks Jon. It was just not adding up seemed like something simple like that.

Yep, JJ is right. Same thing happened to me in late June. The same alarm and stuff you experienced. I found a leak to improper/bad installation of a hose. Fixed that, but still got the alarm. The resevoir was still low on the Motor itself. The other way to fix it is besides filling it direct, is to run the motor at idle and bleed out the air (leave resevoir cover off, with motor idling until air bleeds out and put the cap back on.