Smart Craft Fuel Warning

[Jon.esp]

I have a 115 Optimax with a Smart Craft System Monitor and a separate fuel gauge. The software version which is shown on start up is 1.02 which seems quite low for a 2 year old item.

I noticed both last year and again recently that the water in fuel warning comes on but have never found any signs of water in the filters or separators. I even asked the yard in Spain (where the boat is kept) to check it out and they also reported back that there was no sign of any water when they did the winter lay up and spring commissioning.

I put the quicksilver fuel additive in as a mater of course. The warning only comes on when the fuel drops bellow ¼ tank which is not that often as I tend to top up as soon as it gets down to about 3/8 .

I am sure that I have read somewhere that you can programme the smartcraft to alarm when the fuel level falls bellow a certain point and suspect that this is what I am seeing. The dealer may have programmed this in without my knowledge. If this is the case I wont have to worry about an immanent fuel contamination problem…just lack of it but with a 170l tank ¼ gets me a fair way.

I have read and re read my manual (which says it is for software version 2.0) and it doesn’t mention anything about this and I can’t find anything on the web but this may be because I am looking in the wrong place.

Any chance of somebody pointing me in the right direction?

Also are there software upgrades for these smart craft and if so are they more trouble than they are worth?

Jon

[jyasaki]

Water in fuel warnings, as far as I know, are triggered by a float in the fuel filter. My F115 has a filter, mounted under the cowling, that has a small disk that floats on water, but not on fuel. The float's level is detected by some kind of microswitch, that sends a signal to the alarm (or in your case, the engine electronics, I guess.)

My water separating filter (Racor) has a bowl where you can see the water, but it doesn't trigger the alarm (it's an aftermarket thing, as far as the engine is concerned.)

Why yours would trigger at a quarter tank, I have no idea. But investigating around there might yield some sort of result.

jky

[Jon.esp]

MERCURY SMARTCRAFT SC1000 SYSTEM MONITOR SQUARE
Black 79-879896K08

this is the gauge I have

I hear what you are saying jky and thanks for your reply but the filters and water seperators both internal and external have been checked with no sign of water. The mercury ops manual has a section on “DRAINING WATER FROM THE FUEL FILTER CHAMBER” which has been followed but there was no water in it.

The warning is in the form of the flashing bell icon at the top RH corner of the screen and fuel pump emblem at the bottom LH corner of the screen which the manual says is fuel in water.

But I am sure I have read somewhere that the monitor can be set up to show a low fuel alarm which I suspect this is. But I can’t find it in a manual anywhere and I have been looking in other forums but haven’t had any joy.

Jon

[Turbodiesel]

Sent you a PM.