Axis Wakeboard Boat Forum

I put my boat (2012 A20) in the water on Saturday and just as I got it off the trailer warnings started to go off about low oil pressure. I turned it off within a few seconds and then managed to get to the dock. I opened up the engine cover and noticed a ton of oil coming from the oil filter. Turns out the filter is extremely loose and I just lost almost 5 courts of oil down in my bilge. This was about the 8th time I had my boat out since the dealer has changed my oil -which was last fall.

Obviously I will always check my oil filter before starting out, but I was never told that that might be an issue. Is it an issue? Do filters come loose at times, or is it a possible faulty filter or just not tightened properly?

I fixed it on the lake and had no problems (other than a big mess in my bilge that I need to figure out how to clean.)

Usually when they are tightened properly they don't come loose.

Might be a faulty filter or it was not properly tightened. I would remove the filter to verify that the previous o-ring was not left behind. Did you remove the filter to inspect the o-ring and the housing?

I did look at filter and it seemed to be fine and the o-ring was intact, I did not look to see if old one was on there, I will do so.

I had an oil spill into my bilge a while back. I used dish soap with degrease and put water into bilge area and scrubbed everything down, then pulled plug and let it out. Let it dry in the sun with all opened up to air and then had to do it three times and wash down with hose. All good now. I ended up having to replace o-rings on center T plug and on the bilge pump cap because the oil loosened them up and they popped off. It's a real pain.

Get what oil you can out of it. Throw some dish soap and water in the bilge, scrub it down. Make sure bilge pump wont turn on and go run the boat. The sloshing helps work it all loose. Bring it back, empty, rinse and repeat if necessary.

A trick we did with our Jetskis was using cleaner/degreaser diluted with water in the bilge. We would then tow them around town (on the trailer of course) on some errands. Head home and empty them out. Let it dry in the open air and repeat if necessary. We didn't have to worry about sucking the degreaser thru the bilge pumps. Dawn dish soap works really well too at its cheap.

You might check to see there is not a ring left behind from the previous filter. In my experience they normally tighten over time. When I go back to do my oil changes they are impossible to remove by hand and very difficult with a strap wrench. You might see the ring from the filter that loosened with the ring from the previous filter remaining where you screw the new one on.

Cool, sounds like I did right. When I got home I rinsed inside with water and dish soap, drove around, then opened up plugs and drove home. I did that 3 times. I talked with the dealer, he said they previously had failures with Sierra brand oil filter, so it may be that - or they did not tighten enough. I check and did not see a ring from previous filter. On Saturday I'll take it back to dealer so they can check filter and perhaps clean it out better.

Sierra produces OEM filters for several companies-I've never heard of a single issue like this. It sounds like you may want to either change your own oil or find a different dealer.

Did the filter feel like it properly threaded onto the housing? What is the Sierra pn on the filter?