Oil Leaking Where Lower Unit Meets Upper Unit? Help Please!

[daman6052]

Hello,

I recently had my boat winterized about 4-5 days ago. I have a 2003 25hp 4-stroke Yamaha (F25TLRB I believe). At the marina, they changed the motor oil and lower unit oil as part of the winterization. When I got home I noticed there was a small puddle of oil under the outboard. At first, I thought it was coming from the lower unit oil, but upon further inspection I noticed it was leaking from where the lower unit attaches to the upper unit. (Forgive my lack of correct terms for the motor parts).

I called the marina and they said it's quite possible that they spilled oil while doing the oil change and that this oil eventually made it's way through the 'trunk' of the engine and leaked out from where I showed it on the pictures.

My question is...is it possible and normal if it was the case that they spilled oil while doing the oil change on the motor? I did notice a bit of oil in the motor housing that I cleaned up (wasn't happy about it being sloppy). The oil or whatever it is that leaked is pretty clean too. Thanks in advance.

-Matt

[99yam40]

I would be looking at the drain plug and oil filter to make sure it is not coming from them.

being clean oil they would have had to miss the fill hole or have the drain or filter not in place to loose new oil while filling

[pstephens46]

Sometime oil spills as the damn filter is upside down on mine. Sometimes it is dry and sometimes has oil in it....

[99yam40]

Did you notice it was clean oil not old used oil that is leaking out or off of the motor?

[daman6052]

The person at the marina did also say to check the dip stick & oil filter on the engine to make sure nothing is leaking from there and that the oil level is still okay. When I first got home I did inspect everything and didn't notice anything leaking from the oil filter or anywhere else inside the engine & the oil level was okay at that time.

I'll double check again today when I get home since it's had time to sit now for a few days. Going back to the my original question though...if they did happen to spill more than they should have would it be normal for it to come out of where I pointed out in the pictures?

[daman6052]

99yam40, from what I could tell, the little puddle on the floor seemed to be clean oil.

[dark_star]

I would bet they spilled oil when removing the oil filter.
it could easily trickle down and appear as a leak.

[99yam40]

99yam40, from what I could tell, the little puddle on the floor seemed to be clean oil.

Yes I got that, I was trying to get others to understand it was not old dark used oil that came out of the old filter when taking it off.

I am not sure myself if oil is spilled in the engine pan on that F25, it would run down on the inside of the midsection and come out at that spot or not. hopefully someone else knows and will post that answer for you

[DennisG01]

It sounds logical that it could be spilled oil. There would have been no reason to split the lower unit for what they did. Dribble some water and see where it comes out (to simulate where oil may have been spilled).

[TownsendsFJR1300]

Looking at your parts fisch:

2003 F25ELRB Yamaha Outboard CYLINDER CRANKCASE 1 Diagram and Parts

The oil filter attaches on it's SIDE, (port side where your "leak" is) so it will always have oil drip out when you remove it.

As you noted, it was done sloppy and excess ran down there...

AS noted above, you can trickle a little bit of water slowly down that area. It'll very likely run out the same place..

You should be good....

[daman6052]

Thanks Townsends, Dennis, 99yam, darkstar, and everyone else that replied. I checked the oil level again when I got home and everything still seems okay. It seems like everything is in line with a sloppy job that spilled a lot of oil everywhere. In fact, at the very bottom of the outboard hood* there is remnants of oil that spilled down through there too...smh. I did not run any water through like you guys suggested only because based on everything said by multiple people including the marina it sounds like everything is in line with a sloppy job. It looks as though nothing more has leaked out since I initially wiped it all off which is a good sign. If anything continues leaking, I'll give the water test a try.

Again, very thankful for your responses. I'll definitely be coming back here in the future and maybe one day I can help someone!

[TownsendsFJR1300]

If you want to pretty much get rid of what oil is up there now, simply squirt your garden hose with fresh water up in-between the plastic cover and mid-section. (not a lot is needed).

Your also rinsing out any salt water (if used in salt water) too.

I do this after running my boat just to get as much salt water that gets up there , out...

[rodbolt17]

oil gets spilled.
fact o life.
should have been cleaned up.
simple green is good stuff.
try changing the filter on the F250 or an F350.
20 min to change the oil and filter.
1 hour to clean the spilled oil.