2005 150HP Optimax with Smart Gauges
Submitted by Guardy on Mon, 2014-07-28 09:38
On a a couple of recent trips in my boat, on the way back in I have noticed one of my Smart gauges coming up showing Check Pitot. It has cleared itself later on but I have looked through my manuals but although they mention Pitot there is nothing else to tell me where to find it in order to check it. Can anyone tell me where to look? And also why it might be coming on? I am presuming that something is blocking it but until I know where to look there is not much I can do.
Cheers
hunterdive
Posts: 363
Date Joined: 24/02/09
From my knowledge its
From my knowledge its refering to the tell tale water outlet from the water pump. I have had it come up sometimes on an Optimax and a Verardo when the impella was getting a bit soft and ready for a change. Love to hear from a Mercury mechanic a bit more
The Verardo are incredibly sensitive to temp , water flow, fuel, ... you name it, they have sensors for everything and hence why they get a bad name. Personally I think they are great, never had a smoother , quieter ride with zero trouble
DTrain
Posts: 486
Date Joined: 10/02/12
The pitot tube measures your
The pitot tube measures your speed.
There should be a small hole near the front side of your lower unit. This leads to a tube that comes out the front of the lower unit and goes up into the engine cowling to a pressure sensor. There's probably some blockage in the tube.
Guardy
Posts: 381
Date Joined: 09/08/12
Thanks for that
Apparently it is a common fault but one that is not explained in any of the Smart Craft Gauges manuals that I know of nor do a lot of dealers understand how to deal with it. A bit of further research on the net found that it can generally be cleared by inserting a stiff wire in the opening to clear it the blockage, normally caused by crap such as kelp or sea grass covering the hole or getting embedded. But you can try shutting the power down and then restarting and it "sometimes" clears, or you can reset the left hand alarm.
My only concern is would it be defeating the purpose of the alarm if you continually reset it? Will it do damage to something in the engine. I liken this to continually shutting off the bilge alarm without checking why the alarm is going off in the first place, could it be the bilges are filling up with water???
DTrain
Posts: 486
Date Joined: 10/02/12
I don't think it's a big
I don't think it's a big issue because all it does is measure your speed through the water, which shouldn't affect the way the engine runs.
It is possible to use the NMEA wiring to connect a GPS unit to the smartcraft gauge, and then reprogram the smartcraft to use the GPS for speed. This will give you more accurate speed readings and avoid alarms from the pitot.
Guardy
Posts: 381
Date Joined: 09/08/12
Yep
Saw that while trolling thru the net. Thanks