This is what boating is about – warm sunny day, gentle cruise up the river, pleasant company interested in the goings on in the busy port, smoke coming out of the motor, 50000 tonne container ship slipping past just a few metres to port, engine management system alarming, smoke coming out of motor - ****! Head straight for nearby crumbling timber wharf with engine misfiring - then realise that I may not be able to pull up - but engine has just enough in reverse to let us hit the timbers with a gentle bump. Send crew forward, shut down engine, grab extinguisher and carefully pull off cover. No flames but evidence of much smouldering of plastic on the port side of the power head. Notice ‘black box’ above the oil filter is basically fried with surrounding wires now bare of insulation and shorting. Separate wires, wrap them in tape and study the situation. What to do? Couple of miles from home, too late to call the marina for a tow, only option is to get there under our own steam or call the water police for a tow. Could sail but wind is on the nose, very large metal objects have a habit of turning up at any time and getting into the dock under sail would be difficult to say the least. Try the motor. Starts fine and runs sweetly, no alarms, no sparks. Decide to give it a go. Rig the sails ready to go and idle home uneventfully.
Ring Mercury the next day – ‘Yup – that’s the voltage regulator – recalled 18 months ago!’ Some discussion around why I don’t appear to have received notification but no problems with the company paying for all necessary repairs. Looks like I won’t be out of pocket but not happy with the boat being out of action for a week or two in peak season. For those of you with 4 – stroke Mercs the affected models are:
Model: Mercury/Mariner 30/40 3 Cylinder Four Stroke - Model year 2002 and 2003. 0T438281 through 0T800906. Belguim 0P156468 through 0P269818. Mercury/Mariner 40/50/60 4 Cylinder Four Stroke - Model year 2002 and 2003. 0T416659 through 0P800906. Belgium 0P156559 through 0P270043.
Defect Details: Voltage regulator failures which will prevent the battery maintaining a proper charge. This may cause electrical arcing within the regulator.
If you have one of these and haven't had it fixed (at Merc's expense) do it now as failure occurs without warning. At best you'll have a flat battery, at worst a very interesting episode on the water!
AJ
