Go Back  Offshoreonly.com > Technical > General Q & A
What Color is your Drive Oil >

What Color is your Drive Oil

Notices

What Color is your Drive Oil

Old 07-09-2010, 10:05 AM
  #1  
Registered
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: McHenry, IL
Posts: 32
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Default What Color is your Drive Oil

I just drained my drive oil on my Bravo drives. The oil in the starboard drive looks almost as good as when it went in, nice green color. The other port drive oil looks a little dirty or dark. Both the lower and upper magnetic drain plugs looked normal, a tiny bit of fuzz on the lower no metallic particles. No water in either drive.

The oil on both drives has 50 hours, not run hard, the total time for both drives 580 hours. I have always used Mercruiser Drive oil.

Just curious what other boaters have experienced with twin drives, do they both always look the same?
Rawpower is offline  
Old 07-09-2010, 10:21 AM
  #2  
Registered
 
Knot 4 Me's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Central IL
Posts: 8,361
Received 743 Likes on 401 Posts
Default

Should look the same. I would venture the drive with the darker oil is running hotter for some reason. You may be seeing the early signs of a bearing failure. Are you running drive showers? Could be as simple as the port drive not getting the water flow from the shower the starboard drive is receiving.
Knot 4 Me is offline  
Old 07-09-2010, 11:10 AM
  #3  
Charter Member # 55
Charter Member
 
Griff's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Omaha/LOTO
Posts: 19,553
Received 1,814 Likes on 903 Posts
Default

Originally Posted by Rawpower
I just drained my drive oil on my Bravo drives. The oil in the starboard drive looks almost as good as when it went in, nice green color. The other port drive oil looks a little dirty or dark. Both the lower and upper magnetic drain plugs looked normal, a tiny bit of fuzz on the lower no metallic particles. No water in either drive.

The oil on both drives has 50 hours, not run hard, the total time for both drives 580 hours. I have always used Mercruiser Drive oil.

Just curious what other boaters have experienced with twin drives, do they both always look the same?
Mine were the same way this year. Port/LH rotation drive lube was much darker. Bravo's spinning LH rotation do tend to run a little hotter since they put more pressure on the top cap. I suspect the bearings may be getting worn on my port drive.
Griff is offline  
Old 07-09-2010, 12:26 PM
  #4  
Registered
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: McHenry, IL
Posts: 32
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Default

Thanks for the input, my props turn in so the port drive is RH and the starboard is LH. The port RH has the darker oil and the starboard LH has the nice clean green oil.
Rawpower is offline  

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


Contact Us - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.