Volvo D6 3701 Intermittent electrical issue no display

[Carversteve]

2006 Carver 43 MY with Volvo D6 diesel. Intermittent issue port engine, no power to dash instruments, hour meter and no diagnostic check. Have 12+ volts at red wire at key switch. Key on first position have 12+ volts on red/blue wire at key switch and X4 connector at HCU. At times no green indicator light at HCU and nothing on instruments engine does not start. Other times have 12+ volts at key switch and X4 via red/blue wire. Green light on HCU. Instruments have power, hour meter works, diagnostic checks and engine will start. No indication of diagnostic codes. Checked continuity on red/blue wire, checks good. Bad HCU? Does PCU play into this?

 

[spannerman]

PCU controls gear shifting and power trim if Sterndrive. I would start at the battery switch and work on from there to engine positive connections and earth cables, also the DC/DC converter at the back of the engine which gives a stabilised power supply to the ECU and the rest of the EVC system. You have an intermittent connection somewhere its just a matter of following the system from the engine up to the helm.

 

[GusC@AK]

2006 Carver 43 MY with Volvo D6 diesel. Intermittent issue port engine, no power to dash instruments, hour meter and no diagnostic check. Have 12+ volts at red wire at key switch. Key on first position have 12+ volts on red/blue wire at key switch and X4 connector at HCU. At times no green indicator light at HCU and nothing on instruments engine does not start. Other times have 12+ volts at key switch and X4 via red/blue wire. Green light on HCU. Instruments have power, hour meter works, diagnostic checks and engine will start. No indication of diagnostic codes. Checked continuity on red/blue wire, checks good. Bad HCU? Does PCU play into this?

Your issue sounds identical to mine. I posted about it on this forum (look up "Volvo D4 260 Ignition Issue"). The problem began as an intermittent issue, then became permanent. The problem was traced to a failing HCU at the helm. I replaced it yesterday with a new pre-programmed HCU, and issue resolved. Not cheap!

 

[Carversteve]

PCU controls gear shifting and power trim if Sterndrive. I would start at the battery switch and work on from there to engine positive connections and earth cables, also the DC/DC converter at the back of the engine which gives a stabilised power supply to the ECU and the rest of the EVC system. You have an intermittent connection somewhere its just a matter of following the system from the engine up to the helm.

Thanks spannerman. I have my meter ground connected to the main helm ground connection when checking for voltage. Do you think it is more a ground issue since I am providing a known good ground and always have 12+ volts?

 

[Carversteve]

Your issue sounds identical to mine. I posted about it on this forum (look up "Volvo D4 260 Ignition Issue"). The problem began as an intermittent issue, then became permanent. The problem was traced to a failing HCU at the helm. I replaced it yesterday with a new pre-programmed HCU, and issue resolved. Not cheap!

 

[Carversteve]

Thanks GusC@AK. I am hoping for a better outcome although I have been there with new key switches, relay and new batteries this spring. Each time seemed to resolve issue. The issue was more random last fall and now occurs quite often. Because of this I will check it several times a day. It may start fine and one hour later it will not. This occurs even though all I have done is let it set not testing any connections. I certainly don’t trust it to leave the dock.

 

[GusC@AK]

Thanks GusC@AK. I am hoping for a better outcome although I have been there with new key switches, relay and new batteries this spring. Each time seemed to resolve issue. The issue was more random last fall and now occurs quite often. Because of this I will check it several times a day. It may start fine and one hour later it will not. This occurs even though all I have done is let it set not testing any connections. I certainly don’t trust it to leave the dock.

Exactly! I would get frustrated with the key not working, walk away for a few minutes, and try again randomly and it would work. If you have multiple driving stations, you can switch out one of the EVCs with the suspect one to troubleshoot. It was a pretty easy process (and I'm not a professional!).

 

[Carversteve]

Exactly! I would get frustrated with the key not working, walk away for a few minutes, and try again randomly and it would work. If you have multiple driving stations, you can switch out one of the EVCs with the suspect one to troubleshoot. It was a pretty easy process (and I'm not a professional!).

The boat has twin engines so there is a HCU to swap out. I was told by a dealership that I could do this as test but that it will give me error codes and the throttle/shift controls will not work. Dealership said they were going to contact Volvo Service Rep. I was hoping they would travel to boat to diagnose. I am not a pro either and don’t like to think about missing something and buy a $$$$ controller to find that it was not the issue.

 

[GusC@AK]

Any update on your issue?

 

[Carversteve]

Any update on your issue?

Still waiting for dealer tech to show up with Vodia diagnostics. Been trying to get commitment out of the for over three weeks. Contacted Volvo direct but they will do nothing without dealer tech..Losing faith with this whole Volvo system. Would not recommend it to anyone.

 

[Carversteve]

Still waiting for dealer tech to show up with Vodia diagnostics. Been trying to get commitment out of the for over three weeks. Contacted Volvo direct but they will do nothing without dealer tech..Losing faith with this whole Volvo system. Would not recommend it to anyone.

Now dealer is telling me could be 4 weeks. Says could look at it sooner if I get it to his shop. Have you ever had yours fail once the boat was running? Thinking if it started I would run 45 miles through 2 locks and not shut it off.

 

[volvopaul]

That’s is where we score big points in the UK , we have a dealer where we need one .
sadly I have been informed we are about to loose one of the oldest established dealers on the River Hamble .

 

[GusC@AK]

If it is a failing HCU, we never had it fail once we got the engine running. Not sure if it was by pure luck, or other explanation.

 

[Carversteve]

Update: Dealership was at boat yesterday. Of course everything worked as it is supposed to. No codes, dash powered and engine started several times. Could not get it to fail. Tech monitored and recorded systems at startup and running. He found no wiring issues. He then contacted Volvo Tech Center. Tech Center is preparing and sending out a test HCU to confirm what we believe is an intermittent HCU issue. I will update after test unit is installed.

 

[Carversteve]

Update: Today we finally got a donor HCU installed. Prior to the donor installation the dash was blank with key switch in first position. Connected Vodia test equipment to engine to check codes, would not connect. Swapped PCU connections with other engine and Vodia connected, only code was engine mis match ( due to swapping PCU). Both sides of dash powered up and both engines started. Switched the PCU connections back to original installation and second attempt to connect to check codes was successful but no codes, both sides of dash powered up and both engines started. Installed donor HCU and performed calibration. Dash powers up and engine starts, no codes. Now it’s go time to see if it’s really repaired.

 

[TommieDee]

Now dealer is telling me could be 4 weeks. Says could look at it sooner if I get it to his shop. Have you ever had yours fail once the boat was running? Thinking if it started I would run 45 miles through 2 locks and not shut it off.

I had D6-310s on my 2006 Broom 39 when it was 4 -5 years old. I was leaving my berth in home port in the Isle of Man, all ok then just as I was about to go through the lifting bridge, my starboard engine didn’t respond to throttle controls. It was on but throttle did nothing. I limped back to my berth on one engine. Long story short, after investigating all other possible causes, discovered the starboard HCU was defective. £1200 later, I was back on the water ... longing for the morse cable throttle controls I grew up with. Electronics come with the risk that you can’t just get a spanner and screwdriver to fix it!
So I am an example of how the HCU can just decide to die while engines are operating normally at sea (or river in your case). Suggest you just exercise some healthy caution and skeptism to this VP issue. If you don’t mind navigating home on one engine, you could take a risk. However, just before mine died, I thought I noticed some revving of the engine (without me touching throttles). I have no idea if defective HCU could stop responding when throttle is revving high or if it always goes back to neutral. If that is a risk, I don’t think you want to take it upriver knowing this. May have insurance issues too in the event of accident.
Two final points
1. HCU was easy to replace -plug and play basically
2. I never had any issues with HCU on port engine.

Good luck!
T

 

[sroter]

I have exactly the same problem, it told me on the display an error in the helm and one day the engine didn't turn on anymore and the display was blank. I am in that process of knowing what is happening.

 

[Carversteve]

I have exactly the same problem, it told me on the display an error in the helm and one day the engine didn't turn on anymore and the display was blank. I am in that process of knowing what is happening.

I have not updated since we went to test mode. After the install of the donor HCU the system never failed. We put 14 hours on the boat plus over 30 starts with no issues. Boat is now on the hard but we consider the problem solved. Suggest swapping controllers to see if problem moves.

 

[sroter]

I have not updated since we went to test mode. After the install of the donor HCU the system never failed. We put 14 hours on the boat plus over 30 starts with no issues. Boat is now on the hard but we consider the problem solved. Suggest swapping controllers to see if problem moves.

explain me about swapping the controllers. What is the price of an approximate new hcu? My engine is an evc-d

 

[Carversteve]

explain me about swapping the controllers. What is the price of an approximate new hcu? My engine is an evc-d

First thing the tech did go into engine room and find the PCUs. Mine were located next to each other towards rear of starboard engine. With power off he unplugged connections to the pcu and reconnected to the opposite one. He did have to unscrew one of them because they were just a bit to far apart for wiring to reach the connections. He then had me start the engines. Both started but threw a code because the are “matched” to their respective engine controllers. This was done to verify that the PCU was not the problem. He then swapped them back and installed the donor HCU. It was preprogrammed for my engine. Once installed you have to perform a calibration for the shift controls. That was fairly easy to do. These were all recommended trouble shooting steps from Volvo Tech Support. They guided the tech through the repair.