2000 Super Air Nautique will crank but won't stay running + solution!

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  • jschurer
    • May 2020
    • 6

    • British Columbia

    • 2000 SAN 210

    2000 Super Air Nautique will crank but won't stay running + solution!

    Hi all. Just bought my first boat and first Nautique. 2000 SAN w/ 5.8L GT-40

    I've been lurking on this site for a few months before I made my purchase about a month ago. There is so much awesome info here that I want to share my issue and solution for those who might encounter something similar.

    As the title states, I bought the boat and after making the 1100km/680mi trip home, I had my first issue.





    Let's back up the timeline to pre purchase.

    I had a reputable marine shop do a once over of the boat before I purchased, as a water test wasn't possible for the time of year and location of the boat etc.

    The shop completed the inspection and gave me details of the outcome before I made the 12 hour drive to collect the boat. One of the few items noted was that the Starboard Keypad was inoperative. They had it running and checked gauges, temp gauge, and did a compression test also. Everything looked good except for the Starboard Keypad.

    I made the trip to get the boat and found that the Starboard Keypad sometimes lit up but still didn't function correctly. I wasn't worried because the shop had it running and there wasn't a shower or heater option in the boat so I really wasn't missing much functionality without that keypad.

    Drove the boat home and started playing around. Got the boat in accessory mode and found the Starboard keypad was now not really working and all the lights were lit up green and wouldn't turn off unless I disconnected the batteries.

    I pulled the terminals off and left it overnight. Came back the next morning and reconnected the battery terminals. Now for some reason my Port side keypad wasn't working. I couldn't enter the code and it wouldn't light up. The boat had just been sitting in my garage...how could this be happening??

    My friend and I started combing threads for keypad issues and found plenty in short order. We initially gathered that others had experienced starting issues because of faulty keypads, sometimes it was Port side, sometimes Starboard Starboard side. We also found that others had a bad PME (big black breaker box under the driver footwell area).

    We pulled the Starboard keypad out and found that if we flexed the entire board while plugged in, we could get the Starboard pad to function correctly. We deduced that that keypad was indeed bad. We then concluded that because the Starboard side pad was bad it might be back feeding power or ground to the port keypad, causing it to malfunction..... maybe.....

    We had a brainwave, and unplugged the Starboard keypad - boom! The port keypad worked perfectly and we could enter the security code.

    We went to the lake and got the boat in the water. When we went to fire it up for the first time, the boat would crank, run, then die. It would run for about 1-3 seconds before stopping after pressing and holding the start button.

    We found that if we continued to hold the 'Start' button, the boat would start and continue to run for as long as you would hold the button down, then the gauges would die and engine would stop running once you let go. Was there a bad contact in the Port Keypad too???

    Loaded the boat up and went back home. We were stumped. The marine shop had it running less than 2 weeks before we attempted our first lake day. It didn't make sense.

    We continued to comb the interwebs for answers. We found more issues with people having bad ECO (Emergency Cut Off / Kill Switch) switches. Pulled the panel and decided to loop the wiring and get rid of the switch. Tested the ECO circuit and it had 12v when starting. No improvements. Also found that there were complaints of no running because of fuel pump and ecu relays being bad. Replaced those, no difference. We visually inspected the PME under the driver footwell area - seemed fine, didn't see any popped breakers, rubber covers were all empty.

    The boat would start and run but wouldn't stay running. We figured our issue was still electrical because the boat sounded fine when it did run.

    We went back to check the PME because it was the only thing left we hadn't really checked. We went over each breaker one by one and physically PUSHED down on each breaker. When we came to the 'ign run' breaker and pushed it down, it felt like it went in ever so slightly. Almost to the point where I questioned if it was even up at all. But it felt different than all the rest.

    After feeling a slight click into place of that breaker, I decided to try starting it again. This time, when I put the boat in accessory mode, and hit the start button the SECOND time, just before the third press for engine crank, all gauges lit up and I could hear the fuel pump prime. That had never happened for me before. Sure enough, third press and hold for engine start and the boat started up and ran after releasing the start button.

    Finally! After 3 evenings in the garage testing wiring and 2 trips to the boat launch, it finally ran correctly.

    My question now is, could the drive home made some vibration enough to slightly pop the culprit breaker? Or is there another possible reason why it wasn't fully seated?

    I have yet to run the boat on the lake and get a full test in, but at least I'm making progress!

    Anyways, thanks for reading my story and I hope this helps at least one person out.

    What I've also noted is that the Port Side keypad WILL work with the Starboard keypad disconnected. This was something we thought may be tied into the 'ign run' circuit and might have been the cause of our problem because it was indeed faulty. It seemed to bug out the Port Keypad but we could never replicate it again.

    At the end of the day, I did order a Starboard keypad from Nautique Parts (with a 10% discount!) but it needs replacement anyway, and also have 2 extra relays kicking around in the boat just incase now.

    My way of giving back.

    Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk
    Last edited by jschurer; 05-31-2020, 08:06 PM.
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