Volvo Penta Audible Alert

[waztros]

I was out yesterday driving along then out of no where the audible alert started sounding off. All the gauges were reading fine. Oil pressure 40, temperature 150. I check the oil and the level was fine. Then every time after that I started it up and It would be beeping for a minute or 2 of driving then it would turn off by it self. Sometimes I would start it and it would never beep at all. How do I diagnose what is really causing the problem. It seems very random. It is also super annoying.

The owners manual mentioned "alarm will alert you to unacceptable or dangerously low oil pressure, high water temperature levels and or high exhaust manifold temperatures should the incoming water flow become interrupted."

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

It is a 2002 Chaparral bowrider 18'. Volvo Penta 3.0 GL

 

[Don S]

Re: Volvo Penta Audible Alert

When was the last time you replaced the impeller? lack of water flow will cause the sensor on the exhaust elbow to sound the alarm. You can check it by simply disconnecting each alarm switch to see which one stops the alarm.
They each have a tan/black striped wire going to them.

 

[waztros]

Re: Volvo Penta Audible Alert

I am not sure when the impeller was last replaced if ever. I only had the boat for about 2 weeks. I will see if I can find the wire you are talking about and disconnect them one at a time. Those wires should all connect to the alert mechanism which is mounted right next to the engine, right?

Wouldn't the temperature gauge on the dashboard show it overheating if the impeller was not properly cooling the system?

Thanks for such a speedy response.

 

[Don S]

Re: Volvo Penta Audible Alert

I am not sure when the impeller was last replaced if ever.

And that is probably why you are getting the intermittant alarms. Lack of water flow.

Install a new impeller kit. Volvo recommends replacing the impeller yearly. It's a basic maintenance item like changing the oil and filter.

Wouldn't the temperature gauge on the dashboard show it overheating if the impeller was not properly cooling the system?

Possibly not. Could be right on the edge. Has it gone up from when it was new?
You may be getting enough flow to keep the engine cool, but the exhaust may be getting too hot at times.

 

[waztros]

Re: Volvo Penta Audible Alert

Is it also possible that there might be debris in the tubing that the impeller pushes the cooling water through or does that not happen?

 

[Don S]

Re: Volvo Penta Audible Alert

Anything is possible.

 

[waztros]

Re: Volvo Penta Audible Alert

Don: thanks for your help. I took the boat out again yesterday to see if I could replicate the problem. Sure enough I was able to replicate the issue and I found it was not the engine alert at all. In fact it was the depth finder alert. Like I said the boat is new to me and I had no idea there was a shallow and deep water alert system. I found out that the you can set the shallow alert from anywhere from 1-20ft but the deep water alert maxes out at 100ft. So every time i ran into waters greater than 100ft the alarm would freak out. I have no idea why they have a limitation of 100ft. I would really like to figure out how to turn off the deep water alert all together since I have no clue why that would be important. Any ideas on how to disable the deep water alerting? Thanks in advance.