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2005 Honda BF 225 Alarm, No Check Engine Light

C

coco.vergnolle

New member
Hello,

My 2005 Honda BF225 just started having an issue yesterday where the alarm started blaring with no clear explanation - the check engine light is not on and neither are the other warning lights (the green oil light is still lit as expected). This happened about 15 minutes after starting the motor. The motor was still in idle when it came on, but the issue did not get resolved after getting up to speed.

The alarm stayed on all day as we ran it, but it would very intermittently stop for a couple seconds or change in pitch, getting down to a low whistle then back up to the normal loud buzz. This would sometimes happen when I would turn the wheel, but I couldn't confirm this repeatedly so it may have just been a coincidence. Besides this, the motor seemed to run perfectly.

Thinking it is likely a loose wire connection somewhere, just not sure where to start looking. Trying to follow the troubleshooting guidance from the service manual but I don't have a test harness so can only get so far.

Will be checking the LP fuel filter today, although I recently inspected it and everything seemed to look good in there. Also recently replaced the O2 filter and HP fuel filter, so don't expect issues there.

Has anyone experienced this or have advice on where I can look?

Thank you in advance for the help.
 
Hi,
I'm no expert for the 225 but, if you have the electrical fuel/water separator, you might want to check that.

Other than that, there's lots of posts here about the O2 sensors causing unusual alarm "scenarios" but I couldn't tell you the best way to check for that other than maybe look at their connections, wiring and mounting.

On cars, the ECU case is supposed to be grounded either through a dedicated grounding wire or, sometimes, via the way the case is mounted on the car. If that ground gets loose or compromised somehow, odd symptoms can occur. I don't know if that would apply at all to your outboard but just giving you information.

There's some pretty sharp 225hp guys here so, hopefully, they will reply to you soon.

Good luck.
 
I'm assuming that the alarm is constant - not an intermittent alarm, correct?

If constant, then off the top of my head, it sounds like you have a loose or shorted wire to the alarm (horn) circuit. I've attached a wiring diagram. It's for dual engines, but easy to figure out for a single-engine setup. Look under the port engine diagram and you will see that the wire to the "Horn" is yellow/green, and you will see what the connector looks like. First thing I would do is disconnect the plug and check contacts for corrosion.
 

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Took a look at the 02 sensor wiring and everything looks good there. Had a really tough time finding the alarm portion of the wiring so will need to revisit that. I did notice something that I wanted to mention here though in case anyone can use that to help diagnose.

The alarm seems to somehow be related to the steering component. As the buzzer goes, there are certain locations that I can spin the wheel to where the alarm ends up turning off. When I turn the wheel further, it turns back on, but I can bring it back and it turns back off. Think this confirms that there is a short somewhere, just need to figure out where that’s happening. Any advice on where to start looking?
 
My first GUESS might be at the engine where the control harness flexes the most. You may need to open up the insulation at that point to look for any sign of chafing or rubbing through.

Also, the wiring harness is typically routed near the steering and throttle cables underneath the gunn'l flange for the hull. Lots of movement there as you steer and plenty of opportunity for chafe and rub though to occur.

Any screws that the wire harness touches could cause something like this too.

Not likely to be a very pleasant chore digging in and finding a problem in those areas.

Other than that,, if the wheel AND the buzzer are in the console or dash together, opening that space up and closely watching the wiring while turning and causing the change you describe to occur could reveal the problem. I don't know..
Just a couple of ideas.

I do see that your outboard should be equipped with the electric fuel/water separator. I'll mention it again because you didn't in your update.

I think that thing is supposed to cause an audible alarm when water is present and I've read about them causing false alarms too. Wouldn't hurt to check that because, as you steer, the outboard changes angles and that could cause any water in that bowl to move the float element.
See item 3 in link.


I always defer to chawk_man's advice on these though because he owns one and has extensive knowledge from working on it. Plus he's pretty dang smart. So, it's still likely a wiring issue.

Just tossing out the water separator so that you have the information.

Good luck.
 
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