Re: VDO Gauge surprise
Wow, thanks for the numerous and quick responses.
Here's some more info...
1. Before I had VDO rebuild the gauge cluster, I ran a dedicated ground directly from the battery bus to the gauge panel. No help.
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2. For $285, VDO replaced the motherboard with their upgraded version. Included was a large surge surpressor block on the back of the board whare all wires pass through then travel to the new board. All original physical gauges remain.
3. All wiring appears normal, no animal degradation.
4. I have disconnected, cleaned, and reconnected every butt connector on the boat.
Any other ideas out there?
Bill
Hello Bill, I had my VDO gauge cluster repaired about 2 1/2 months ago to the tune of $275 plus shipping as well. Nothing worked at all. A couple weeks ago, I put the boat in the Vermilion River here on the south shore of Lake Erie after doing some work on it. It was getting dark as I got it off the trailer so I switched on the nav lights. As I started to motor away from the ramp, (This was the first time I tried running with the nav lights on.) about 8 seconds later, the warning sounded for high temp, the temp gauge was pegged and about ten seconds after that, the low fuel guage went all the way down and the warning sounded again. I also noticed that the volt meter dipped down around 11 volts and stayed there. I didn't have a clue all this was related to the nav lights, but I noticed that if I slowed down to an idle, the temp came down a bit and held around 220 F. Scared the heck out of me but I was with my wife and I tried my best to man up. We got the boat to the dock a couple minutes later and I shut the motor down asap. I have not been able to find the problem, yet. I will tell you that I'm no slouch around boats and have replaced entire electrical systems before. This was back when you had regular gauges, though. Anyways, at the dock I can run the nav lights with the motor running at an idle and reved up to 1500 rpm with no problem at all. The next day, I tried the nav lights as I was coming in off the lake and the same thing happened. As my vdo is in warranty, I left the lights on as I motored off the lake and up the river. The warning sounds stop after the initial alerts and the gauges are messed up. Interesting thing is that the anchor lights have no problems - just the nav lights. As I got to my slip, I switched off the nav lights and everything went back to normal. I tried to speak with the tech that worked on my vdo and he is away in training until tuesday, August 27, 2013. Give me a shout at
weazybear@yahoo.com and we can exchange info. I'm going to take another good look at the wiring as I found two hots directly from the breaker panel on a switch. Why in the world would you want to switch two fused wires? I also found a blue wire that is disconnected for some reason that runs through the harness that needs to be traced. Well Bill, sounds like we have exactly the same thing going on......Jim Brow from Pama, Ohio, 2001 Bayliner 2150 Capri Bowrider, 5.0L, I/O.
