VOLVO EDC Electronic Controls

[georgepaxton]

My query is this:- I own a Fairline Targa 34 which is 2 years old which is fitted with volvo KAD 44s and Volvo EDC Electronic Controls. The EDCs on several occasions have developed a problem whereby when I return the throttles from forward to neutral the engines do not engage neutral and the boat contiues in forward gear. This happened again yesterday when I was approaching my mooring. I put the throttle levers into neutral but the engines remained in forward gear, I tried to halt the boat by engaging reverse gear but this did not have any effect this resulted in the boat continuing in forward gear and hitting the concrete jetty which is situated only 20 metres from my mooring, as I said this is not the first time this situation has occured and I consider this problem to be very dangerous and could have had more serious consequenses. Any thoughts on why this is happening would be much appreciated.

 

[paultallett]

Hi George,

Welcome to the forum, sorry to hear about your experiance. I can't be of any help as I don't have Volvo engines, but is the boat only 2 years old?? If so I guess for the sake of your family or any poor soul that happens to be around you, a good chat with Volvo and supplying dealer needs to be had!!!!

I absolutley shudder with the thought of the worst happening, let alone what your insurance company would make of the whole matter?? I guess you can always stop the engines as a last resort if they won't come out of gear??

Good luck with getting what will probably a very simple, yet very serious problem sorted.

Regards Paul.

 

[jfm]

Welcome to the forum. Blimey, that's quite a problem. I've had EVC on 2 boats since 2004 and never experineced anything like this. Are yours EDC or EVC?

It needs a good volvo tech person to fix it and reload software if necessary. I have found Volspec in Tollesbury to be good. (You don't give your location)

 

[mikemcgregor]

I have a Cranchi Pelican 32 fitted with edc controls. Also 2 years old. Last year the stbd engine seemed to have the same problem as yours. Alarms went of as I was reversing out of mooring. Could not engage forward or reverse so switched off and managed to creep back. Ended up having to fit a new "actuator" at a cost of 800 euros!

 

[gjgm]

welcome to the sticking edc club. How easy to trace the fault depends if its intermittent ( nigh on impossible) or constant (congrats!).
Can be
1. sticking gear cable (boat out)
2.duff throttle potentiometer
3.sticking actuator
4. too much oil in outdrive leg (apparently)
5. damaged clutch cone (unlikely on a newish boat)
6.none of the above.
7. all of the above
If its one engine all the time, you can switch one of the above at a time til you find out which component is causing it. Maybe.
Takes alot of the season to work your way through this.
Of course, if it sticks permanently, its easy for Volvo to identify the problem.
Try recalibrating;sometimes works for a bit.(its easy enough, and is in the manual).
If you find something new, let me know /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
Oh, and dont forget it may decide to get stuck in reverse for a change too.
Keep an eye on the green light on the EDC.. thats the only way to tell if it has gone into neutral. But is it doing it on both engines?

 

[DavidBradley]

I too have experienced sudden loss of control with Volvo EDCs whilst mooring our Princess 52. Result: No more passeger shelter on Datrmouth Town Jetty! It was very rusty anyway and no-one was inside. The cause was seawater induced corrosion inside the multiway connectors at the upper helm station. This has led me to consider the possibility of designing a far more rugged electronic linkage - after all this is what I do for a living. The new system would have both multiple paths to the engines and self diagnosis telling you - in plenty of time - if the connection was becoming dodgy. No more multi-core cable either. Just a plain old CAT5 (or 2) - even high security radio if you want. Do you think Volvo or anyone else would be interested? It wouldn't be any more expensive to produce than the current, old fashioned, method either. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[Nick_H]

I agree that's a serious and dangerous problem, and needs to be sorted. If they stick in fwd, and you put the throttles in tick over reverse, do they carry on fwd, go into neutral, or go into reverse?

I've had a similar intermittent problem, where the stbd engine didn't engage first gear when moved into position. I could fix it temporarily by re-calibrating the controls (simple procedure outlined in the manual), but it turned out to be a duff potentiometer in the throttle. I didn't have a spare so just swapped the potentiometers over, and no problem since. The pots are std Bosch so should be cheap as chips, and it's a ten minute job to change them, so worth fitting two new pots if only to discount them as the cause of the problem

 

[aviator]

Which engines are affected?

 

[PCUK]

I was thinking of electronic control for my next boat, but now in light of the above I think good old cables are going to be used.

 

[gjgm]

depending on the engines, you may well not have a choice!

 

[aviator]

Hey my EDC controls are cable connected..............;=)

Interesting the comment that EVC has no probs.

 

[PCUK]

That's a good point gjgm! But aren't there cables somewhere in the system to mechanically open the throttle, controlled by the electronics?
I must admit to being ignorant about these, but thinking about it, my Navara has an electronic throttle pedal so I think I'll have a poke around under the bonnet!

 

[wakeup]

Not only EDC but EVC as well

Hey my EDC controls are cable connected..............;=)

Interesting the comment that EVC has no probs.

Err not so, I am just getting to the end of this problem with my EVC running a D4, the actuator was faulty and has just been replaced to discover the gear change cable the actuator pushes and pulls is sticking causing the early demise of the actuator. When the actuator gets confused because it can't detect neutral (because it is now worn out) it shuts the engine down immediately! Handy when you are in the middle of a maneuver in a marina.

 

[PCUK]

If there is a cable in the system, can't it just be extended to the helm and a manual control?