Failure on the water

[RexB]

My 2009 211 Crossover let me down for the first time today.

After an incident free warm up, with the first boarder in the water, the engine failed and died on take off. After some trouble shooting, I saw that the bilge was filled with about six inches of HOT water. This makes me think that a cooling water outlet hose or coupling from the engine has failed. I pumped out the bilge, and could restart the engine, but only in limp mode. It would run for a few minutes as we limped home, then cut out. While it was running, the bilge would fill again with HOT water. The temp gauge stayed at about 160-175 when the motor would run, with no obvious rise. That suggests to me that the lake water intake was working fine, but that the hot water outlet has failed. Any thoughts? I'm especially curious why the engine would cut out and go into limp mode. Is there some sort of fail safe "engine protect" mode that the water in the bilge would trigger? Any guesses what the repair shop will find?

I've got an appointment set for Tuesday with Superior in Sacramento.

[AirTool]

Note where all of your temp senders and switches are. There may be up to three.

One sender goes to your dash gauge
One sender (generally two wire) transmits to your ECM
(maybe) one switch (high temp) goes to your ECM (i can never remember which systems have the extra switch or not)

It is possible (but perhaps unlikely) that the water level is such that the gauge sender reads okay but where the ECM sender/switch is located, the water is hot or there is no water (due to leak) and the metal is hot/overheated. The ECM sender/switch is is the one that signals limp mode on high temp.

You need to find your water leak first....but that might explain your limp mode.

[RexB]

Thanks for the response. I think you've helped me before.

If you know, once the ECM goes into limp mode, does it stay there? In other words, is some kind of "reset" required by the mechanic, or does it come out of limp mode once the offending condition no longer is present?

Also, anything suggesting a cooling system failure immediately gets my attention. Is there any red flag I should make sure the service department checks?

Thanks.

[RexB]

Failure on the water; the conclusion

Picked up the boat from Superior in Sac this morning. Diagnosis was that an exhaust hose had broken free from the muffler, emptying into the boat. They replaced the hose and clamp and did a test run at the shop. Their summary says "Diacom shows no codes." I went ahead and had them do the 100 hour service (at 78 hours) and detail the boat. It looks like they charged me for the service and detail, but only a little additional labor to repair the hose. Assuming this the fix, I'm going to be a pretty happy camper. Thanks, Bob!

[AirTool]

Great and please forgive me for missing your previous post.

I would reported that I don't believe limp mode (high water temp or low oil pressure) throws a malfunction code.

Limp mode should clear itself.

[RexB]

No worries. The shop offered the theory that the loose hose dumping CO into the engine compartment may have accounted for the limp mode due to lack of oxygen. Who knows? I guess I'll find out Friday morning at Berryessa if I've got the true fix.

[AirTool]

No worries. The shop offered the theory that the loose hose dumping CO into the engine compartment may have accounted for the limp mode due to lack of oxygen. Who knows? I guess I'll find out Friday morning at Berryessa if I've got the true fix.

I think they've been breathing too much CO.

[crobi2]

They will do that. Either the CO or CO2 chokes the engine or the water spraying out gets in the intake but it does happen.

[AirTool]

They will do that. Either the CO or CO2 chokes the engine or the water spraying out gets in the intake but it does happen.

Well...it would specifically be the lack of oxygen and could make the engine run rough.....but it won't trigger limp mode.

[crobi2]

Hmmm, I wonder if the big red light came on (truly limp mode) or if the engine was just "limping" and stalling.

My experience with an exhaust hose leak was on a carb motor with no computer. Very similar effect though.

[RexB]

No red light. Just suddenly turned into a pig. Even after pumping out the bilge, I couldn't get above 1000 RPM, and it would cut out when (I assume) the water level in the engine compartment again got too high. (Obviously, I could be wrong about the cause/effect there.) Once I got it started, we put all the weight in the nose to keep the bilge water draining to the front. That allowed me to get home at @1000 RPM.

[crobi2]

Amazing how fast exhaust gases can poison an atmosphere. The water was probably not the culprit unless it was splashing into the intake or drowning out the distributor or something.

Glad you got it fixed!