Bravo 3 drive lube low - where did it go?

Went down and ran the boat a little this evening, and, almost immediately on starting, got a "drive lube low" warning on the Smartcraft gauges. Looked, and, yup, the drive lube monitor is almost empty.

My boat is on a lift, and I hadn't put it in the water yet (running it on the hose), so I spent a few minutes trying to find the leak. I couldn't see any oil anywhere (on the drive, in the gimbal area, or in the engine compartment).

I guess my question is pretty simple. Should I just put more lube in and see what happens? Or is this something that always indicates a leak somewhere in the system? Does the Bravo 3 "use" drive lube oil?

Also, I had the lube done in this drive pretty recently, could the lube just be "burping" into any small air pockets that somehow are left? I've probably put about 5 hours on the boat since the drive lube was changed.

Re: Bravo 3 drive lube low - where did it go?

It's shouldn't burp near that much, usually about 3/4" or less, and no, they don't or shouldn't use any.
Either it's leaking out, possibly into the bellows, or it wasn't filled properly.
You really need to find out what happened before you use it again.

Re: Bravo 3 drive lube low - where did it go?

Thanks Don, I'll see if I can dig a little deeper and find my "missing" oil.

It may have only lost 3/4", the lube monitor when the engine was cold always seemed a little "low" to me. After running, it would come up a bit, and since it didn't alarm, I didn't worry about it. The monitor wasn't "empty" it was just very low. I'll poke around and see what I can find.