SmartCraft MASTER RESET - Will that help at all??

R

radiojon

New Member
Sep 2, 2012
102
Franklin, TN
Boat Info
320 Sundancer 2005
Engines
Mercruiser 350 w/Bravo III Drives
I've been having several issues with various gauges/sensors this summer on my '05 320DA. I just filled up at the fuel dock yesterday:

Starboard tank took 61 gallons to fill (100-gallon tank).
Port tank took 74.5 gallons to fill (100-gallon tank).

At fill up, the fuel gauges were reading:

Starboard - 8% full
Port - 12% full

The SmartCraft "Fuel Used" monitor reading (which I had reset at the previous fill-up) said "107 gallons used," when apparently, I had really used 134.5 gallons. So obviously, neither the "Fuel Used" nor the fuel gauges are dependable methods for accurately determining my fuel levels. Add to this, my ongoing issues with both trim readings going haywire anytime the boat is in motion. And the Sea Temp gauge is always showing 130* +.

THEN, last evening, a new wrinkle. After anchoring for several hours in a cove (around 25 feet deep), upon restart of the engines and while still motionless in the water, the Depth Reading kept bouncing around -- anywhere between 25 feet and as low as 6 feet, which would constantly trigger the "Depth Alarm" (which I have set at 9 feet). It seemed to be fine once we got moving in the water and return accurate depth readings.

So, given that both fuel gauges are acting goofy, both trim gauges are acting goofy, the sea temp never displays the correct temp, and now the depth gauge is starting to freak out -- could this all be related to the SmartCraft system and NOT the actual gauges themselves??

And if I do a MASTER RESET of the SmartCraft, what are the major implications of that? I've only had this boat for about a year and I don't know how many things I'd have to go through and re-calibrate manually.

Advice and insight welcome. Thanks in advance!

- Mark
 
You'd have to recalibrate the tanks (fuel, grey, black, potable) if you have them displaying through your Smartcraft and trim positions, I believe. Also, if you have any offsets (depth, temps, etc.), you'd lose those too.
 
These could all be separate unrelated problems with the senders/sensors. I had similar Fuel used and Fuel level guessing. Then I replaced my cheapo factory fuel senders with puck style senders from Royce Industries. Now I have confidence and rely on my fuel levels from the senders over the Fuel Used (which, like yours, is always understated on my boat). I also have a broken sea temp sensor on my combo depth/sea temp transducer. I just turned off the sea temp feature in the Smartcraft (now reads "OFF" all the time). Those transducers are known for early failure on the sea temp part and cost around $300 to replace. One day I might replace mine. And finally, Mercury trim senders are another low reliability product (from my experience). I have had frequent failures on them on both of my boats. So, I've bypassed trim limit so the button on the throttle will always raise it up, and I generally don't pay any attention to the trim position reading. On my 175 Sport I go by feel and my 300DA performs best with the drives all the way down.
 
Also, make sure only the starboard tach is configured to read the sea temp sensor (a CAL2 configuration). Enter "no" to the sea temp sensor question on the port tach if it already isn't set that way.
 
Bill - how difficult is the job to replace the fuel sending units? Is that something I need a mechanic to do, or is it a fairly simple do-it-yourself fix? I'll have to haul out the boat for all the other fixes, but would like to replace the floats before then, if possible.

Thanks!

- Mark
 
radiojon said:
Bill - how difficult is the job to replace the fuel sending units? Is that something I need a mechanic to do, or is it a fairly simple do-it-yourself fix? I'll have to haul out the boat for all the other fixes, but would like to replace the floats before then, if possible.

Thanks!

- Mark
Click to expand...
Its pretty straight forward in concept. Disconnect 2 wires, take out 5 screws, pull out the old sender, put in the new sender, attach with the same 5 screws, connect the two wires. I put connectors on the ends of the two wires from the sender to make the connections. Access may be the only tricky part. On my 300DA both senders were accessible from the bilge and made it easy to take out the old and put in the new. I do not know where they are on a 320DA.
 
Looks like I can get to my senders to replace them, so I think I'll give it a try. Another question -- is it necessary to "re-pressurize" each fuel tank after installation? Not sure how that's done. I see that noted on Royce's documentation that it's one of the advantages to their Flexi-Sensor. I'm guessing that once I take off the old fuel sender, there will be no pressurization.
 
Before changing all the sensors check all the grounds on the engines. I had similar symptoms on an 05 390 dancer (it was diesel) with the fuel gauges and depth. Some of these sensors run through the engine harnesses and some times their ECMs. In my case the ground on the starboard engine was broken behind the mount. It looked like the wire was attached but was actually not grounded.
I too was ready to start changing parts but this fixed all of my symptoms.
Good Luck.
 
Becnme - I'm not sure where exactly to look for what you're referencing. Can you point me in the right direction?
 
I don't know where the are on your engines but there should be several black ground wires attached to the engines in various places.
Check them for corrosion and make sure they are tight.
 
Bill - I think I'm going to order a couple of those Royce Flexi-Sensors and install myself. I see they come in many different lengths. Measuring along the outside of the tanks, my starboard tank is approximately 22.25" tall and my port tank is about 20.5" tall. When you ordered, how close did you order to the exact height of the tank?
 
I bought 20" senders for my 20.5" tall tanks. That length was also told to me by someone that had done it before. Also the flexi part is inside a stainless steel sleeve. So you will need room to angle it in from the side or drop it in from above.
 
Okay, interesting follow-up to the "grounding" discussion here that becnme brought up. Yesterday, I happened to hear some faint static coming from one arch stereo speaker, even when no audio was playing. Volume up, volume down, didn't matter -- same level of faint static. No static on any of the other boat speakers anywhere, just the starboard side arch speaker. Turned the radio off, then back on ... static gone. A little later, turned the radio back on, static comes back ... again, only on that same speaker.

So, would a grounding problem also be responsible for causing this intermittent static?

- Mark
 
Did a little more searching on the internet for this issue, and the static in the speaker sure does sound like a ground problem. So, I need to try to trace where I could be having these ground problems. Given that I'm a newbie when it comes to marine electronics, does anyone have a good idea for a first place to search -- and what to look for?

- Mark
 
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