03 225 Opti alarm

[project31]

I'm getting an alarm on my port motor and the smartcraft gauge reads low fuel level low oil level. There is fuel and oil in the boat so I know thats not the issue. The motor doesn't go into guadian mode and is running fine. The problem didn't arrive until after I had a temp sensor short out and through an overheat code. I know all the sensors run off 5 volts, and when one goes bad a spike in the volts can occur causing other sensors to short out. My question to you is which sensors should I be checking that would trigger this alarm?

[knotreel]

On the oil level issue, there is a sender in the remote oil tanks that allows the gages to read oil level, there is also a sender in the engine mounted oil resevoiur which alarms and couses the ecu to reduce power. The engine reseviour must be bled to overflowing and not just filled but since the engine is not in limp more, I doubt that is the problem. Are your gages still reading oil and fuel levels? I don't see how and engine sensor going out would or could spike the ther oil sender or really don't see how the fule sender which is not part of the engine's sensor system could have been affected. If you your gages still read the oil and fuel levels but the alarm is still activated then either you ahve developed some sort of ground issue or possibly some fault with the ecu. Try swapping the ecu with the other engines. Maybe it would help to use the Merc DDT to clear any stored fault codes, but I'd swap the ecu and see then get the codes cleared.

[tiretired]

The oil level sender that you may have in your remote tank is, likely, not connected to any warning sensor. (Most of the boat mounted tanks are not equipped with oil level gauges) The only one that always has a sensor is the one in the engine mounted reserve tank. As was said before, that tank needs to be very full, or it will sound an alarm. That oil level alarm will sound four beeps, every few minutes.......not a steady horn. If you have a steady horn it is likely an overheat of the engine or the compressor.

The sensor in the engine tank has been a recurring problem, and it's probably best to replace the whole tank and sender, if that turns ou to be the problem. It's very sensitive, and the tank must be filled right to the top before it will stop sounding. Understand this is the little tank on the engine, not the one in the boat.

You fill it by idling the engine and loosening the little cap on the engine tank, and watch it fill slowly. When it's right at the top, you tighten the little cap, and you're good to go. You're going to spill a little, but it needs to be full.

Good luck.

[txhedg]

For what its worth, the oil sender level in the under-cowling reservoir on my '01 opti went bad, and i succesfully fixed it by changing just the sender, not the entire reservoir.

Also, since you have smartcraft gauges, you will get a low oil message when the remote oil tank gets low (my remote tank levels are monitored by my smartcraft), so it also could be a bad sender from the remote tank.

As far as low fuel, that message will NOT put you into guardian mode, so thats not suprising how yours is acting. both low oil under the cowling and in the remote will put you into guardian mode eventually (I think you've got like 5 minutes of run time before it puts you into limp for low oil)

Since you are getting both errors, have you tried turning off the motors, and unplugging the connection on the back of the smartcraft gauge, then replugging? I had some weird smartcraft problems last year, and the unplug trick worked for me.