I just bought a boat and have taken it out twice now. I am getting oil in the engine compartment. It is definitely lower unit oil, as I can tell by the resevoir is low after every time I take it out. I have chased the hose from the resevoir to the back of the engine were it goes on a hose barb and I see no leaks, so somehow it is coming back in from the lower unit from somewhere. Has anyone else had this problem that could shed some light on it or give me any ideas. I am not that familiar with seals or parts that it could be leaking back through. It is a 502 with a bravo one outdrive. Thanks in advance.

I had the same issue. My oil was leaking through the level switch. The early style reservoirs are known to crack as well.

If it is not leaking from the bottle or hose, you have troubles. Most likely, the upper pinion seal of the drive is leaking. You need to pull the drive and have someone who knows what they are doing replace the seal. The upper drive needs to be partially dissassembled to replace the seal. Then the bearing preload needs to be reset and gears timed when putting it back together.

i blew a drive seal filled up bellows then in at drive shaft

I had the same problem. It turned out that the resevoir cap was not threaded on properly. (Some dumbass crossed the threads "ME") And it leaked. Hopefully your problem is just as simple.

Had the same problem on different boats. Here are all different solutions we had depending on the boat: The reservoir cap has a kind of valve in it. If not there, pressure goes out from there, so buy another cap. 2nd, the seal (was cut) and nut under the reservoir was not 100% tight, 3rd, too much oil in reservoir, 4th a drive bearing was starting to seize very slowly. small metal part on drive screws, causing oil to overheat and spill inside. If ever you can hear pressure going out when you slowly open reservoir cap, check your drive... good luck!

What is the problem if you hear pressure. My bravo doesn't have the reserve tank but there have been a few times when I checked the oil level my unscrewing the top screw and I could hear some pressure being release as I on screwed. It doesn't do it now, but it did at one time. You say check the drive, What am I checking???

It definitely is not coming from the resevoir or the hose they are bone dry all the way to the back where the hose goes on a fitting so it has to be coming thru from outside some where. Thanks for all your help

Had same problem a week ago. Front seal of drive was letting oil into the bellows then into bilge. Pull drive and have front seal replaced $95.00 for seal kit and three hours labor @$115hr plus shop supplies.

Same problem here. Pulled the drive and found oil in the bellows, meaning that the input shaft seal is blowing by. Drive is coming apart to replace bearings and anything else that needs it. After talking to a few people, the consensus is that a bearing is overheating causing the oil to blow out. BTW I replaced the cap on the reservoir and that did not solve my problem before pulling the drive.

Rene