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experience with mercury 96 and 97 EFI's?
- Thread starter sim
- Start date
EFI problems?
My 97 has over 600 hours and has never had any problem. Here in L.A. the boating season never ends and I've put tons on time on mine. Most of the guys I run with have Merc/Mariner EFI and they sure seem good to me. What type problems has your guy experienced? And what did he do to fix them?
Art
In God We Trust
My 97 has over 600 hours and has never had any problem. Here in L.A. the boating season never ends and I've put tons on time on mine. Most of the guys I run with have Merc/Mariner EFI and they sure seem good to me. What type problems has your guy experienced? And what did he do to fix them?
Art
In God We Trust
ecu
he (my mechanic) was saying something about the placement of the ecu's and how they were prone to failure during the first 2 production years of this model (at $2000 a pop). I can't get anyone else who even knows what he's talking about including the merc people in wisconsin that I spoke with the other day. thanks for answering.
he (my mechanic) was saying something about the placement of the ecu's and how they were prone to failure during the first 2 production years of this model (at $2000 a pop). I can't get anyone else who even knows what he's talking about including the merc people in wisconsin that I spoke with the other day. thanks for answering.
Mark
Well-known member
How about, "every year"!
I have no fondness for Merc EFI's. There are guys who have got years of trouble free service, but many others who own them and never get them to run right. I have had to replace almost every electrical component on mine including the ECU. When it went, 2 injectors stopped firing altogether. They are non-servicable and must be replaced.
When (not if) a Merc component fails, if possible, replace them with aftermarket CDI instead of Merc. OEM electronics are very poor.
My latest repair was having my injectors cleaned and flowed. 3 were irrepairable and had to be replaced. Another $530...and the engine doesn't run a bit better. I have a good carbed Merc that doesn't give me a lick of trouble...but I would never buy another EFI! At 410 pounds it is actually too big for a boat anchor.
Yamaha baby...there's a properly built motor.
I have no fondness for Merc EFI's. There are guys who have got years of trouble free service, but many others who own them and never get them to run right. I have had to replace almost every electrical component on mine including the ECU. When it went, 2 injectors stopped firing altogether. They are non-servicable and must be replaced.
When (not if) a Merc component fails, if possible, replace them with aftermarket CDI instead of Merc. OEM electronics are very poor.
My latest repair was having my injectors cleaned and flowed. 3 were irrepairable and had to be replaced. Another $530...and the engine doesn't run a bit better. I have a good carbed Merc that doesn't give me a lick of trouble...but I would never buy another EFI! At 410 pounds it is actually too big for a boat anchor.
Yamaha baby...there's a properly built motor.
kingsbiship
Member
I know the spark plugs have to be resister type so as not to interfere with the frequency
of the injector pulse, other than that....
of the injector pulse, other than that....
PapaMaC
Member
Out of all Fuel Injection motors, the only brand I haven't heard complaints about is yamaha. As far as I know from fellow boaters and my own experience; Mercury (Fuel Injection) is notorious for repeat problematic failures, Evinrude/Johnson (Fuel Injection) needs to be modified to run "forever", and Yamaha just needs TLC to stay strong/reliable.
My fishing buddy bought a brand-new Nitro 189 with a Mercury 135 Optimax two years ago and has had all kinds of problems during break-in and after. He is now considering a Yamaha.
My fishing buddy bought a brand-new Nitro 189 with a Mercury 135 Optimax two years ago and has had all kinds of problems during break-in and after. He is now considering a Yamaha.
JUPITER PULSARE
Well-known member
The actual first year of the EFI Mercs was 1995. The 225 was called a Blackmax 225Xri. From what I've been told, in 1995 the efi electronics were designed and built by Mercury. 1996 and newer motors had the electronics farmed out to Motorola. I've never had any problems whatsoever with my 1995 225 Xri...in fact, it's been the best motor I've ever owned so far!!!
Hemi4Me
Member
Ok, Yamaha does make a good product and so does Merc. I love working on their regular efi systems as they are simple and easy to diagnose. As far as OMC is concerned, the Ficht will run like a scalded dog, but when they go boom, they are done and when you replace one injector, ya replace the whole batch and they ain't cheap. You gotta expect that with direct injected motors, I've seen major meltdowns on all of them. Mercury DFI parts are pricey especially when you have a compressor go bad, same with Yamaha HPDI. They all run good if ya treat em and run em right. But... there is some problems because some motors where pushed onto the market too soon and should have been dialed in better. But you see that with everything in a competative market.
eboch
Member
I have a 1997 225 ProMax. I had an odd ECU problem in which the ECU was periodically turning the EFI fuel pump off for a split second. This was a very had problem to debug because it was transient and occured only when running at high speed ... about 50 or 60 mph.
The ECU is not a serviceable item according the the dealer. the merc units are expensive. I did find aftermarket units which were around half of Mercury's price, but my understanding is that these then need to be programmed by the dealer ... which may not work ... risky.
I took my ECU apart with the thought that there was probably a high current relay at the root of the problem. the ECU is indeed not serviceable .... at least not easily .... the electronics are completely caked in a 1/2" thick silicone (?) slab.
I fixed the problem by adding a new relay to the ECU which operates in parrallel with the fuel pump relay ... it takes over whenever the ECU glitches. Haven't had a problem with it since.
eboch
The ECU is not a serviceable item according the the dealer. the merc units are expensive. I did find aftermarket units which were around half of Mercury's price, but my understanding is that these then need to be programmed by the dealer ... which may not work ... risky.
I took my ECU apart with the thought that there was probably a high current relay at the root of the problem. the ECU is indeed not serviceable .... at least not easily .... the electronics are completely caked in a 1/2" thick silicone (?) slab.
I fixed the problem by adding a new relay to the ECU which operates in parrallel with the fuel pump relay ... it takes over whenever the ECU glitches. Haven't had a problem with it since.
eboch
ezstriper
Well-known member
well don't praise yamaha to much...have friend with a new 4 stroke 150 that just decides to shut down to a idle(limp mode) regularly...they have replaced several componants to no avail...added gauges to see what if anything is going on...shows no overheat, etc...but still does it...if you shut the engine off, restart then you can cruise again....even has the yamaha tech stumped !!!
smallblockford
Member
i had a similar problem with a merc 4 stroke last year. i found that the vst were the fuel pump sits was full of gel or junk of some sort from the fuel. pulled the vst and cleaned no more problem. what would hapen was it would plug up the screen on the fuel pump pickup and run like it was in a limp home mode but what really was happening was it couldnt get enough volume of fuel for high speed and yes it would get up to speed and then hit. and it also had decent fuel pressure before hand. tell your buddy to check that.