Piercing Garmin Alarm Never Heard Before

[Kaptajnen]

At the end of a one hour cruise in our 2018 R31-S, the Garmin navigation system gave an extremely loud piercing alarm that we have never heard before in the 4 years we have owned the boat.
This was after running on Autopilot and occurred after I put the throttle handle in the neutral position. The alarm stopped after I put the throttle back in the forward slow position and the alarm did not reoccur.
The alarm was connected to an Autopilot malfunction.
I also noticed a small red light on the handle (next to the usual small green light) that I have never seen before.

How do I correct this?

Thank you.

 

[Martin610]

You're sure it wasn't the high water alarm or CO2 alarm?

 

[Martin610]

Could be coolant alarm too. It's very sensitive. I would check the level.

 

[knotflying]

I seem to remember that you may get that alarm if your autopilot is engaged and you are in neutral. What happens is you start to drift off heading and the autopilot keeps turning the rudder to try to correct and it never does because you are not moving. It eventually gets pissed off and lets you know that there is an issue.

 

[Kaptajnen]

the coolant had just been changed, so I will check the level next time I am on the boat.

The autopilot could also be the culprit, since we were drifting with the gear in neutral. Still leaves the little red light on the throttle.

Thank you all for your responses.

 

[FlyMeAway]

the coolant had just been changed, so I will check the level next time I am on the boat.

The autopilot could also be the culprit, since we were drifting with the gear in neutral. Still leaves the little red light on the throttle.

Thank you all for your responses.

The two could be unrelated.

I agree that the loud Garmin alarm sounds like autopilot drift.

Any serious/noteworthy "red" error light on the Volvo throttle should also trigger a warning/error in the EVC display. Have you paged over to the "warnings" page and seen if there was one?

But, IME and based on what I know about J1939 and Garmin, I'm not aware of an error that would cause a VERY LOUD alarm from the plotter triggered by an engine error with a red light on the throttle. Perhaps someone else is aware of one.

 

[Kaptajnen]

I will check that next time I am on the boat.

Where is that EVC warning page? On the small Volvo display or on the Garmin display?

 

[gwishon]

The autopilot will issue an alarm (and a message on the Volvo engine display) if it loses heading information from the GPS. It usually happens (to me) if I forget to disengage the autopilot when I’m coming to a stop with the throttle in idle and the boat loses headway and begins to drift. However, I wouldn’t call this alarm very loud. It may have seemed loud to you since, if you were at idle, engine noise was reduced. A VERY LOUD alarm is the high water alarm. It is, indeed, very loud.

Gordon

 

[Kaptajnen]

Back on the boat today with my mechanic (Nikos Passas) and after checking Coolant level (OK) and the Autopilot (no problem), he narrowed down the piercing alarm to a faulty Rule Pump in the aft of the bilge.
I have ordered a replacement from Go2Marine for $152.- . Here are the specs:
Rule Automatic Bilge Pump, 1100 GPH/4164 LPH, Model 27A, 12V, 3.2A.

Not an inexpensive repair, including the cost for the mechanic to troubleshoot and remove the pump in a very cramped position!

 

[knotflying]

No ring there my surprise at this conclusion may be way off, but could it have been the high water alarm and not the pump? The high water alarm may have a malfunctioning sensor and that is usually near the pump. The alarm is usually at the helm and could definitely been mistakenly coming from the chart plotter.

 

[Kaptajnen]

It was the high water alarm. It was triggered when I stopped the boat by placing the throttle in neutral and the water in the bilge that had not been pumped out by the defective aft pump surged forward and hit the forward pump's trigger.
On our boat that alarm is next to the instruments.

 

[knotflying]

Oh, I misunderstood. The explanation now makes sense.

 

[Martin610]

When you first posted about a "piercing alarm" that was the first thing that came to my mind. That alarm is a life saver and it's sound you don't forget. I hit the test button on my boat once in a while to make sure it's working.

-martin610