2000 292 cobalt

[soonerborn1]

My uncle just pulled his boat out of storage and tried to take to his boat dock. he has two 5.7 volvo pentras and the left one died within 5 minutes of being on water. the boat was winterized by a dealership. he had a mechanic come out and look at it and was determined it was the fuel sending unit in the tank. he has one for the left and one for the right. can you replace the unit without pulling the tank? The mechanic said he has two sending units for the left engine but one is for a generator (if insalled) his boat does not have a generator so he was going to hook the sending unit up that goes to a generator to run the engine. I guess they are welded in the tank so it is not easily replacable according to the mechanic. Has anyone heard of this before? what happens if the right side unit goes bad, there is not another unit to run off of, he said it could cost up to $15,000 if that happens. You would think cobalt has an easy fix for this but thats not looking like the case. Anyway, if anyone has any insight, please chime in. Thanks,

Justin

 

[Silverbullet555]

Re: 2000 292 cobalt

A sending unit generally tells you the temp of something or the level of something. A sending unit in the gas tank would send an electrical signal to the gauge to tell you how much gas you have in there.

Maybe I am mistaken.

Perhaps it is a lift pump to get the fuel back to the primary high pressure pump that is mounted on the engine.

$15K? Seems like a lot. Most sending units are bolted into the tank. Maybe, though I doubt it, the floor has to be cut out.

I think we need more info.

 

[Expidia]

Re: 2000 292 cobalt

I would start by just calling Cobalt directly and ask to speak with customer service about the sending unit:
http://www.cobaltboats.com/v11/our_company/index.php

Or a dealer or marina that sells Cobalt near you for a second opinion on replacing the sending unit.

Cobalt is a top of the line boat. You might ask him what is it going to take to have him leave it to you "his greatest Nephew" in his Will

 

[infideltarget]

Re: 2000 292 cobalt

Perhaps it is a lift pump to get the fuel back to the primary high pressure pump that is mounted on the engine.

I was told by DonS that NO marine engines made by Volvo, Merc, or OMC used a helper pump or booster pump and that they are all stand alone systems, so I don't think this would be his problem. A sending unit is just what SB555 said...it SENDS a signal to tell information. If the sending unit for a fuel tank is bad, you will simply not know how much fuel is in that tank. Is that what happened? He has twin tanks and one of them ran out of fuel causing the engine that runs from that tank to die? Or is it that you simply have the part name mistaken, and maybe its the fuel PICK UP that is faulty?

 

[LippCJ7]

Re: 2000 292 cobalt

I agree with the others, either you misunderstood the mechanic or he is full of it, Calling Cobalt may help but I would call the mechanic first and ask him again what the issue is and if he says the gas tank sending unit again I would get another opinion.

 

[soonerborn1]

Re: 2000 292 cobalt

Yea, it may be a fuel pickup, they filled the filter up with gas and stated it and it sucked the fuel from the filter but then died after the fuel was gone. they also hooked the hose that goes to the fuel tank to a 1 gallon jug and it ran until the gas was gone. they ran the right engine for about 15 minutes and it never died, so ther is gas in the tank. both engines share the same tank. It has to be something
within the tank. Could it be the fuel pickup? Thanks for all the replys. I will tell him to give cobalt a call

 

[LippCJ7]

Re: 2000 292 cobalt

Sure it could be the pickup. Could be a piece of debris in the tank, I "could be" a bunch of things but not the sending unit. Hard to nail anything down over the web all we can do is try to give you decent advice and guidance, the sending unit thing doesn't hold water though, and thats the tough part, is the mechanic feeding you a line of BS or did you misunderstand him? Hard to say since you were the only one there and I don't like telling people they are wrong unless I heard it myself in which case I would have asked the mechanic to tell me once again how the sending unit was the issue and then hung up on him mid sentence and hopefully he would feel lucky that he wasn't standing in front of me when he said it. Not all mechanics are slime bags but to give you an idea my mechanics have been my mechanics for 15 years, I simply don't trust anyone else, kind of sad that there have been so many to give the trade a black eye.