Oil warning 09 Challenger 180 255HP

[dsm]

Boat has been running great. Ran up the river normally today, ran mostly around 6000 RPM, opened it up all the way a couple of times, all perfectly normal

Stopped for a little bit, then restarted, and at about 3500 RPM, oil warning came on with a long beep. I shut it down immediately, checked the oil, which was about 1/4 inch above the high mark, so definitely not low. I am not sure how much the level read high because it was hot.

Restarted and ran at idle for a while then slowed bumped it up about 200 RPM every couple minutes. At about 3500 got the oil warning again. Ran fine up to that point.

Brought it back in at 2500 RPM no problem.

Thoughts? Oil pressure sensor?

 

[dsm]

Well, no replies but I thought I'd post an update for anyone's information who is interested. Since I knew the oil was overfull I started there, and if I was going to drop the level I figured I might as well change it and the filter as well to see what kind of shape it was in.

I did the full oil extraction procedure in the manual including two 10-second rounds of dry cranking, and removed around 4.1 quarts of oil. Changed the oil filter, the old one looked totally normal. Re-added 3.3 quarts of new oil to bring it about 1/4 or the way between add and full when lightly warm (to shoot for half way when fully warmed up). So before there was about 0.8 quarts too much by this measure.

Took the boat out again, ran great, and after fully warming up, the oil level was exactly half-way between full and add. Ran for a while at a variety of speeds including wide-open with no problems. After maybe 40 minutes continuous running though, got the oil alarm again at higher RPMs. Came back in at 2500 RPM with no problems.

Decided to put an oil pressure gauge on it. I put it into the cylinder head attachment so that I didn't have to mess with the pressure switch yet. I was running on the hose so I couldn't run for long enough to fully warm it up, I did two, two-minute periods with a rest in between, this was on top of some residual warmth from the prior run.

Got an idle pressure starting right at 90 psi and decreasing to 60 psi as the engine warmed up a bit, and a pressure around 110 lbs revving to 4000 RPM. The numbers are high based on the book, but considering the engine was not at full operating temperature, I am guessing about normal.

I ordered an oil pressure sensor and will swap that and try again next weekend. I'll leave the oil pressure gauge on as well when I go out so I can get some fully-warmed up readings, and readings during the problem if it continues to happen.

 

[gb387]

It's been a few years since we purchased our boat but we had a similar issue. Oil was way overfilled but I was only getting oil sending unit error code. I was not getting any low oil warnings. I read over your first post initially but I was busy at work and forgot to come back. Glad you figured it out, it seems many overfill there BRP motors without proper knowledge.

 

[dsm]

Thanks for the reply. I bought this boat recently, my second Sea Doo. I was always careful about the fill level in the past, this one came to me overfilled, and I knew it, but I didn't realize by quite how much, especially when it was warmed up, so I didn't bother correcting it. Glad I did not even though its not the problem here.

I am not resolved yet, hopefully it really is the oil pressure switch failing in a weird way. I will know for sure after I change it as I will keep the oil pressure test guage attached when for testing. If it's not the switch, then it gets more serious, but we'll see. The boat by all accounts was well maintained and only 125 hours so wear issues don't seem likely to me, but we'll see what happens.

 

[jorgeu03]

Well, no replies but I thought I'd post an update for anyone's information who is interested. Since I knew the oil was overfull I started there, and if I was going to drop the level I figured I might as well change it and the filter as well to see what kind of shape it was in.

I did the full oil extraction procedure in the manual including two 10-second rounds of dry cranking, and removed around 4.1 quarts of oil. Changed the oil filter, the old one looked totally normal. Re-added 3.3 quarts of new oil to bring it about 1/4 or the way between add and full when lightly warm (to shoot for half way when fully warmed up). So before there was about 0.8 quarts too much by this measure.

Took the boat out again, ran great, and after fully warming up, the oil level was exactly half-way between full and add. Ran for a while at a variety of speeds including wide-open with no problems. After maybe 40 minutes continuous running though, got the oil alarm again at higher RPMs. Came back in at 2500 RPM with no problems.

Decided to put an oil pressure gauge on it. I put it into the cylinder head attachment so that I didn't have to mess with the pressure switch yet. I was running on the hose so I couldn't run for long enough to fully warm it up, I did two, two-minute periods with a rest in between, this was on top of some residual warmth from the prior run.

Got an idle pressure starting right at 90 psi and decreasing to 60 psi as the engine warmed up a bit, and a pressure around 110 lbs revving to 4000 RPM. The numbers are high based on the book, but considering the engine was not at full operating temperature, I am guessing about normal.

I ordered an oil pressure sensor and will swap that and try again next weekend. I'll leave the oil pressure gauge on as well when I go out so I can get some fully-warmed up readings, and readings during the problem if it continues to happen.

Good Info, please keep us posted after riding it on the water again..

thank you

 

[dsm]

Here is the update for posterity. The short answer is it was the oil pressure sensor.

Replaced the sensor today, with a bit of finger contortion I was able to do it without having to take any other parts off. First thing I noticed is there was oil on the connector. One of the posts I read said that the failure mode of these is they leak oil up through the center so this seemed to confirm a bad switch. I cleaned the harness connector thoroughly with electrical contact cleaner spray before reconnecting it.

On the water, no alarms. I left the oil pressure gauge connected, I was getting 92 psi at idle on cold start, 38 psi at idle after completely warmed up, and around 70 psi at 4000 RPM and a bit higher at higher RPMs. Definitely not low pressure, seems like the engine is probably in good shape as far as that goes.

One thing I noted in the shop manual procedure to test the sensor that I missed before is the note that you have to raise the RPM to 3300 to get an alarm when you are simulating a failed switch. This corresponds with my observation on the water originally that I didn't get the alarm until I was at about 3500 RPM. Apparently the oil pressure sensor is ignored by the ECM below 3300 RPM. I read elsewhere it was ignored at idle.... I guess idle is defined as up to 3300 RPM.