Frankman815
New member
I've got twin '95 SWS 200s on my boat (200txrt & L200txrt) and this is not the first time I've dealt with troubleshooting an alarm buzzer.
First time: I was out fishing in moderate rolling seas. When I started to head back in, the alarm would go off every time I came down hard on a wave and the engines would go into limp mode. I would throttle back to neutral, the alarm would turn off and I could resume running...until the boat hit hard again. My engines were oil injected but that feature was deleted by one the previous owners. So I went through all the steps to verify it wasn't overheating. Then I made sure the low oil sensor to the old injection feature wasn't being tripped. All checked out. I later found out that it had to do with loose battery connections. Turns out my batteries (one for each motor & two house) were not tied down well enough so when the boat was getting tossed around the terminal nuts were backing off and the engines were receiving intermittent current. This was throwing an alarm because the oil injection system wasn't receiving its normal power, continuously (even though it's not being used, it can still talk to the main ECUs). Anyway, a homemade battery box/bracket and an old ratchet strap fixed that problem, so far.
This time: Everything functions normally except when I'm running over 3000 RPM and I try to adjust the trim switch. After hitting the switch, the same thing happens. Alarm, limp mode, shift to neutral, resuming running normally. Today, I figured out that it's only the port motor's switch that tripping the alarm. I can trim the starboard motor while running all day but if the port motor's tilt/trim is engaged, the alarm sounds.
Based off my past experiences with this, I wanted to blame it on my batteries. They were 4 years old so it wasn't impossible for them to be dying on me. Which made sense because dying batteries may not be able to supply enough current for ignition and tilt/trim at the same time. So I got brand new batteries for each motor and left them on the ProSport charger until it said they were full. Took the boat out again and it was still doing it.
Does anyone have any further insight on what might be causing this? I'm scratching my head on this one.
First time: I was out fishing in moderate rolling seas. When I started to head back in, the alarm would go off every time I came down hard on a wave and the engines would go into limp mode. I would throttle back to neutral, the alarm would turn off and I could resume running...until the boat hit hard again. My engines were oil injected but that feature was deleted by one the previous owners. So I went through all the steps to verify it wasn't overheating. Then I made sure the low oil sensor to the old injection feature wasn't being tripped. All checked out. I later found out that it had to do with loose battery connections. Turns out my batteries (one for each motor & two house) were not tied down well enough so when the boat was getting tossed around the terminal nuts were backing off and the engines were receiving intermittent current. This was throwing an alarm because the oil injection system wasn't receiving its normal power, continuously (even though it's not being used, it can still talk to the main ECUs). Anyway, a homemade battery box/bracket and an old ratchet strap fixed that problem, so far.
This time: Everything functions normally except when I'm running over 3000 RPM and I try to adjust the trim switch. After hitting the switch, the same thing happens. Alarm, limp mode, shift to neutral, resuming running normally. Today, I figured out that it's only the port motor's switch that tripping the alarm. I can trim the starboard motor while running all day but if the port motor's tilt/trim is engaged, the alarm sounds.
Based off my past experiences with this, I wanted to blame it on my batteries. They were 4 years old so it wasn't impossible for them to be dying on me. Which made sense because dying batteries may not be able to supply enough current for ignition and tilt/trim at the same time. So I got brand new batteries for each motor and left them on the ProSport charger until it said they were full. Took the boat out again and it was still doing it.
Does anyone have any further insight on what might be causing this? I'm scratching my head on this one.