oil pressure warning alarm

[grafozz]

last night the oli light/ warning buzzer went mental as we were mooring , lucky we were home then after a great days sailing .
today I have been testing everything , oil pressure is fine , engine running well , disconnected all the senders and alarm is still going off .
the fault seems to be in the electronic alarm unit in the Volvo penta ignition / switch panel , VP no. 873737
Keyparts list this little baby at £369 !!!!!!!!!!!
has anyone had any luck repairing one of these units ? or building a new / bypassing unit ?
( MD 2010/20/30/40 series engine , 4 warinng lights )

 

[Plevier]

I bought one a year ago for about £70 from these guys but they seem to have gone up. Still an improvement on your price though!
http://www.coastalrides.co.uk/volvo-penta-electronic-unit-873737?filter_name=873737

I tried to unpot the old one to see if it was repairable, no go.

BTW official price is 369 Euros not £ see http://www.marinepartseurope.com/en/volvo-penta-873737-electronic-unit.aspx

 

[pvb]

BTW official price is 369 Euros not £ see http://www.marinepartseurope.com/en/volvo-penta-873737-electronic-unit.aspx

I'm never sure why people automatically think non-VP sources will be cheaper. Volspec (big VP dealer) list this in their online shop at £167 +VAT. It's probably safer to buy from a VP dealer because if it turns out that the electronic unit wasn't the cause of the fault, a VP dealer is more likely to take it back into stock and refund you.

 

[Plevier]

I'm never sure why people automatically think non-VP sources will be cheaper. Volspec (big VP dealer) list this in their online shop at £167 +VAT. It's probably safer to buy from a VP dealer because if it turns out that the electronic unit wasn't the cause of the fault, a VP dealer is more likely to take it back into stock and refund you.

That's interesting. I thought marinepartseurope were the official VP prices and i haven't previously seen much difference between them and Volspec (whose name I couldn't recall or I would have suggested them) but there certainly is on this item.
It is worth watching Coastal Rides though, they seem to pick up VP stuff from all over the place and I did pay about £70 for one of these units, new, last year.

 

[Moonbeam]

I don't know if this thread will be useful? Some one else who has had the same type of problem with the same panel.

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?366125-VP-2030-Batt-Charge-Alarm

 

[rogerthebodger]

I don't have a volvo but I did some thing similar, 4 warning lights with a common alarm buzzer by using 4 diodes between the buzzer and the sender switches to prevent back feed in the same way a diode batter isolator worked but with much smaller diodes.

 

[pvb]

I don't have a volvo but I did some thing similar, 4 warning lights with a common alarm buzzer by using 4 diodes between the buzzer and the sender switches to prevent back feed in the same way a diode batter isolator worked but with much smaller diodes.

That's all it is, and the circuit diagram is in the workshop manual, but whether people can be bothered to replicate it themselves rather than just buy a direct replacement depends on skill sets.

 

[Plevier]

That's all it is, and the circuit diagram is in the workshop manual, but whether people can be bothered to replicate it themselves rather than just buy a direct replacement depends on skill sets.

If you are talking about VP - I don't know about other engines - you must be referring to the very old VP alarm unit that was a bare circuit board and yes you could glean the cct from the manual. I rebuilt one for my 1985 VP2002 engine after the tracks corroded off the board.
However that circuit behaved very idiosyncratically; under some fault conditions 2 lights would come on together, and the buzzer only worked for some conditions. i can't remember the details but it wasn't too clever.
Part of the problem is the oil pressure alarm switch being on when engine is stopped whereas the water temp alarm is off when engine stopped.
The new one has more circuitry and active components and is very expensive and still not all that reliable, but it does work logically and give clear indications. It is fully potted inside a case. I was unable to dismantle my failed one (from an MD2020 not the 2002) without destroying it. As I recall it turned out to have SMDs in so I couldn't have repaired it anyway!
I've been unable to find a circuit for this type. In fact I appealed on here but nobody could come up with it.

See p26 of this manual http://www.bluemoment.com/manuals/volvo_penta_2002_worksh.pdf for the old circuit, it could still be used if you accept its limitations.