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Losing Gauges


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I'm new to the site but am looking for some help with my gauges. I have a 2006 xti & When I start the boat I have all my gauges & then lose the tach, temp, speedo & PP w/in the first few minutes of operation. I have had it into a local marina & they have changed the sending unit but the problem still persists. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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There is a canon plug on the starboard side of your engine. About an inch or more in diameter, held on with a hose/worm clamp. Wiggle it with the boat running and see if your gauges do anything.

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There is a canon plug on the starboard side of your engine. About an inch or more in diameter, held on with a hose/worm clamp. Wiggle it with the boat running and see if your gauges do anything.

thanks i'll give it a shot

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I'd look for a loose ground under the dash or at the bus-bar. Is it really PP or is it Malibu Cruise?

I could be wrong with the 2006 - haven't been in one.

If it's really PP, the Tach/Temp/Speedo should be controlled by one computer & PP should be entirely separate.

If you're losing both, then I'd look at an electrical issue.

If it's Malibu Cruise, then all could be through the same gauge computer. It could be having an electrical issue with the gauge computer - power or ground. The senders may be all OK as Tach, Temp & Speedo all use different sending units.

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I'd look for a loose ground under the dash or at the bus-bar. Is it really PP or is it Malibu Cruise?

I could be wrong with the 2006 - haven't been in one.

If it's really PP, the Tach/Temp/Speedo should be controlled by one computer & PP should be entirely separate.

If you're losing both, then I'd look at an electrical issue.

If it's Malibu Cruise, then all could be through the same gauge computer. It could be having an electrical issue with the gauge computer - power or ground. The senders may be all OK as Tach, Temp & Speedo all use different sending units.

Thanks Wienrdog, you are correct it is not PP, but rather the Malibu Cruise. The gauges were all working fine last year when I winterized it and then this spring before my first run I had my local guy install some speakers, an amp and a second battery. If they hooked up the battery wrong initially could that have had an effect on the gauge computer?

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Not if the gauges are working when you first start the boat.

If they hooked a battery up backwards, it would blow some fuses & could kill some other components - been there, done that & got a pretty light show to boot.

Is it all the gauges or just the ones listed. What about oil pressure, volts and gas gauges?

Do the gauges all go out at the same time or one at a time? If you stop and restart the boat, do the gauges come back on?

Do you disconnect the batteries between runs or use a perko switch when you store the boat.

Do they go out before you start moving around the lake or after.

Trying to identify a pattern for both the gauges going dead & then what makes them starting to work again.

Could be vibration or heat causing a disconnect/shutdown of gauges - I doubt it's a short or you'd be throwing a breaker. I'd climb under the dash and see if there are any loose connections on the bus/power bars or at the ignition switch. You'll have to remove the panel where the breakers are to check them.

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Not if the gauges are working when you first start the boat.

If they hooked a battery up backwards, it would blow some fuses & could kill some other components - been there, done that & got a pretty light show to boot.

Is it all the gauges or just the ones listed. What about oil pressure, volts and gas gauges?

Do the gauges all go out at the same time or one at a time? If you stop and restart the boat, do the gauges come back on?

Do you disconnect the batteries between runs or use a perko switch when you store the boat.

Do they go out before you start moving around the lake or after.

Trying to identify a pattern for both the gauges going dead & then what makes them starting to work again.

Could be vibration or heat causing a disconnect/shutdown of gauges - I doubt it's a short or you'd be throwing a breaker. I'd climb under the dash and see if there are any loose connections on the bus/power bars or at the ignition switch. You'll have to remove the panel where the breakers are to check them.

My oil, volts & gas gauge seem to be working fine, my hour meter will also freeze when I lose the gauges but when I restart the hours will be corrected.

All the affected gauges do go out at the same time and if I stop & restart the boat I will get the gauges back for another 30 seconds to one minute and then lose them again. I believe the gauges only go out after I start moving however I have gotten them to fail using a "fake a lake". A few times I have gotten the gauges to last between 5 & 10 minutes even after the boat had been running for 20 to 30 minutes prior so that made me think it wasn't heat related. I have also had the boat go into a "safe mode" where the RPM's drop and I am unable to bring the RPM's back up without shutting the engine off - almost as if the computer was telling the motor to wind down because it wasn't getting a temperature signal.

I have checked under the dash several times for loose wires/connections and have not found any but have not removed the panel where the breakers are.

I have not checked the Cannon plug yet but will do so tonight.

I do have a perko switch and do toggle between one battery and running it with both batteries (the perko switch is new this year. During winter I removed the only battery and stored it indoors.

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Not if the gauges are working when you first start the boat.

If they hooked a battery up backwards, it would blow some fuses & could kill some other components - been there, done that & got a pretty light show to boot.

Is it all the gauges or just the ones listed. What about oil pressure, volts and gas gauges?

Do the gauges all go out at the same time or one at a time? If you stop and restart the boat, do the gauges come back on?

Do you disconnect the batteries between runs or use a perko switch when you store the boat.

Do they go out before you start moving around the lake or after.

Trying to identify a pattern for both the gauges going dead & then what makes them starting to work again.

Could be vibration or heat causing a disconnect/shutdown of gauges - I doubt it's a short or you'd be throwing a breaker. I'd climb under the dash and see if there are any loose connections on the bus/power bars or at the ignition switch. You'll have to remove the panel where the breakers are to check them.

My oil, volts & gas gauge seem to be working fine, my hour meter will also freeze when I lose the gauges but when I restart the hours will be corrected.

All the affected gauges do go out at the same time and if I stop & restart the boat I will get the gauges back for another 30 seconds to one minute and then lose them again. I believe the gauges only go out after I start moving however I have gotten them to fail using a "fake a lake". A few times I have gotten the gauges to last between 5 & 10 minutes even after the boat had been running for 20 to 30 minutes prior so that made me think it wasn't heat related. I have also had the boat go into a "safe mode" where the RPM's drop and I am unable to bring the RPM's back up without shutting the engine off - almost as if the computer was telling the motor to wind down because it wasn't getting a temperature signal.

I have checked under the dash several times for loose wires/connections and have not found any but have not removed the panel where the breakers are.

I have not checked the Cannon plug yet but will do so tonight.

I do have a perko switch and do toggle between one battery and running it with both batteries (the perko switch is new this year. During winter I removed the only battery and stored it indoors.

I was wrong; I do lose my Volts & oil pressure gauge but not my gas gauge. I took it out this weekend and checked all the wires again, I also put an OHM meter on the grounds and found a a difference in my resistance from batttery 1 to battery 2. I then took a set of jumper cables and bypassed the ground (from battery ground to the ground bar under the dash) but continued to have gauge failure and the boat was idiling back down like it was in "safe mode". I then unhooked the wire harness under the dash to the central computer and plugged it back in - no change. Then while the boat was running I unplugged what I believe to be the "Cannon plug", this shut the motor down. I then plugged it back in, started the boat back up and it worked great the rest of the day (we put 10hrs on it that day). Do you think that was the problem? Is it like a personal computer that when you have a problem the IT dept tells you to shut it down and reboot? Do you think because I had the extra battery, amp & speakers installed that it necessitated the "reboot"? I am anxious to get it back on the water again to see if it still works but thought I could get some input from those of you that suggested the "cannon" plug.

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Sounds like that was the problem... There have been others that have had to do a little more to get the plug to be consistently reliable, but you seem to be good for now.

Most of the connections from the dash to the engine go through the canon plug, so it was a likely candidate and not uncommon.

The extra battery, amp & speakers shouldn't have caused the problem.

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Sounds like that was the problem... There have been others that have had to do a little more to get the plug to be consistently reliable, but you seem to be good for now.

Most of the connections from the dash to the engine go through the canon plug, so it was a likely candidate and not uncommon.

The extra battery, amp & speakers shouldn't have caused the problem.

So do those plugs just fail for no particular reason, i.e. there isn't an "cause & effect" for the failure? Just so I am clear what I am calling a canon plug was a group of wires in plastic covering about 1"in diameter and went to a rectangled wire harnes about 2"wide.

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It's not that it 'failed.' It just wasn't connected tightly enough. If you have more problems, you may need to spread the prongs in one end of the connection for that plug.

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It's not that it 'failed.' It just wasn't connected tightly enough. If you have more problems, you may need to spread the prongs in one end of the connection for that plug.

Thanks for your help!

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  • 1 month later...
It's not that it 'failed.' It just wasn't connected tightly enough. If you have more problems, you may need to spread the prongs in one end of the connection for that plug.

Thanks for your help!

Well for the last 30 hours my boat has run fine since unplugging & replugging the Canon Plug, now this past weekend it has begun shutting down again and giving me a "check engine" signal on the malibu cruise. I took the canon plug apart & spead the prongs apart, reinstalled and then used a "zip tie" to hold it together but it continued to fail intermitantly. Could it be something else? Would I be wise to replace the male & female ends of the canon plug at the motor and if so do you have any idea what I could expect to pay for the work?

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With the new amps, battery, and connections I would go back to that and look at connections and voltage. The MDC's need a good source of clean power and ground. They are the first to fall out if the voltage drops, which can be caused by simply too much resistance in the ground wire. Low voltage can cause all sorts of issues.

If you have eliminated this as a variable then the cannon plug and/or other variables are good places to look.

Just as a reference point, consider a 2001 Sunsetter with PP and a few other accessories installed. Turn on a larger amp draw item, such as the blower, and your temp gauge, fuel gauge and oil pressure indicators will rise. Turn on the heater to high and they will rise even more. The problem in this case is not a good ground to the bus bar, but rather not a large enough ground cable from the bus bar back to the battery terminal. Once a new battery sized ground cable is installed to the bus bar you can turn on everything and not see any difference in the MDC powered gauges.

Peter

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  • 1 year later...

hey i have the same problems you did at first. i cant figure it out. were do you find the cannon plug exactly? i cant find it on my 07 to save my life! none of my gauges work at all. any help would be awesome!

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