Yamaha VMax 225

I have been having some sporadic problems with my VMax.
The warning horn has been coming on and the temp gauge flashing. Once was after I had been on a spot for over an hour without running it and when I fired up the big motor and starting idling toward shore while we packed stuff up the horn came on about 2-3 minutes after starting the motor, after a few minutes of letting it sit turned off the horn didn’t come back on and the motor ran good. The second time was after a several mile run on Winnie when I came off plane near the access it was fine at first then the horn came on and temp light started flashing. There was a steady stream of water from the cooling system both times so it wasn’t gummed up.
Anyone experience similar problems or have any suggestions.
Thanks
John

Could be a faulty temp sensor if you do indeed feel that your water pump is working properly. How old is the motor and have you ever run mud or sand through the impeller on accident? If you have, I do it all the time fishing backwaters on the Miss, it’s possible that your impeller needs to be replaced. An impeller with a few broken blades will still move water but possibly not enough to keep everything as cool as it needs to be. I’d probably look to the sensor first though.

I am running the same motor. What year is yours? How is your Water Pressure? Have you flushed the cooling system? There is a flush with a garden hose adapter on the newer ones. A good flushing always helps!!

Thank you for the suggestions.
It is a 2002.
I have run it in some areas that might have gotten crud into it.
Do you normally flush it out after each use? When you flush it out using the garden hose attachement do you actually run the motor or just let the water pressure push water through it?
It is currently at the dealer for them to look at it, I haven’t had a whole lot of luck with the dealer finding problems or fixing them right when they do find them.
Any suggestions on good service departments for Yamaha and Ranger?

I have the same flushing set up on my Suzuki 4 stroke. You can flush it without having the motor on. I also remove the pee hole when flushing. I dont know if its the same on a Yamaha. If you flush with the engine on, be sure you have a hoise with the earmuffs attached to the lower unit water intake running. Flushing will not send water to the impeller to cool the engine.

LK

I flush it with the motor off. The new design on the 2003 motors makes it tough to get a pair of muffs on. It has a real bullet shape to it and you need some expensive muffs to get a good fit.