power steering - will it cause an alarm

D

DaleM

Member
Aug 5, 2009
690
Mt Airy, MD
Boat Info
340 Sundancer
Engines
Twin 8.1 Horizons
I'm getting the blasted beep/beep....one minute pause.... beep/beep alarm again which seems to be intermittent. Sometimes it'll sound and other times it won't when up on plane. Once it starts, it will continue until I shut down and then restart. The manual indicates (if remembering right) this is a low drive fluid level.

I have all the proper fluid levels in the stern bottles and after running her it doesn't appear to change. All temps/pressures are in good order as well.

In searching for an answer I ran across one thing I did not check which is the PS fluid. Will this cause an alarm if it's low? For that matter I don't even know where it's located yet to check!

THanks!
 
Nope. There is no alarm for the PS fluid. You probably have a stuck float in the outdrive oil bottle on your engine. Put your finger in there and lift up on it (if you can) and see if it goes away.
 
Thanks REdhook, I'll make it a point to get a blue finger next time I'm up there :)
 
On newer boats, there is a multitude of things that can cause an alarm. My recent one was low water pressure from a failing impeller. I suggest you get your local tech to hook up the computer, and tell you exactly which alarm has sounded recently. It could possibly be a faulty sensor, which was my first "alarm" experience.
 
Unfortunately Southpaw is correct.

I man not real familiar with the capabilities of an 03 Smartcraft system, but on mine you will get some messages on the smartcraft LED panel. But if there are no messages on the panel, it can be a multitiude of things and it is best to get a technician with a scanner to read the code in your ECM.

Incidentally. if you have low drive fluid or a sensor is picking that up in error, the ECM will generally not allow your motor to rev high enough to come up on plane.

Dave
 
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I have some exhaust bellow working being taken care of this week. They said they would throw the laptop on it when they do a quick pull. After email the service supervisor he said based on the symptoms it's most likely nothing. But, better safe then sorry.
 
I think redhook has it right on the money check your gear lube monitor (the little bottle that holds the gear lube on the engine) if it is not with in range fill it to proper level.If it is full unplug the 2 wires connected to it if the alarm stops it is the sensor in the gear lube monitor
 
I had them pull the history on the engines. There was nothing that stood out as oustanding. Only two instances for less then a few seconds where there was an over rev. All other indicators were within spec per the shop supervisor.

We went out this evening. Under about a 7knot cruise for about 15 minutes, no alarms. We "launch" and go up on plane and in about 3 minutes the alarm. All needles good. I just kept on going. When I came off plane because we were getting to our destination we went back to the 7 knot range and after a few minutes I realized the alarm had stopped.

On the way back, same situation. Then out of just sick of hearing it I came off plane easy, went to neutral and shut down both engines. Waited a minute, started up and went back on plane (running about 3100 rpm) pressures, and temps the same and for the rest of the 30 minute trip, no alarm! Slightly different scenario then before because the first time I went to almost idle in gear and it went away.

I did NOT go back up on plane the first time because we were at our destination. The second time I shut down completely and restarted before we got to our destination and it stopped.

What I am ashamed of is forgetting to check the bottle floats! I feel like I'm chasing a ghost. I NEED to check the floats. I was even considering using the oil extractor to pull out the oil and look at the bottles/floats. Thoughts??
 
Ask your service provider for the smart com box (they will want your credit card) there is a button they can hook up to it when the alarm goes off press the button. It should record the problem and a technician should be able to figure it out
 
Alarm Update

I used a oil extraction pump and pulled out all the oil in both bottles this weekend. It looks like there is some heavy oil in the bottom of the bottles. I tried to get as much of it out as I could. I did not pull the bottles yet.

I still got the alarm even though I topped everything off. I was able to SILENCE the alarm again by shutting down, waiting a few minutes, starting again and no alarm.

I was able to isolate it down to the starboard engine. When I got the alarm I went to neutral and kept both engines running. When the alarm sounded, I killed the port side first - alarm continued. Alarmed sounded again, I killed the starboard and in the midst of alarming it stopped (due to the key being turned off).

So now I know I'm at least dorking around on the starboard engine. I disconnected the bottle leads and it alarmed the entire way back in (10 minutes or so) and all the while docking (another 5 min or so). I half expected this situation because the bottle leads were unplugged. I did not have time to connect the leads and see if the alarm stopped while underway (that's next I guess).

I am suspect of the connections though which I'll have to check this week.

Suggestions?? Can the bottle floats become "oil logged"? Could cold oil keep the float from rising??

This is nuts!
 
Dale thank you for keeping us in the loop.


Have you considered jumping the leads of the sensor from the drive overflow tanks together to eliminate this item as a possibility?
 
I thought about doing that but didn't because I wasn't sure what it would do to the sender. Is jumping them something ok to do? Hindsight now I am guessing that's all the float does, right?
 
DaleM The only thing you need to do is just unplug the wires from both of the bottles one at a time as soon as the warning horn goes off, Do one bottle at a time in a almost 2 minute interval time frame between each other while both engines are running.

Just unplug them do not let the wires touch anything and wait for the horn to stop, It does take a good minute before the horn stops if it is the drive lube oil bottle.

Yes those floats do go bad and can get stuck down and sound the warning horn. If that happens you will need new bottles.

Keep in mind both bottles could be bad.
 
Boat Tech, thanks. By leaving them disconnected does that simulate a "low-oil" situation and will it sound the alarm? I didn't have them touch and it was sounding the entire trip in with them disconnected.
 
DaleM said:
Boat Tech, thanks. By leaving them disconnected does that simulate a "low-oil" situation and will it sound the alarm? I didn't have them touch and it was sounding the entire trip in with them disconnected.
Click to expand...

Dale,

I will defer to boat tec to confirm this.

I have a basic continuity tester and I’d use it to confirm this but I thought it was float up = circuit closed, float down (as in low drive fluid in the tank) = circuit open = alarm will sound.
 
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Now I know I'm at least dealing with the starboard engine I'll start focusing on that side to troubleshoot. I will take up a VOM to check the bottles. I hope that is what it is because it sounds like a pretty easy fix.

Thinking back, I had the starboard side bottle wires disconnected the entire run back and it alarmed the whole way, even while at 6 knots or less. Sinced they continued to alarm, does that mean I should be chasing something else???

The manual is pretty weak for what the different warnings mean. They only mention 3, temp, oil pressure, and the drive bottle.
 
The 3 alarm switches are wire in parallel, if any one closes then the alarm sounds.
One side of each switch is always at ground.
Durring normal operation the switches will be open.
If low oil pressure : oil pressure switch closes.
if high temperature : temperature switch closes
if low drive lube(float switch) switch closes.

If you disconnect the lead on one of the switches then you won't get an alarm from that switch.

Don't rule out a chaffed wire contacting ground as the cause of your alarm.
 
Could someone point me in the direction of where each sender is located? I'll trace wires from there. Again seems like starboard engine specific.
 
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