engine warning beep

[glhay]

First post to your forum.

I have a 1996 Mercury 150hp carburated engine. I had the engine warning beep go off yesterday. It was a constant beep-beep-beeping (ie. not intermittant) however it is not a constant horn (ie. it is definitely a beep-beep-beep sound). Is this a low oil or oil injection warning, or is it the overheat warning?

Here's what happened exactly. Engine ran fine yesterday for a cruise at about 3000 rpm for about 45 minutes. Shut off engine for about an hour then restarted and ran at idle speed for about 5 minutes and the warning beep-beep-beep went off. Checked the oil resevoir on engine and it was full to the top, remote oil tank is half full, checked the water pump tell-tale and there was a constant stream of water.

Shut down engine for about 15 minutes and restarted and no beep. Went at 3000 rpm for about 15 minutes, engine ran and souned fine and no warning beep-beep, then slowed to idle and the warning beep went off again. Shut down again for about 5 minutes and restarted and no beeping again.

I am puzzled, again is this an overheat or oil issue? Any suggestions or fixes.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[gss036]

Re: engine warning beep

The first thing is to determine if it it overheat or oil. Overheat sound is a constant Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. Oil is beep-beep beep- the sound you get when you first turn on you key, you 3-4 beep, beeps and it stops.
If it is beep beep type, I would sugget you run premix until find out for sure.
You say you have oil in the engine tank, so the (while you are getting the sound and engine running) 1st thing I would do is trace the 2 wires from the cap to the bayonet connection and disconnet them, if it stops then you have a problem with the magnetic float/probe in the tank. Either the magnet has fallen off or losen.
Do a search here , there are lots of posts w/this type of problem. You should also try to get an OEM service manual.
There is another oil related problem below this one on the forum, look at it. It is by Jeff###

 

[zzzzz]

Re: engine warning beep

Mercs oiling system is pressurized so make sure all the caps are on good and tight...we replace a lot of oil sending units on Mercs

 

[glhay]

Re: engine warning beep

Thanks, I will assume it is an oil issue, since it is a beep-beep and not a constant beeeeeeeeeeeeep tone. However it is not intermittent as I have read in other posts which refer to 3 or 4 beeps and then stops for 20 seconds and then 3 or 4 beeps again. I am getting a constant beep-beep-beep-beep until I trun the engine off.

I will try to tighten all caps as I did stop for fuel during the trip and added a litre of oil to the main resevoir, however I do always ensure the cap is tight as I know it is a pressurized system. I also assume since the resevoir on the engine was plum full when I checked it, that oil was getting from the main resevoir to it so the system must have been pressurized. I will check the wires from the engine resevoir to the warning module and will pull one off to see if the warning quits.

Thanks for the suggestions and any more are appreciated.

 

[j_martin]

Re: engine warning beep

don't miss the point of adding oil to your fuel tank. Mix it about 50:1 best guess. If the oiling is working and it's a sensor problem, you'll be running a little too much oil, no harm done. If it isn't working, ie the drive gear sheared, you will oil the engine and not do any harm to it either. If you don't add oil to your main fuel tank and it is a mechanical problem, you'll burn it down.