2002 150 Optimax Mercury Problem

[jayshammer]

I purchased a 2002 promotional 150 Optimax mercury motor. The motor used for three months, then sent back to factory for refurbishment and sold to me. Took engine to mercury mechanic who mounted on boat and checked out engine under 60 day warranty and relaced worn parts. Picked up boat and took to lake and ran for two hours to break in. Ran well except the gauges did not work. took it back to shop. Mechanic says easy fix. Picked boat up later and put in the salt; ten miles out alarms are souunding. towed off the pond and took back to dealer. Mechanic checks it out and says the ground in the ECM is fried, need a new ECM. Talk to another mechanic and he says the engine should not work if the ECM is bad?

 

[KCLOST]

Re: 2002 150 Optimax Mercury Problem

Not necessarily, if the ecm is not putting out the proper signal to the alarm module (related to the oil injection system) it will cause the alarm to sound, but the engine could still be running normally.<br /><br />This is a common problem on black max v6's of the 80's. If the system is similar I imagine that is the problem you are having also....

 

[Reelly]

Re: 2002 150 Optimax Mercury Problem

How did the mechanic troubleshoot it to find out the ground in the ecm is bad? What did the DDT tell him? And why was it sent back to Mercury to start with?

 

[jayshammer]

Re: 2002 150 Optimax Mercury Problem

The mechanic (which is the third one at this olympic boat dealer) said he bypassed it some way, etc???

 

[jayshammer]

Re: 2002 150 Optimax Mercury Problem

2002 150 Optimax ot484478 25 shaft 60 day dealer warranty. Actual mechanic statement: "We found that the ecm computer has a bad ground internal". This is causing all the values in the computer to go to predetermined values of operation. We externally grounded the ecm and all the values in the computer return to normal. Power is up to 100%. We recommend ecm replacement. all guages are currently working perfectly. Gene Boyer Service manager

 

[AMD Rules]

Re: 2002 150 Optimax Mercury Problem

Picked boat up later and put in the salt; ten miles out alarms are souunding.

You salties have a lot more courage than I do. Running a newly purchased motor for the first time in open water, I wouldn't have ventured further from shore than I could see. 10 miles out with alarms buzzing. Ouch.

 

[Reelly]

Re: 2002 150 Optimax Mercury Problem

I really dont understand. The ecm which on that motor I beleive is a motorola 555 is already externaly grounded. It sounds like the motor was running in default which it does when there is sensor issues. But the computer controls everything hard for me beleive that it is bad and still goes into default settings. I wonder if they hooked a DDT(Digital Diagnostic Tool) to your motor?

 

[dolluper]

Re: 2002 150 Optimax Mercury Problem

I could be way far off base here but just a taught ecm have to disapate heat and from the story 10 miles out is delect grease applied under ecm other applications need it because of an heat issue they fail shortly after instalation if not used

 

[uaw9fan]

Re: 2002 150 Optimax Mercury Problem

I am the mechanic that worked on this boat. I now work at another dealer so I figured I'd give you guys the heads up.
I had just started working at Olympic and this boat was thrown into my lap as the recently fired employee had started it.
I started by hooking up the DDT to the engine. When I looked up trouble codes on the engine I got a code of "voltage high" for every sensor. After looking at a wiring schematic I noticed that all of the sensors had a common wire between them the black/orange wire.
After inspecting the engine I found a harness plugged together that wasn't supposed to be together. The result was a purple 12v wire was hooked to the black/orange reference ground. The reference ground in the ecm is strong enough to deal with 5v but when it got hooked to 12v it burned it up in the ecm. I then hooked the black/orange wire to ground with a jumper wire and all of the codes went away, and the engine ran.

So unfortunately my recommendation was to replace the ecm. After looking around I did find service bulletin 2001-02 which describes how the problem can occur if hooking smartcraft incorrectly.

 

[1nebel0]

Re: 2002 150 Optimax Mercury Problem

WOW...what are the odds that the mechanic that worked on your boat would be looking at postings here!!! Nice to have a good mechanic here...I sold Mac tools for 9 years and will tell you that I would only let a couple of guys work on my boat... I have learned a lot from them and now do all my own maintainance. If you have a good mechanic you are lucky and follow him where ever he goes..

 

[gordymac]

Re: 2002 150 Optimax Mercury Problem

Hi there mate, u sound like a man that might be able to help me, i have a 2001 mercury 150 optimax however last week it was run up for no more than 2 minutes with 24volts running through it was shut down right away when realised the idiotic misatke (idlying at 2300rpm on 24 volts) swapped over to 12 volts engine fired rightup ran for 2 minutes stil idlying slightly high puff of smoke out exhaust and shutdown with fresh oil comming out exhaust tried cranking it again and noticed fly wheel was going tight (not solid) hasnt been run since, any ideas from anyone on this subject would be great thanks gordy

 

[gordymac]

Re: 2002 150 Optimax Mercury Problem

Hi there mate, u sound like a man that might be able to help me, i have a 2001 mercury 150 optimax however last week it was run up for no more than 2 minutes with 24volts running through it was shut down right away when realised the idiotic misatke (idlying at 2300rpm on 24 volts) swapped over to 12 volts engine fired rightup ran for 2 minutes stil idlying slightly high puff of smoke out exhaust and shutdown with fresh oil comming out exhaust tried cranking it again and noticed fly wheel was going tight (not solid) hasnt been run since, any ideas from anyone on this subject would be great thanks gordy