I ran into a situation about a week ago after putting about 25 hrs on my newly purchased 2008 sea ray 185 sport with a 4.3 alpha merc i/o. The boat has about 120 total hours on the engine when i started to notice that the fluids (oil, gear lube, power steering) were extremely low, below add lines. In addition, the last time I took it out the boat was riding a little rough. As I opened it up to around 3000 rpms, which would typically get the boat speed to around 20mph, it was simply trolling. I let off the throttle and continued to troll for abit and little by little giving it more rpms, eventually it came around and was responding as normal. while heading back into dock, the steering column began to vibrate extensively and the engine as a whole didnt sound quite right. After removing the boat from the water, i noticed a rather large bunch of fishing line on one of the fins of the outboard. Contributor or cause, either way I quickly took it into a nearby mercury authorized repair shop to get the boat checked out because in addition to the fluids being low, the shifting had always been a little rough, substantial kicks moving between fwd and reverse.
Several days later I recieved a call from the service mech. who claimed the boat would need a service and a water pump test (mentioned it ran fine out of water though). He believed the boat had never been serviced and that the gear lube was so black that they would need to clean out the whole system with the water pressure test....grand total $700. I contacted the dealer who said he's never heard of a water pressure test, but if they were going to cleanse the system, it would be unecessary. He further stated I should go ahead with the standard 100 hrs service and fluid/oil change and that for the gear lube, i could simply do it myself by draining it and changing the fluid.
All that being said, sorry for the length, I have a great respect for this forum and would like to know your take, and if what i said doesnt raise too many flags, I would greatly appreciate a step by step of performing the gear lube draining. Thank you for your time
Several days later I recieved a call from the service mech. who claimed the boat would need a service and a water pump test (mentioned it ran fine out of water though). He believed the boat had never been serviced and that the gear lube was so black that they would need to clean out the whole system with the water pressure test....grand total $700. I contacted the dealer who said he's never heard of a water pressure test, but if they were going to cleanse the system, it would be unecessary. He further stated I should go ahead with the standard 100 hrs service and fluid/oil change and that for the gear lube, i could simply do it myself by draining it and changing the fluid.
All that being said, sorry for the length, I have a great respect for this forum and would like to know your take, and if what i said doesnt raise too many flags, I would greatly appreciate a step by step of performing the gear lube draining. Thank you for your time
