2006 Challenger 180 Temp Warning Light

[Boincali]

Update...

Thanks again to everyone. Ok, so I was blessed with a minor repair of the ICS intake grate, which when it failed to retract fully, caused cavitation and loss of cooling water to exhaust. So, $135 and everything was fixed! I spent the last few days on the lake with my son, and then a friend and his son came up and I even got to try wakeboarding.

My new bimini top from Carver came and I installed it (that was not as easy as I thought due to 2 stainless steel screws snapping off during install and having to extract one and drill out another) and added four clips to accomodate the larger geometry of this top. The new bimini worked great even in strong winds one day. I am so glad I went with the larger 96" length and 46" height. I am 6' and can now stand in the boat and have another 12" of clearance above me. Here are some pics of that.

So the boat runs great and no overheating issues. The only issue I do seem to have is that it will not go past 30-35MPH. At that speed I am running around 6800 RPM. While for me that is plenty fast as I like to cruise, anchor, fish, swim... not the speed fiend but my understanding is these boats do 50MPH and I am quite a ways off that number. I felt like I was going faster and thought maybe my speedo was off but my friend who has a 2000 Challenger said it was no where close to 50MPH. From what I read it could be the wear ring (how to I access it to inspect its condition? must I remove the jet?) but beyond that what else could it be?

 

[Jcamaro]

Update...

Thanks again to everyone. Ok, so I was blessed with a minor repair of the ICS intake grate, which when it failed to retract fully, caused cavitation and loss of cooling water to exhaust. So, $135 and everything was fixed! I spent the last few days on the lake with my son, and then a friend and his son came up and I even got to try wakeboarding.

My new bimini top from Carver came and I installed it (that was not as easy as I thought due to 2 stainless steel screws snapping off during install and having to extract one and drill out another) and added four clips to accomodate the larger geometry of this top. The new bimini worked great even in strong winds one day. I am so glad I went with the larger 96" length and 46" height. I am 6' and can now stand in the boat and have another 12" of clearance above me. Here are some pics of that. View attachment 37034View attachment 37035

So the boat runs great and no overheating issues. The only issue I do seem to have is that it will not go past 30-35MPH. At that speed I am running around 6800 RPM. While for me that is plenty fast as I like to cruise, anchor, fish, swim... not the speed fiend but my understanding is these boats do 50MPH and I am quite a ways off that number. I felt like I was going faster and thought maybe my speedo was off but my friend who has a 2000 Challenger said it was no where close to 50MPH. From what I read it could be the wear ring (how to I access it to inspect its condition? must I remove the jet?) but beyond that what else could it be?

35mph at 6500 rpm is what my boat does consistently so I don't think you're off that far. However your boat should rev up to 7800+ rpm and hit mid 40's for MPH any day of the week. Keep in mind in good water on a great deay I've seen 50mph. There are alot of factors that can cause low RPM. Do you know when the supercharger was last serviced and how many hours are on the boat? It could be as simple as the throttle cable not opening the TB all the way due to the cable stretching. Search the forum and you will find some ideas of where to start. I'd would check the cable first as it's probably the easiest fix.

A worn wear ring will impact acceleration more that it does top speed, however, the easiest way to check it is to slide under the boat and look up through the grate you just fixed and inspect the impeller and wear ring from that position...it's easy to see everything under there on the ICS boats.

 

[xintersecty]

Check your wear ring and use a phone GPS speedo for speed. The speedo on the boat is very unreliable unless you bought the GPS one.

 

[jrsharpebc]

Interesting thread. I too have an 06 180CS and have had similar temp warning issues. The boat was new to use last year, with 105hrs on it when we bought it; cared for immaculately by the previous owners (who were our neighbours at the time), mixed sea/fresh usage and always flushed after EVERY usage...we witnessed them doing it each time they came back. I have since had the S/C rebuilt and the boat now has 140+ hrs and is fresh water only.

I first got the temp warning once last year, in a very similar condition (low rpm puttering for a while then up to cruise speed), which when I had it in the dealer for winterization they noted the code in the ECU as a temp sensor but there were no other codes. They figured it MIGHT be a faulty sensor but did not replace it at the time.

Then this year, it has happened more than a half-dozen times since we launched in May...each with a different set of circumstances (a few happened immediately after startup when leaving the dock, some happened after being at cruise for a few minutes). Then it started behaving itself again and I have not seen the issue since early July.

I hope to chalk it up to a faulty sensor as originally thought by the dealer, but I will try the things suggested here (backflushing, ICS cleaning, etc). Otherwise I will have to take it back in for another inspection.

Thank all for the great wealth of info!
John

 

[Boincali]

Wanted to give an update and thanks to all who reached out and offered such great advice. So the problem was with the inlet grate cleaning system which would not retract the grate fully. $125 at the local marina and they got the grate to (almost) close all the way up and no more temp warning light. I have since removed the grate (temporarily) and since have run the boat 5 times with no temp light issues. My new bimini top is excellent and I have plenty of head room while standing. I was able to buy a candoo pro and learned my boat has 71 hours and 22 minutes on the engine. No fault codes. Most of the 70 hours were run at less than 3000 RPM. I repaired my trailer lights. The first owner had an extended warranty so while I have no service records I hope that he had the ceramic washers/valves done. But I have no way of knowing without checking those items. What I have left to do:

1. need to check to see what valves I have (72 vs 75)
2. need to check whether I have ceramic washers in SC
3. need to order a new radio and 2 extra speakers and wired remote
4. I ordered 2 new trailer tires from Costco
5. need to order hydroturf

Thanks again to all! Will keep you informed as to updates as they occur...

 

[Coastiejoe]

Wanted to give an update and thanks to all who reached out and offered such great advice. So the problem was with the inlet grate cleaning system which would not retract the grate fully. $125 at the local marina and they got the grate to (almost) close all the way up and no more temp warning light. I have since removed the grate (temporarily) and since have run the boat 5 times with no temp light issues. My new bimini top is excellent and I have plenty of head room while standing. I was able to buy a candoo pro and learned my boat has 71 hours and 22 minutes on the engine. No fault codes. Most of the 70 hours were run at less than 3000 RPM. I repaired my trailer lights. The first owner had an extended warranty so while I have no service records I hope that he had the ceramic washers/valves done. But I have no way of knowing without checking those items. What I have left to do:

1. need to check to see what valves I have (72 vs 75)
2. need to check whether I have ceramic washers in SC
3. need to order a new radio and 2 extra speakers and wired remote
4. I ordered 2 new trailer tires from Costco
5. need to order hydroturf

Thanks again to all! Will keep you informed as to updates as they occur...

No matter what washers you have the SC needs rebuilt. Regardless of hours, your SC is 10 yrs old. The bearing cages get brittle and fail and then all the parts fall into the engine.

You have a 2005 engine as the engines are a year behind in boats. This means you have the Sodium Filled valves.

If you had a 155 engine in the boat, I'd not worry about them. But being a SC engine they are at a higher risk. Lower than a ski, but still a concern.