Smart craft gauges intermittent fault
Our smart craft gauges don’t start to read until between 5 and 15 mins after the engine is started up.
This is an Opti 115 about 7 yrs old. There are 2 gauges fuel and smartcraft with it various functions. See Photo
Last week put boat in water fired it up and everything OK. Left it on our mooring over night then the next morning fired up and trundled the 10min trip round to the fuel jetty keeping to the 5kn speed limit so just above tickover. All still OK.
Toped up with about 70 litres of fuel making the tank about ¾ full, fired up and gauges dead. Checked fuses (smart craft buss) and looked for any loose connections but all seemed ok. Asked boatyard to have a look who checked it and seemed perplexed suggesting problem may be with the gauges themselves. Claimed all wiring was ok, alternator fine and voltage OK.
Took it out for a run and after about 15mins both gauges came on. Ran it like this for 10 days and every time we fired up no gauges and then after 5-15 mins they came on. The longer it was left the longer they took to come back on.
I suspect it may be a low voltage problem but battery was replaced at the beginning of the summer. Also my understanding is that Optis sensitive to low voltage but for 10 days engine fired up first turn of the key and ran faultlessly, it was just the gauges that were playing up.
Has anybody experienced this or has any ideas as I would like to avoid replacing gauges if there is nothing wrong with them.
Thanks
Jon
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