08 vtx depth finder problems HELP PLEASE!!!!!!!!

[Nicvtx]

im having problems with my 08 vtx depth finder.

was out last week end, put the boat in the water depth fider was reading fine, headed out to the 8 kt zone got her up to 20mph working fine jus warming her up for a bout 5 mins. stoped and put my brother in for a ski pulled him up32 mph , everything is working fine then i look at the depth gauge and its stuck on 1.1 ft for about 5 mins then to 1.2. my dad checks it out it just swithces between 1.1 and 1.2 ft every so often. finish my brothers ski run. thought maybe it was frozen so turned the boat off waited a minute turned it back on then its reading properly. now we are going for a surf, fill the tanks pop the wedge down the depth gauge still working (boats in neutral) shift into forward to get the slack out goes back to 1.1 ft, then shift back into neutral and it starts reading fine then into forward again goes back to 1.1.

so for the past 100 hrs the depth meter has been reading at every speed and reading correctly

has anybody experienced these problems or similar problems with their depth finders

can anybody help me

Edited May 12, 2009 by boat1956

[Chia]

mine gets stuck reading .8 ft on occasion (in 30' of water). i forgot to mention it when the techs came out to go over my boat.

[Jimmypooh]

mine gets stuck reading .8 ft on occasion (in 30+' of water). i forgot to mention it when the techs came out to go over my boat.

Mine gets stuck on .6 or .7 and gives the annoying beeping warning. I have the boat in for the last set of warranty work and they say they can't get it to replicate the problem. As this only happens every once in a while they probably wont do anything about it. I'm hoping that it will happen on my test drive when I pick it up.

Does any one know if you can disable the beeping noise for the depth gage?

[OTN]

Happened on mine this past weekend- jumped from 30' to 1' depth, but only for a few seconds. I was hoping it was just picking up some noise, but with your experience...maybe there's something else going on.

[Nicvtx]

thanks for the info.

this has only happened once so far. after we retarted the boat and went for a surf, we went for a wakeboard at it seemed to be working fine after that.

my dealer claims that the depth finder isnt meant to work past 10 mph

[CrazyTegger]

thanks for the info.

this has only happened once so far. after we retarted the boat and went for a surf, we went for a wakeboard at it seemed to be working fine after that.

my dealer claims that the depth finder isnt meant to work past 10 mph

most, of not practically all depth finders do not work at speed

[OTN]

My problem happened at rest, though...0 mph

[CrazyTegger]

My problem happened at rest, though...0 mph

Could murky water have anything to do with it? how clean is the lake?

[tvano]

most, of not practically all depth finders do not work at speed

i really hate to respond because i'm sure that, even as it sits in the driveway, it will stop working now.

seldom have had a problem with the sounder on the last three boats, even at speed.

heck, i even get a reasonable (considering the density of air v water) reading while on the trailer!

since i have not had the need i have not looked for it on the last 2 rigs but on boat #1 (with a sounder) there was a sensitivity potentiometer / adjustment on the rear of the display. it may be worth a look.

[UberXY]

Mine hasn't worked right from day 1. It will be ok for awhile but then will go to .9 feet. Dealer looked at it and gave the standard line: "They all do that". I disabled the low water alarm, no big deal because the boat stays on one lake and I know where it's shallow. Never had a problem with the sounder on my Toyota Epic for ten years.

Also the %^&%$ing speedo paddle lined up perfectly with one of the runners on my boat lift, which I also found out on day one. Squish. The good news is that you can buy the little paddles by themselves, and the repair only takes a few minutes.

Ub

Edited May 12, 2009 by UberXY

[OTN]

My problem happened at rest, though...0 mph

Could murky water have anything to do with it? how clean is the lake?

Very good point. We were at Mark Twain Lake in NE Missouri, and it was muddy as hell. I'll have a chance to test that theory out in Lake Powell in 3 weeks for the annual houseboat trip. CAN'T WAIT

[Nicvtx]

hey everyone, thanks for your support.

this is a follow up of what happened. we went out last weekend and this time videoed the depth finder and the dash view of it, it read no signal, depth meter unable to process. we took a video of this and showed it to our dealer. it turns out that we had a faulty module on it so we got it replaced.

if anyone has this problem with their depth finder take it up with your dealer, you guys explained what ours did exactly so ask your dealer about it,

thanks nic

[curtisco24]

Sad to say but I never had a depth finder that worked for over a year on any malibu. They usually go crazy after about a year like is being discribed. I don't buy them anymore.

[mcsammamish]

You can disable the alarm as well as adjust the level at which the alarm sounds if you want to leave the alarm on. Go to the Depth screen on the center LCD display, hold down the "E" buttom until it changes screens. Up or Down arrow to what you'd like to change and hold "E" again to make line flash; up or down arrow to change setting. Should be easy enough to figure out once you get into the screen with the depth and on and off. If you leave the alarm on and it's sounding, hit the "E" to cancel the alarm sounding. All stuff a good walk through or on the water demo at the time of delivery would tell you.

[dalt1]

Sad to say but I never had a depth finder that worked for over a year on any malibu. They usually go crazy after about a year like is being discribed. I don't buy them anymore.

My 06 is going on it's 4th year and 500+ hours and always works good. Guess I'm lucky.

[curtisco24]

yea you are very lucky.

[wakeup]

Sad to say but I never had a depth finder that worked for over a year on any malibu. They usually go crazy after about a year like is being discribed. I don't buy them anymore.

My 06 is going on it's 4th year and 500+ hours and always works good. Guess I'm lucky.

Our BU depth finder in our old 06 Vride worked like a champ until we sold it last year. No problems with our new BU thus far. (crossing fingers)

I do not know much about depth finders. Since we own a home on the lake we know the depths in our area very well, and our depth finders seem to work pretty reliably at about any speed. . I get about the same depth readings sitting still as we do on the BU going 25mph while wakeboarding.