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2012 Mercury Four Stoke 115-HP alarm and hesitation

C

Captain Perry

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I have a 115-HP 2012 four stroke. Some times the alarm goes off 1 long beep. The boat hesitates, loses RPMs then it recovers within seconds. I have brought it in, and the person said the float sticks some times. Yet, when I get it back it did it again. Alarm will also go off at times when I go slow when docking. I changed the spark plugs as well. Regularly maintain it. I also would like your advise as last year I brought it in for oil change and dealer took oil out and did not place any back in. I did launch boat thinking it had oil, stop right away and had spare oil to put in when alarm went off. Are these related. Should I ask dealer to fix using his errors and omissions insurance or is there a simple fix. Thank you
 
What float is sticking? This is a fuel injected engine - no "float" to stick ??????

If the "person" was referring to a carb float the first thing you do is find a qualified tech.

One long beep followed by a drop in RPMS is the guardian system trying to save your engine from something really "life ending" from happening.

It needs to be taken to a certified Merc dealer/tech and have the codes read to figure what is causing the fault.

guardian - 4 stroke.jpg

The bottom of the page (pic) has the things that will cause a continuous beep and rpm restriction - nasty stuff...
 
Hi, Captain Perry

I am experiance the same issue you described in your post. I was wondering if you were ever able to find out what the problem was and if there was a fix for it? I just got my boat back from the dealer and they said my issue was a "low-voltage error" and they checked everything and it all "looked good." They cleared the code and gave it back to me. I went out yeasterday and the same thing happened again. Any info you could provide me would be greatly apprciated!

Thanks in advance,

Chad
 
Captain Perry
I also am experiancing the same issue on my 2014 115 ELPT. I have my boat in the water right now until Sept. 15. It has never died completely on me but the quick hesitation, alarm and right back to running again. I have checked everything I can while in the water and have not found the problem yet. I am guessing it is going to be one of the fuel pumps. If you do find the problem I would love to hear back from you. I am taking mine to the shop as soon as it comes out of the water.

Thanks

Colfaxbob.
 
This is quite basic, but my dad's boat had an identical issue a month ago. It ended up being his starting battery was arcing and had a loose connection (even though we couldn't budge them by hand so we assumed all was well). Replaced the starting battery and hooked the wires back up and that fixed his issue.

Figured i'd mention it since it's an easy thing to check and rule out.
 
Chad or Bob:

I’m trying to help a friend diagnose the same problem on his 2012 Merc 115.

Could you please share what the cause was if fixed?

Much appreciated.

Justin
 
Still have not figured out what is causing the brief hesitation. I am taking my boat to the Mercury mechanic October 15. We hope there is a code stored in the ECM that will tell us what the problem is. I put on a new battery that did not fix the problem. I have this happen every time I take my boat out. Other than that it runs great.
 
Colfaxbob said:
Still have not figured out what is causing the brief hesitation. I am taking my boat to the Mercury mechanic October 15. We hope there is a code stored in the ECM that will tell us what the problem is. I put on a new battery that did not fix the problem. I have this happen every time I take my boat out. Other than that it runs great.
Click to expand...

This sounds like the exact same issue he is having. We ran a 30 minute trip and it did it once. On the return trip it was 5 times. Unfortunately his boat is 300 miles away and can’t get it back to dealer for awhile. If you think of it please let me know what you find out and I’ll do the same.
 
I took mine into the Marina on our lake (an alleged Mercury Authorized dealer). The first time (after they had it for a week) they said the ECM stored a "low-voltage" code which they were able to clear. They also checked all the connections. I got it back and the first time out, it did the same thing three times (shocker). I called them back and told them they did not fix the problem. I brought the boat back to them for a second look. This time they had the boat for four weeks. Finally, when I got it back, they said that everything still looked good and they could not find the problem. The ECM did not show any code hits and they could not recreate the problem when they were testing it. They said they had the boat hooked up to a computer while they tested it in the water, at several different MPH & RPMs. Basically, I was told their best guess is that it is something electrical where a wire is disconnecting or shorting causing the boat to reset as if you were turning it on for the first time. The only way they could truly diagnose something like that would be to pull all the electrical wires out and test them one by one, which of course would cost a fortune in labor, and even still it might not solve the problem. They were pretty certain it was not the ECM.

So, after getting the boat back a second time, the issue has only happened once. It has never happened at a low speed or RPM (5 mph or less), for me it has always usually been between 11 and 15 mph.

At this point, I have decided to just deal with the issue. If it continues to happen next summer, I will just trade the boat in and get a new one. Sorry, I don't have a definitive answer for anyone, I wish it was an easy fix but it sounds like it is the unicorn of all motor issues. If anyone gets a clear answer or fix, I would love to hear as well!

Good luck!
 
Just got mine back from the Mercury Mechanic. Same issues could not find anything wrong, no codes, ran hooked up to computer and everything was fine. Did a full 3 year service. Checked everything out ran on computer again and no problems. Got boat back Saturday, put in the water Sunday, ran great for about twenty minutes then it happened. Running about 4k rpm stalled, rpm's dropped to 2500, came right back up as if nothing happened. Did this 3 times before I got back to the dock.

Mechanic said he checked with Mercury Manufacture and there is no bulletins on this issue either.

I DON'T KNOW!
 
Took my boat back to the Mercury Mechanic and left it with them for about 3 weeks so they could take it to the lake to troubleshoot the problem. They found the problem to be with the ECM shorting out. They contacted Mercury and was told that Mercury did have a problem with some of the ECM's with an internal fault with a ground. Mercury sent them an ECM at no charge to me and they replaced it and tested it again and had no problems. I have had the boat out twice now this year and have not experienced any problems either. My engine seems to run smother than it did before also. I believe my problem is solved but I guess time will tell.
 
Thank you so much for the update. We’re going to take this info to another dealer. Would you mind sharing the Merc dealer you used in case we need some ammo? Thanks again!!!!
 
Captain Perry said:
I have a 115-HP 2012 four stroke. Some times the alarm goes off 1 long beep. The boat hesitates, loses RPMs then it recovers within seconds. I have brought it in, and the person said the float sticks some times. Yet, when I get it back it did it again. Alarm will also go off at times when I go slow when docking. I changed the spark plugs as well. Regularly maintain it. I also would like your advise as last year I brought it in for oil change and dealer took oil out and did not place any back in. I did launch boat thinking it had oil, stop right away and had spare oil to put in when alarm went off. Are these related. Should I ask dealer to fix using his errors and omissions insurance or is there a simple fix. Thank you
Click to expand...

Wow, thought I was crazy, I have the exact same issue but it seems like this happens a lot. My 2015 115 always goes into limp mode with the alarm when i'm going slow or idling...when I shut it off then restart it immediately, it runs normal again...I can't Idle for more than 5 minutes without it doing this. Everything checks out so I guess I should look at the ECM right? Has anyone rebooted it and have it go back to normal, or find a bad ground or loose wire? frustrating because I hear so many say that if the alarm goes off you'd better stop dead in your tracts or you could blow up your motor. It would be too expensive and a replacement can be hard to find in this post covid climate so there's that huge worry of no boat for the summer.

Great to find this forum!
 
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Marc Allan said:
Wow, thought I was crazy, I have the exact same issue but it seems like this happens a lot. My 2015 115 always goes into limp mode with the alarm when i'm going slow or idling...when I shut it off then restart it immediately, it runs normal again...I can't Idle for more than 5 minutes without it doing this. Everything checks out so I guess I should look at the ECM right? Has anyone rebooted it and have it go back to normal, or find a bad ground or loose wire? frustrating because I hear so many say that if the alarm goes off you'd better stop dead in your tracts or you could blow up your motor. It would be too expensive and a replacement can be hard to find in this post covid climate so there's that huge worry of no boat for the summer.

Great to find this forum!
Click to expand...
 
So after reading this entire thread I'm having a very similar issue to the last post from Marc. I have a 2009 Mercury 115 4 stroke. After running it for about an hour this evening I get the long beep then about 30 secs later it starts loosing rpms and running really rough. I can shut it off, restart and it runs fine. In the past, it has done it again within a few minutes and some times not. I initially had it happen a few years ago then it skipped about a year and a half where it never did it. Last summer it came back with a vengeance. I found that the fuel line was trash so I replaced it and both filters on the engine and no improvement. I removed the pick up tube and the screen is clean. Cleaned out the fuel tank thinking maybe trash was collecting around the screen and causing a fuel flow issue. New anti siphon valve on the tank. Nothing has worked. Now I'm curious about the ECU as mentioned above. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
 
WARGO52 said:
So after reading this entire thread I'm having a very similar issue to the last post from Marc. I have a 2009 Mercury 115 4 stroke. After running it for about an hour this evening I get the long beep then about 30 secs later it starts loosing rpms and running really rough. I can shut it off, restart and it runs fine. In the past, it has done it again within a few minutes and some times not. I initially had it happen a few years ago then it skipped about a year and a half where it never did it. Last summer it came back with a vengeance. I found that the fuel line was trash so I replaced it and both filters on the engine and no improvement. I removed the pick up tube and the screen is clean. Cleaned out the fuel tank thinking maybe trash was collecting around the screen and causing a fuel flow issue. New anti siphon valve on the tank. Nothing has worked. Now I'm curious about the ECU as mentioned above. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Click to expand...
I have the same problem. I have a 2011 Mercury EFI 115 4 stroke. I've replaced the: alternator, spark plugs, fuel filters, water seperator, removed the fuel service module and replaced the float, washers, and both the high pressure and low pressure pumps. We bought two new batteries, replaced oil, thermostat, swapped fuel lines to the FSM AND nothing has worked. I am told the anit-siphon valve could be the culprit and read on older boats the Poppet valve could cause it to run hot and overheat. Does anyone else have ideas?
 
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