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Mercury Verado Owners Assistance Request:

Vikingstaff

Vikingstaff

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I have a 200hp Mercury Verado on a 2017 SSBXP SPS. My “Fuel in Water” warning went off last night while watching fireworks on the lake. Doing some quick research: owners manual, Verado Club document, and YouTube Video seem to indicate this can be a routine item on these motors and to do the following:

1- find fuel-water separator filter and sensor (should be somewhere on boat).

2- put drain pan of any sort beneath these to capture drained water/liquids.

3- unscrew sensor at bottom of filter with a tool (that I don’t have, large screwdriver is supposed to be an alternative but not recommended long term).

4- Once the sensor is unscrewed and pulled away from the filter any water/liquids should drain out (I am imagining something like removing the drain plug when changing oil...?).

5- When done, put Vaseline on the sensor threads, and screw it back into the filter.

6- Don’t over tighten, just go snug and done.

MY QUESTIONS before just caving in and having my dealer look into it:

1- Anyone ever done this and is it as easy as the steps above indicate.

2- Videos/reading tell me to locate the filter/sensor on boat, and its different for various boats. Anyone ever done this on an s-series SPS, Swingback configuration? If yes, where is the water/fuel separator and sensor located on our boats with the Mercury verado motor set up?

3- Can I get away with a large screwdriver as it says I can in a pinch, or do I really need to get the Mercury part they recommend for long term integrity of the assembly - which minimally means having my dealer do this job this time around?

4- Any advice for me as I DO NOT do anything mechanically, and have no practical skills in any mechanical area.?. This is probably a totally rudimentary procedure, but for me, it’s totally out of my wheel house and comfort zone....tools, you use tools? :confused:

5- I can certainly have my dealer do this, but it sounds somewhat routine, and potentially common with these motors. Thus the loss of time taking it in, having them do it, and then hand me a bill disportionate to the actual task is motivating me to possibly figure out how to do this on my own.

Thanks in advance for any guidance and advice: particularly on where I might want to look to find the darn filter/sensor to begin with... Have a great day everyone!
 
"Water in fuel" is fairly common, never happened to me fortunately. Here is a good video on this from Merc

 
Jeff, my fuel/water separator is located under our port stern lounger and I would imagine yours is there, too, being that it is connected to the fuel system. Make sense? It pretty much looks like an oil filter so you should have no trouble finding it. I've never done it before but I think it's probably fairly straight forward. I'd give her a whirl and then if you run into trouble, get with the dealer. I'll be out on the water this afternoon and could possibly stop by. Thoughts?
 
TomS said:
"Water in fuel" is fairly common, never happened to me fortunately. Here is a good video on this from Merc
Click to expand...
Michiman said:
Jeff, my fuel/water separator is located under our port stern lounger and I would imagine yours is there, too, being that it is connected to the fuel system.
Click to expand...

Thanks guys! After posting I found that video above, as well as some information from the Verado club group about this issue. These basically stated what you mention Tom (common and meant to be tended to every now and then by owner). Furthermore, after looking at my boat, you are right Steve, very obvious location and is accessible.

So...after watching the video and examining my boat, I was thinking I got this easily. Almost like an oil change on a car when I was in college, but less to drain. No problem!

I get set up for the simple drain of the filter, since I only have about 1/2 an inch under the filter/sensor, I ran some plastic liner to a plastic bowl in my transom area, which is where they mounted my filter/sensor on the Swingback configuration - see pictures.

I go to unscrew the sensor, and the threading for the bolt is snapped - totally broken apart. The sensor and securing nut are freely hanging beneath the filter. I utter a few %$#@! style words :mad: :rolleyes: , take some pictures, and go up to my dealer.

Mechanic looks at it and says “that’s your problem”. lol, yup. They don’t have the parts and need to order a new sensor and filter bracket. It’s $200 in parts, and shouldn’t have broken on its own, so they recommended getting it into them so its all warranty instead of me messing with it...or worse me messing with it and that causing a future Mercury warranty problem. No problem except that its July, coming off the 4th of July, and they are backlogged 2-3 weeks on priority customers alone. They will do there best, but no promises the rest of this month.

I am totally bummed out right now!!!

I do however appreciate the quick replies from Tom and Steve. Had the bolt/nut/threading in the sensor to filter attachment not been broken, I’d already be up and running today. Also, if they were not broken, I probably wouldn’t the issue to begin with anyway, so....:(
 
Bummer!!! Sounds like an easy enough fix though.
 
Okay, life is often about who you know and getting lucky. Today I was aided by both factors. I know someone that was able to expedite this issue being looked at and worked on - under warranty.

Since the sensor wires & securing bolt was snapped in half where it attaches to the filter/separator, they wanted to examine the whole set up in the shop. My friend was able to expedite it, and it get all taken care of today, including my friend traveling to secure me the parts from another service center. And yes, gift certificates will be personally delivered to him tomorrow by me - as well as movie tickets to his friend who is the certified mercury technician!

From my invoice: “Upon inspection verified the unit has a broken wire to the fuel filter that fell off. Verified the rigging harness is too tight causing the water separator harness to bind and break off. Removed the water separator assembly to be able to remove the fuel filter. Factory installed the separator too close to the transom to be able to unscrew it. Installed new fuel filter and sensor and bolted the unit back together. Test ran the unit and it now operates as intended.” :eek:

Good news is someone leaned in to get it looked at today...today of all things. Wow! :)

Also, although the actual job for the broken sensor wire/bolt was easy, there were two underlying causes (rigging harnesses, and water separator assembly placement). Those would cause this problem to happen repeatedly. Hence, I may have been able to do the sensor replacement - easy. I would not have been able to diagnose or resolve the underlying issues - beyond my competence. Also, my doing it would have technically voided warranty on this issue, and may have potentially impacted getting the underlying issues properly dealt with down the road.

Now, had I not had an in with someone, I’d likely be waiting 2-3 weeks on this, and who knows if that person would have just fixed the problem, ignoring the underlying causes - who knows. I think I got some luck as well as some extra personalized technician assistance because of my friend.

We are now back on course for family and friends during our vacation stretch the next couple of weeks at the cottage. :cool:

Looking forward to delivering my thank you cards and goodies tomorrow to these boat hero’s! ;)
 
Awesome resolution, glad you're back in business!
 
Jeff, nice that they were able to quickly resolve the problem for you. So, maybe you can introduce me to your friend sometime... ;)
 
Michiman said:
Jeff, nice that they were able to quickly resolve the problem for you. So, maybe you can introduce me to your friend sometime... ;)
Click to expand...
Hehe, when we're young you'd say that about a hot girl / guy, when we get older it's about a mechanic or a carpenter!
 
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