MarcoB

Hello to all of you,

I am from Holland (The Netherlands) with a question about my SmartCraft SC1000 monitor/496 MAG.

My monitor shows the blinking bell and engine, after I hooked up a DDT and cleared both the "freeze frame memory" and the "active faults memory" the active faults who remain are;
TRIM CKT HI
PITOT CKT LO
FUEL LVL CKT HI
STEER CKT LO
FUEL LVL2 CKT HI

Now I've learned from your forum that those faults are caused by missing sensors (thank you dave N !).

My questions are;
1) Could these faults be the reason why my monitor keeps blinking a bell and engine?(No horn, and still 100% pwr. available!)
And
2) If so, is there a way to deactivate the external sensors? This in order to get a usefull warning when needed.

I am really running out of ideas and were I live the mercruiser dealers have not ever seen a 496 engine (except mine!)

Thank you in advance.

Regards Marco

Dave_N

Have you tried a doing a master reset, or going into the "Cal 1" and "Cal 2" menus and turing off all functions that would require one of the missing sensors?

Dave

Outdrive1

Can you do this with a Rinda scan tool? How do you reset it? I know someone else with this problem, Merc is sending him a new ECU. You can't clear the active faults or the fault history. The codes remain active the entire time, power is reduced to 90% and the buzzer sounds every 60 seconds. He also had a code for low Oil Pressure that would not go away. When you sent a ground signal on the signal wire at the sending unit the scan tool never showed a change in pressure. The 5 volt reference was good but the signal wire always showed a ground leading us to believe the ECU was bad. Is this a common problem with the Smartcraft? I would think someone else would have had this problem. Merc. was quick to replace it no questions asked. If you're out of warranty that unit is pretty pricey..........

Dave_N

The reset/calibration I refer to is for the Smartcraft SC1000 display unit, not the ECM.

I have seen one ECM like your friends that had false alarm issues. It was a couple of years ago on a 2003 496HO.

At the time a Merc engineer told me to remove the flame arrestor, run the engine at idle and then cover (with a rag or hand) the throttle body until the engine died, and that would "reset it". I am not kidding, that's what he told me to do. I tried it, it didn't help.

Dave

Outdrive1

Did you also end up replacing that unit?

Dave_N

At the request of the guys at Mercruiser, the engine (complete) was pulled and shipped back. They sent a replacement engine and I never heard another word about it.

Dave

MarcoB

Thanks for the quick reply.

Yes, Indeed I tried a master reset.
Also I went thru the cal 1 and 2 menu's.
I can only switch some screens on or off (trim for instance), I cannot turn off any external sensor on the SC1000 monitor (as far as I know!).

I checked almost all off the SmartCraft manuals I could download from Marinepower and did see that the SmartTach has a function in the Cal2 menu to switch sensors off wich are not in use!

If there is a way to do that with the SC1000 monitor, that would probably solve the issue.

So from here I guess that I am on the right track, that indeed the blinking bell and engine is caused by these missing sensors.

But still the question remains; how to turn of this nuisance alarm!

Thanks again,

Marco

ps Due to the time-difference my reply lags a bit.

Dave_N

Marco,
I checked in the "Smartcraft Applications and Display Products Technical Guide" and the only other reason I can find why you would be getting the bell/engine blinking display is if the engine is still in "Break-In" mode. Other than that, I don't know

Dave

MarcoB

Dave,

Thanks again for checking, eng. now has 120 hrs. on it.
If I recall last DDT reading right the "Break-In left" said "0".

There maybe one other possibility and please correct me if I am wrong:

One SmartCraft manual I read said (even tough this had to do with someother malfunction) "the throttle has to retarded in order to reset the system".

I did notice with the DDT readings that every time the engine read ( I believe it was in the FF Buffer) as if it was "IN GEAR", even tough the engine was running in neutral.

Could this be something?
Or is retarding power to idle sufficient for this "reset".
Or maybe does an sterndrive (MCM) model always show "IN GEAR"

I really appreciate your effort Dave, thanks again.

Marco

Dave_N

The earlier 496HO's (I think serial numbers 0M659999 and below) did not have the shift position sensor, and always show "In Gear".

If your engine has the shift sensor and it's not working, it's possible thats what the SC1000 is trying to tell you, but that's just a guess on my part.

Dave