Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Is the Lowrance 3500 the original equipment for 2000 models? That's whats in my 182 Shabah.

Is is not reading right, when you turn it on, it flashes .05 about five times then gives a reading, but it isn't long before the reading is all over the place. Normally a three digit number....reseting it don't do anything? Is the transducer in the bottom of the boat loose? It don't seem to be?

Anyone have any thoughts?

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

A loose or malfunctioning transducer is usually the problem. Possibly the epoxy its mounted in has gotten brittle & it wont read correctly. You may have to remove & reset the transducer or you may need to simply replace the transducer. Although discontinued, they are still available on eBay etc.

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

I have a Lowrance 3500 in my 1996 Z210 as well and it malfunctions about half the time. When it works it gives the same readings as my hummingbird but about half the time it will begin flashing the last reading it had and occassionaly it will give three digit readings. Shutting it off usually doesn't help. After a while it comes back on with the correct readings. There seems to be no consistancy as to when it works and when it doesn't. The transducer seems to be solidly glued down. Anything I could/should be checking before I use more force to pull up the transducer and reset it in epoxy.

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Try checking the wiring connections to the display unit. There may be a bit of corrosion. Other than that, there just isnt much else to check .

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Ya, mine is just like that.
I did find out that you can not use two finders at the same time, they both send a sonor "ping" and they can't tell out from the other, so they go into that three digit mode you were talking about. so only one on at a time.

The thing about my Lowrance unit is that it seems to work just fine in deeper water and when I'm on plane, but who needs it then??? I need to know how shallow it is!! I will not work, going slow in shallow water?? What's with that?

I would think the transducer is loose or bad, but why would it work on plane in deeper water then??

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Try turning on and then off and back on, seems to work for mine.

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Thanks Purple Shabah for the info on running 2 sonor devices at once. Makes a perfect sense once you stop to think about it. If my memory serves me correctly, I did have the problem with only the Lowrance on by itself but I take note of when it happens next time I get out.

Jake

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Ya. It's called crosstalk.
Let me know how you make out.

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Mine did this a few times and I found out why... There was water in the bilge, and when I was underway, the water was filling in the discrepancies in the epoxy, which actually allowed it to shoot through and get accurate readings back. As soon as I came off plane and the water moved away, I lost the readings... You could probably test this by covering your transducer in water while you're out next time, and see if you get readings or not... If it does, and it disappears once the water's gone, I'd say you should consider re-epoxying the transducer.

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Ah, great idea! I'll try that.

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Thanks for that tip ShabahZ250, I'll try that as well.

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Was out yesterday and today, and here is an update on my depth finder readings. I was running only the OEM depth finder this time, so no "crosstalk", no water in bilge and for most of the time it showed the correct depth. Intermittently though, it would start blink the last reading it had and after awhile (several minutes in most cases) it came back again with the correct readings. This happens when idling or on plane, there doesn't appear to be a pattern to when it happens. What I have not checked is connections at the digital display, so that is my next task. I am assuming I can get at them from behind the headrest in the bow section. This time I never got the 3 digit readings so I assume those must have come from the "crosstalk".

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

I don't know if your depth finder is like mine or not. I don't know what model mine is. But mine has a ring that is epoxyed to the hull inside the engine compartment and then the transducer locks in place onto that ring. And the air space between the two needs to be filled with mineral oil. I know mine was all over the place or didn't work at all until I did that. But yours may be totally different. Hope this helps.

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Don't know if this is common or not but mine was driving me crazy until i finally figured out my problem. Tried water in the bilge, re-epoxying the transducer and cleaning the contacts at the head end. Turned out that it was a bad connection where the lead actually goes into the transducer. Only found this after taking it off for the second time to re-epoxy the transducer back down. The wire right at the 'puck' must have been at ome point crimped or kinked (during engine installlation or maintenence perhaps) and it resulted in a connection that worked most of the time but would interrmittently start blinking the last reading or some large 3 digit depth. turning it off and on sometimes would seemingly 'cure' the problem but usually not for long. after many attempts at fixes i finally ordered a 'new' transducer off the internet and re-epoxied it in place and since then everything has been fine. The transducer only cost me about 20 bucks and before I removed the old transducer for the last time I hooked up the new transducer and tested it by hanging it over the side and everything was good. Only problem I experienced from there was trying to get a good air bubble free seal on mounting the transducer. i found with the 3M marine sealant it would work at first but after a day or so it would stop working. Ended up using epoxy and everything was fine. just have to make sure you get good contact with the hull and you don't get air bubbles in the epoxy both when you're mixing and when it cures.

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Well, another weekend on the boat another adventure with the depth finder!! adding water to the bilge didn't seem to help, of course the automatic bilge pump took care of that:mad

: anyway the depth finder seems to work great on plane or sitting still as long as your in water deeper than 6 feet, once you get in water shallower than that it go's to the lowest depth (like 6.8 feet) or so and then just blinks away at that last reading under 7 feet.

Once you go back into water over 8 feet, it work just fine again!!! really really frustrating!!!!

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Well I finally exhausted my efforts at getting my depth finder to give me consistent readings and gave it a good yank and sure enough it came off. I could tell that it had not been properly seated and must have had an air space underneath it. I cleaned things up ( a PITA working under the 5.7) but got it cleaned and seated it in toilet bowl wax ring as per stereoman405 post #15 in the Aftermarket Depth Gauge thread. I am going out next weekend and will see whether the wax mounting trick works for me. I was going to try this before epoxy just to ensure the transducer itself is functioning ok and then make the decision about epoxy.

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Back from our weekend and still have the same old problem. The depth finder will start flashing the last read depth on occasion and sometimes stays this way for a long time and at other times it comes back after several minutes or less. There is no consitancy. Setting the transduce in wax seems to have worked but there must be a malfunction in the transducer itself or in its wire. I guess my next try will be to try a different transducer.

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Who would have guessed it, first time out this year and the depth finder functioned perfectly. I did nothing to correct the problem since my last post. The only difference was the water I was in. Last season the water we were in was fairly green with algae (small lake), yesterday we were in a fairly fast flowing river (the Red River), it is fairly brown but no algae. Could this be the difference?

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Just a follow-up to these post, I have run all season (put on about 30 hours) and the depth finder has functioned flawlessly. So if anyone is wondering whether the toilet bowl wax works as a seating agent for the transducer, I can assure you it does.

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

I know this is an old thread, but does anyone have a picture of where their Transducer mounts? I am a new owner of a 2001 Z250 and the only thing I can find I assume is for my speedometer (which doesn't work) that has a black plastic wheel.

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

That paddle wheel is for your tripodmeter/air/water temp. The in hull transducer, if that is what you have, is located under the engine, belt area, by the bilge pump towards the bow.

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Here you go Heckman15, this is a pic of the engine bay from my old Z250. The black "hockey puck" you see in the middle of the floor slightly behind the engine mounts is the depth transducer.

http://www.mariahownersclub.com/foru...r-dscn2065.jpg

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Funny enough, but I just replaced my Lowrance 3500 with a Faria In-hull unit and it works great! I have a Humminbird Chartplotter running next to it and I have no cross-talk issues as they work on different frequencies.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...08982acb23.jpghttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...08982acb23.jpg


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Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

pllevine

I'm needing to do the exact same, i have some questions if you dont mind?
1. Did you get the gold bezel?
2. Do you have a part #?
3. Any install tips?

Thank you sir.

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Heckman,
Regarding your speedo, have you looked into your outdrive to see if the hole os plugged up with debris?

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Mine just went on the fritz this last weekend. It is giving me multiple 3 digit codes after flashing several times. Thanks everyone for the input. I will start with the wires and go from there. I am also having issues with my tach jumping around, but I have not tired the selector trick on the back yet. Could it be that they both have a grounding issue?

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...66b97f76ab.jpg



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Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Unfortunately, Faria did not have an option for a gold-ringed gauge. I have heard of people taking the old Lowrance gauge, cutting off the ring, and gluing it over the silver Kronos gauge ring. It really wasn't that important to me yet. As long as my depth gauge was working flawlessly, I could deal with a silver bezel.
Honestly, working below the engine's oil pan in the bilge with a Dremel tool was the hardest. I had to cut away a little more of the stock hole in the inner hull in order to mount the new transducer mount to the inside of the outer hull. Air mar makes the new transducers for Faria and you can adjust the deadrise on the transducer easily. I used a bead of 4200 around the flange of the new transducer mount where it meets the outer hull. It has to be a waterproof seal as the airspace between the outer hull and the new transducer is filled with propyl glycol (antifreeze). Then I used Bondo to seal the inner hull around the mount tube in order to keep the bilge water from running between the inner and outer hull, even though the stock Lowrance puck was not sealed and water flowed in between.
After I finished with the In-Hull Airmar unit, I had to drill the transom and mount the unit for the Humminbird chartplotter.
My speedometer hasn't work since I bought the boat, so I took a small drill bit and, using just my fingers, twisted the bit into the outdrive's speedo pitot hole and cleared out the years of corrosion and scale buildup. It worked like a charm. Now my speedometer is operational and matches the GPS speed on the chartplotter. All that I have left is the trim sender replacement (I am going through the transom again- no way am I going to screw with the bellows! If it's not leaking oil, why risk it?)......



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Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Thank you sir!