2013 Yamaha F150LA Lost Oil Pressure at 110 hrs

[NCBOATER]

I lost oil pressure on my Yamaha F150 this past Saturday. The engine derated to 2,000 rpms, and the alarm went off just as I was bringing it up to WOT.
I immediately stopped the engine, dropped anchor, and checked the engine oil. It was up to the full mark, with no sign of any visible leaks. Thanks to the engine inteface readout on my Lowrance HDS 9, I was able to quickly tell that my oil pressure was extremely low at 3 to 5 psi at idle. It is usually around 30psi at idle, and close to 80 psi at WOT according to the digital gauge readout on my Lowrance. I put the control in neutral and increased the RPMs to see if the oil pressure would come up any, and it may have come up about 2 psi tops. I have an engine mounted Minn-Kota 101EM trolling motor that brought me back to the dock. This is the second time the EM trolling motor has saved me. I took the boat back to the dealer this morning, since it is still under warranty, and since they have performed all of the services to the engine. The engine has about 110 hours on it, and it has never let me down till now. It was manufactured in 10/2012, and it is a 63PL serial number prefix. The service manager said he would call me when they found out what the problem is. I could not find much information on this problem on late model Yamaha F150 engines. There was alot of information on the earlier four stroke F150's about the balancer gears stripping, and clogging the oil filter, but Yamaha was supposed to have fixed that issue in the later model engines. I am posting this to let everyone know my issue, and to see if anyone else has had this problem yet. I will keep this post updated as I find out any new information from the dealer.

Thanks.

[Bamaman]

I think your problem is somewhat out of the ordinary. The F150 is supposed to be about as reliable as any 150 hp on the retail market.

My dealer's sold a bunch on Benningtons over the years, and had troubles out of one--it was run in salt water and not flushed.

Glad you're under warranty.

[rancherlee]

80psi seems high to me but I'm not a yamaha mechanic. Most cars/trucks/heavy equipment I work on have a pressure relief valve that dumps oil back to the pan is pressure exceeds 50-60psi. I'm wondering if 80psi was excessive for your engine and wore out the pump prematurely?

[NCBOATER]

Just got a call from my dealer, and the fiber balancer gears have come apart in my engine. He has taken pictures, and sent them to Yamaha. He is asking them to send him a whole new power head, because the fibers from the balancer gears have went all through my engine, until they stopped up the oil suction screen, which is what caused the loss in engine oil pressure. Yamaha had this same problem back in the mid to late 2000's, and they were supposed to have fixed this issue. If you have a late model Yamaha F150 keep your eye on your oil pressure!

[Bamaman]

I was looking at the parts microfiche online. Every brand of outboard motors has parts in them that are incredibly expensive. For example, a F150 driveshaft is right at $1K. A Verado Supercharger is around $5K.

Makes you be very thankful for warranties--you paid for them in the initial price of the motor.

And it makes you want to do impeccable maintenance on your motor and lower unit. The F150 remains one of the really dependable motors out there.

[Bryden24shp]

I was looking at the parts microfiche online. Every brand of outboard motors has parts in them that are incredibly expensive. For example, a F150 driveshaft is right at $1K. A Verado Supercharger is around $5K.

Makes you be very thankful for warranties--you paid for them in the initial price of the motor.

And it makes you want to do impeccable maintenance on your motor and lower unit. The F150 remains one of the really dependable motors out there.

Thats the scary part about owning a Verado! And pencil coils and fuel float modules and..........
But I sure like the way it runs!!!

[NCBOATER]

Here is a good article I found on the balancer issue with Yamaha F150's. If you here the gear whine, you had better replace the balancer assembly, or you will take out your power head.

http://www.reelfishingadventures.net/Ex ... ow_up.html

[NCBOATER]

Called dealer today, and they hope to have all of the parts along with the new power head by this Monday. He said he hoped to have it back together, so I could pick it up next Friday. Now I have to go through the whole engine breaking in process again. 3 weeks with no boat in the middle of boating season stinks!
Oh well. Nothing I can do about it, just have to deal with it.

[Xcursion]

Called dealer today, and they hope to have all of the parts along with the new power head by this Monday. He said he hoped to have it back together, so I could pick it up next Friday. Now I have to go through the whole engine breaking in process again. 3 weeks with no boat in the middle of boating season stinks!
Oh well. Nothing I can do about it, just have to deal with it.

That is the most irritating feeling..... Absolutely pisses me off when chit breaks and the warranty people drag there feet..... They only care till they get your money...then its all back burner when they decide to get to it.... in the mean time...You have your toys sitting there collecting dust instead of on the water making memories...

[NCBOATER]

Called the dealer yesterday, and he had just received the new balancer assembly from Yamaha. It had been on backorder. That should speak to the amount of problems they are having with the balancer assembly. Now they are going to start reassembling the power head. Looks like it will be next Friday, before I can get the boat back. It has been 4 weeks tomorrow since the engine failure occurred. Once you loose a power head under warranty, it apparently takes 4 to 5 weeks to get it repaired. At least it has been rainy for the last two weekends here, so I would not have been able to take it out anyways. Maybe next week.