Suzuki 140HP 4s – Oil alarm – Not always what you may think

[PAX]

In case you have the same engine, don’t waste a day of fishing like I did this weekend. Long story short, I was fishing a rip in Boston harbor. It’s 7:00am , fishing is slow but we start to pick up stripers in the 22”-23” range when the oil alarm goes off. Panic on board. This is a brand new engine with less than 20 hours on it. What the heck is going on? I have the manual on board which I had read a few times. Yep says it right here: I don’t have enough oil and I am in big trouble. I am not in the right place to check the engine right now so here we are heading to calmer water at 10mph. An hour later I am in Winthrop. I check the oil gage. Oil is in between the marks but on the lower side. Consensus is that we need oil. We dock the boat at a local marina; look for 10W40 oil in the entire town. It is Sunday. Finally find oil at a convenient store (they get their name for a good reason). Add the oil and ………….. the alarm still goes off. It is now almost 9:00am. I am trying to call the dealer. Nobody picks up the phone. Now the three of us take turns reading the manual. Finally I stumble on these 2 short lines. An oil alarm blinking with two short beeps when engine is not running means that ............................................ you are due for an oil change. First reaction is then , and then, well imagine a crying smiley

The dealer never explained that to me. He did say that an alarm would go off around 20 hours but I would have expected the Engine Check one to go off like on cars not the oil one. Go figure. Anyway we wasted over 2 hours on an already slow day fishing wise. There is nothing wrong with the engine, I just need to change the oil.

[ILLOGICAL GGC]

AT LEAST YOU GOT NOTIFICATION OF THE NEED TO CHANGE THE OIL. IF I HADN'T INSTALLED AN HOUR METER ON THE '04 JOHNSON VERSION OF THE SUZK 140,
I WOULD NEVER HAVE KNOWN I HAD GONE OVER THE BREAK IN HOURS AND THEN THE FIRST 40 AFTER THAT.
NOW I WONDER IF MY ENGINE HAS A DEFECT OR IF THIS IS A NEW '05 FEATURE. SO MANY QUESTIONS ---SO LITTLE FISHING!!!!
ggc

[NCangler]

Patrick,

I had a similar experience with mine going off too. I was very concerned but a quick check of the manual and found the notice. Boy was I relieved.