Lower Unit Oil Color

[jpate9]

I recently drained my lower unit oil and noticed it was white in color. It was the consistany of lumpy yogurt. Does this mean I have water seepage through the seals? Is there any lower unit lubricant that is white in color? I know lithium based lubricants are white.

My mercury manual comes in next week. I replaced it with a 80W90 in the meantime so I could debug another issue.

If I do have water seepage, can I get away with leaving it alone for a while? The impeller seems to work just dandy and I'd rather not tear that apart. It only takes a few minutes to replace the lubricant. I could do this after every trip on the water if I needed to.

Any thoughts?

 

[Don S]

Re: Lower Unit Oil Color

Sounds like water to me.

Fix it.

 

[achris]

Re: Lower Unit Oil Color

Or if you're happy pulling the lower unit, take it to a shop. There are a couple of tools required to open those boxes up and without them it's a difficult/impossible job. You will also need to have a pressure and vacuum gauge to find the seal that's leaking and to test the box after you've done the job.

Even if you change the oil after every trip, you're still doing damage to gears and bearings by running them with saltwater contaminated oil.

Chris.......