Carver Owners Forum

Howdy all, I have a 2004 Carver 564CPMY that I just picked up a few weeks ago. It has the Volvo D12 diesels with the diagnostic screen on the dash for each engine. The started went bad the day I picked up the boat, but it did start and ran 2 or 3 times before it went bad and everything ran fine. The mechanic replaced the starter last week and I am just getting to the boat today and this warring light is on. The problem is I have no clue what it mean. I have the carver manual but not the volve manual. The oil pressure and temps are good on the analog guages and on the Volvo data/service display on the dash. This light is coming from the little circle display above all the other switches and displays.

Check to see if your mechanic bumped into something, maybe wiring, connector plug, sending unit etc while working down there.

I guess this would be my first guess considering all was fine before.

Your Carver manual should have the instrument definitions in the gauges section. Something got disconnected when the starter was replaced. Get the mechanic to check his work. er

I think that looks like a oil LEVEL indication. As said earlier, the tech might have knocked of a wire from a sensor. If it is oil LEVEL, then that sensor would be down on the pan somewhere, likely near the starter. I'd go take a look and see if anything looks like it's not connected.

So, I just got back to the boat thinking the mechanic was going to be on board some point last week, but he was not. So now I am stuck on one engine on the darn "T" head with a storm coming in. . . . but now I am also getting another error on the port engine. and it is the same light at the top of the picture. When I hit the info button it says low oil level, once again no warring sounds what so ever. I did check the water and added some to both engines. The bottom light went out for about 30 seconds and then came back on. So I think the bottom icon is a water warning light, but what is that top one. It is a triangle with a "!" in the middle. My oil pressures are about 40PSI. On my Cummins they were 100 PSI at start up then came down to 50 or so. I thought maybe Volvo's ran with less pressure? I did check the oil and both engines were at the half way mark on the dip stick? I could add some to see what happens but not even sure what kind of oil to put in? I do have SAE 30 and 40 on the boat. Any suggestions?

If it is an oil LEVEL sensor, then I think it's more likely that somehow it got disconnected when the starter work happened, as others have said. I'd really look around that starter and around the oil pan and see if you can find the sensor and trace the wire back to see if it's disconnected. The oil being "lower than recommended" isn't really an alarming condition until it affects oil pressure, then it's an urgent issue.

The bottom icon to the right would be the water LEVEL sensor. (I only see three icons... the triangle, what I think is the oil level, and what should be the water level to the right).

The triangle with the "!" is usually a general alarm that says something needs attention... similar to the "Check Engine" on a car.

As long as the oil is well above the "ADD OIL" mark on the dipstick, you should be fine with level. Not sure where that mark would be relative to "half way mark" on the dip stick.

If you're planning on changing the oil soon (end of this year or start of next) you could use either that SAE30 or SAE40. The amount you add is going to be insignificant to what's already in there, especially since it is old used oil. If you had just done a recent change, then I would put in exactly what was in there. In any case, DO NOT OVERFILL THEM.

So I did start the engines and they ran great for about 60 seconds at 70 PSI and 80degress water temp and at 580 RPM and then came down to 400 -200 RPM then shut off! I was checking the digital and analog guages and they both said the same.

Ok, I poked around and found a D12 Manual. Those two lower indicators are just what I thought.... Oil and Coolant LEVEL indicators. The triangle with the "!" means "Serious fault (red indication)"

Here is a link to the manual. You can download it.
https://www.manualslib.com/manual/81638 ... =18#manual

Just reading that manual, it appears that either of the "low oil level" or "low coolant level" alarms will cause the engine to go to "Engine power is reduced" but it doesn't sound like they would shut the engines down.

Is it possible you have something else going on, like the fuel valves have been shut off?

I still can not get these lights to shut off. Everything runs great, but the lights come on as soon as I turn the key. I called the shop that changed the starter and he says they did not hit a wire and has nothing to do with the work he did.(I think that is BS). He also says it is a coolant level light, but then says this boat does not have a sensor for coolant level. What he did say is there should be a way to put the control module in diagnostic mode. He was pushing 2 button on the module beside the throttles. I think one of them was the neutral button. For some reason it would not go into diagnostic mode, he says he THINKS the module is bad and wants to replace it hoping that is the problem. Sounds like a "part changer" to me. Does anyone know what other test I can do before we replace it? Thanks for all the help.

Like many things, big feet can hit things and maybe not be noticed.....anyway lots of warning circuits work by using a switch that goes to ground to complete a circuit and power a light or alarm buzzer etc. This may be what you have here....you will have to find where the lights are wired to....unfortunately with out a schematic it could prove to be difficult.

Again though why, if all is well and systems all function, temps and pressures all ok then I guess the assumption would be something got shorted perhaps......