Johnson 90: "CHK ENG" alert?

[timflan]

So I was crossing Puget Sound on Monday with little Arwen at the helm (and Raymarine doing the actual driving!). I was rigging up fenders and lines as we approach the entrance to Blake Island's little harbor, when all of a sudden some alarm is going off. The "Systemcheck" tachometer tells me to CHK ENG.

Um...OK...Check Engine how, exactly? For what? I throttled down to idle, listening to the sound. Seemed like it might be a little rough, but might just be my imagination. I'm pretty close to the harbor, and I'd rather be inside than out if something's going wrong, so I add a little throttle and drive us in, keeping the RPMs low. Tie up to a float and shut 'er down without incident.

I checked the oil, and it was fine. Arwen and I explored the island for a couple of hours, and when we came back, the engine started up just fine, idled fine, and we made a run home to Edmonds (about 17 miles) without incident.

So what was that all about? I've just reviewed two owner's mauals and a service manual, and I can find only one SPECIFIC indication of what can cause a CHK ENG allert:

Low Battery Voltage Caustion System
Activated when battery voltage decreases to less than 9 volts for 30 seconds.

Um...OK. It seems to me I checked my other guages during the alert, and Voltage was fine, somewhere in the 14-16V range as usual. Little Arwen DOES have a way of playing with switches, but the only high-draw item she might have actuated would be the anchor windlass. I doubt she held that switch down for 30 seconds. She can barely push it down at all, and she can't lift it up at all. I know this because I asked her to help me raise the anchor earlier that morning. So see, I know she was interested in this new switch, and might have given it some attention while I wasn't looking.

Any other ideas? What part of my ENG should I actually CHK?

[Adeline]

Boy, that little channel entrance is a bad place to have engine problems. My first guess is a loose connection somewhere in the charging loop allowed your voltage to fall. When I have Johnson questions I go HERE

[timflan]

Thanks, Pete! Never knew about that forum, but I do now!

[Pat Anderson]

I have had the engine alarm go off a couple of time (in Alaska no less) when a little piece of kelp or something had blocked the water intake. I brought the motor up, cleared the kelp away, and was back in business. It may be possible that something like that caused your alarm but just fell off or something, I don't know.

[timflan]

Could be, Pat. When we got in, I noticed some stringy seaweed remnants hanging from the anticavitation plate...not enough to create a problem, but possible evidence that I drove through a pile of weed (I did, lots of times that crossing) and got some hung up on the lower unit.

[Robbi]

What is the "time to change oil alert" on the Johnson 90? The Suzuki 90(same engine) has a audible alert, but I am not sure if I also get a light. Robbi

[Island Ranger]

The J-90 has a protection scheme that cuts the rpms to ~1500 whenever a problem is detected. That happened to me a couple of times when kelp wrapped the intakes. It displayed low oil, or temp depending on its mood. As soon as the kelp was cleared, it ran fine again. Can't imagine what a "check engine" means....

Mac

[edwardf]

My Suzuki DF90 blinked it's check engine light at me and scared me too. It was just saying I was scheduled for an oil change. Blinking light but no sound.

[Robbi]

I just spent 20 minutes reading my owner's manual about the Caution Systems on my Suzuki 90. I have learned more about the warning lights and buzzers. Sorry that you had a problem, but I am glad that I learned a bit more. The first time I had a buzzer and light go off, I was just heading out into a 25 knot wind a big tide change. I didn't know at the time what it meant, but was able to return to a dock and look it up in my manual. (Time to change the oil) Had I been out in the 3 footers, I would have been hard pressed to look it up. Flashing oil light means time for an oil change, if it stays lit, it means low oil pressure. Two very different situations! Thanks for the nudge to get myself up to speed on the my system. Something I should have done long ago. Robbi

[jkidd]

I have a Suzuki DF115. I had the engine check light come and the engine shut down out by Friday Harbor. I raise the motor cleaned of the kelp and away we went. The motor will drop to 3000 rpms and pulse if it sees low oil, hi temp, or can't get enough fuel. My Johnson 90 also did this. The oil light will first turn on at 20 hours and then 100 hours and then every 100 hours after that until it reaches 2100 hours and then the program stops monitoring. When you first turn the key on and the oil light is active a beeper will sound 2 times then pause and then repeat until you reset the light. To cancel the oil light, turn the key on, remove the emergency stop cable, pull up on the stop switch knob 3 times in seven seconds. You should hear short beep if the cancelation was successful. Turn the key off and replace the stop cable.

[Pat Anderson]

What, you don't have to stand on one foot, twirl around three times and juggle??

[Robbi]

No, but you have to "put your little foot in, .........."
Robbi

[jkidd]

It did mention something about walking on water, but when I tried that I just keep getting wet.

[dotnmarty]

"Chk Eng" means 'tighten the gascap' in Swedish. At least that's what my Volvo mechanic told me.

[Pat Anderson]

It means something entirely different in the Subaru dialect of Japanese - not sure what it means, but we hear it a LOT...to the point of tending to ignore it!