whaleresme
New member
Hi all,
Posting this in case anyone has a similar issue. I have twin 2022 Merc 225s, and ran into a starter issue in one of them with about 200 hours of use. One of the engines started to sound a little weak when starting, and before long would only start intermittently. I could hear the solenoid trying to fire, and thus knew that power was getting to the engine. I tried the old trick of whacking the starter a bit and it would change the strength of the solenoid firing, but still wouldn't turn over. Tried to parallel the batteries just in case and it didn't help (plus the other engine started up fine). Spoke to a few folks and all agreed that it sounded like a starter issue, so I called up the dealership since it was still under warranty.
I then learned that this is apparently a known issue with these engines. The cowling design is susceptible to letting a little bit of water leak in when the engines are trimmed up (my boat lives in dry dock under a roof), and some of this can drip into the starter and cause it to freeze/rust up. The dealer fixed it quickly and I was on my way, but certainly a stressful hassle.
Hope not too many folks run into this issue!
Posting this in case anyone has a similar issue. I have twin 2022 Merc 225s, and ran into a starter issue in one of them with about 200 hours of use. One of the engines started to sound a little weak when starting, and before long would only start intermittently. I could hear the solenoid trying to fire, and thus knew that power was getting to the engine. I tried the old trick of whacking the starter a bit and it would change the strength of the solenoid firing, but still wouldn't turn over. Tried to parallel the batteries just in case and it didn't help (plus the other engine started up fine). Spoke to a few folks and all agreed that it sounded like a starter issue, so I called up the dealership since it was still under warranty.
I then learned that this is apparently a known issue with these engines. The cowling design is susceptible to letting a little bit of water leak in when the engines are trimmed up (my boat lives in dry dock under a roof), and some of this can drip into the starter and cause it to freeze/rust up. The dealer fixed it quickly and I was on my way, but certainly a stressful hassle.
Hope not too many folks run into this issue!