Boat may be in the shop for the whole summer

[The NY Dad]

My daughter and Son in law took the boat out by themselves last Saturday and they were back in 3 hours with no boat or trailer. They dropped it at the dealers on the way back. they had just gotten out of the no wake zone and hit the throttle the boat didn't take off like it should and my son in law said 3 or 4 warnings came up on the screen about high temp and low voltage, he didn't take a picture of what they were or write them down. He said they all had a level one or stage 1 something like that after them, but the engine got hot enough to start deforming the plastic cover over the top of the motor.

The guy that checked it in at the dealer said it sounded like the impeller was bad. He said 6-8 week for repairs because they were really backed up. He said they would get it diagnosed sooner than that (didn't say when). I told the kids if the say its just the impeller that it's no big deal I can change that out in about a half an hour maybe less.

I told them when the dealer calls to have them hold the impeller if that's what the problem is so someone can see it, if it has chunks out of it I'm going to let the dealer take care of it because I don't think I saw in the manual where there was a filter of any kind between the pump and the engine.and I don't want to change the impeller and find out there are chunks of rubber blocking the water passages in the motor. I'll leave it there and let the them take care of it. If the impeller is just worn then I'll have them pay the dealer for the diagnostics and clearing the codes and change the impeller myself. that way they can get back on the water.

[DVskier]

I’m sorry this happened. A buddy had a 2012 SN 200 overheat several years ago, it had 200 hours and I don’t think the impeller had been changed. We’re on a deep water lake with very clean water. Turned out to be the impeller and the engine needed to be replaced. About $15k because the Excalibur 343 had catalytic converters. Took about a month to get completed. Good luck.

[Smindustries]

...the engine got hot enough to start deforming the plastic cover over the top of the motor.

Not to be a negative nelly, but I suspect that's going to be more than the impeller. The cats ran without water long enough to get hot enough to cook themselves. If they generated enough heat to melt the engine cover, it stands to reason components nearer them didn't survive.

[The NY Dad]

Well, all we can do is keep our fingers crossed that it doesn't get real expensive. Being that the warnings were all stage or level one (not sure of the terminology) I would hope that means nothing serious has happened.

[The NY Dad]

My daughter did get a couple of the codes after all, one was ECT higher than expected stage 1, and another was EMWT1 Voltage Low she didn't get the others but remembers seeing the stage 1 at the end of a couple more codes. From what I have been able to find out about stage one codes on the internet there is a good chance nothing to serious has happened, it sounds like stage 2 is where you have to start being really concerned about serious damage to the engine.

[The NY Dad]

After talking it over with the kids we all decided 6-8 weeks of having the boat in the shop during boating season was just ridiculous so they went and got the boat today, I had them pick up 2 impeller kits. My son in law and I put a new impeller in. looked it all over and nothing was visible wrong. Tried to start the boat up, could hear the fuel pump turn on but starter wouldn't engage. A neighbor stopped over and gave us a hand He checked neutral position, checked safety switch could hear it activate when lanyard was put in, still nothing. He put a screwdriver across the starter terminals and it fired right up. Let it idle until it got up to operating temp everything is good. Shut it off and tried to start it again and it won't start, put the screwdriver across the terminals again and it started right up.

While looking things over I found the can bus connector and I found the other half of the connecter with one wire about 6 inches long coming off it labeled X2-F this half of the plug was just lying on top of the engine no idea what its for but it fits the Can bus connector.


We were able to bring up all the codes.

DTC 627: Fuel pump relay coil open
DTC116: ECT higher than expected stage 1 (this came up twice)
DTC1413: EMWT1 voltage low
DTC 1416: EMWT2 higher than expected stage 1
DTC 1415: EMWT1 higher than expected stage 1
Auxilary temp one is high-most sever level

I'm not sure if I have to clear the codes before it will start or what . I'm trying to find a schematic of the starting circuit so I can figure out what's going on there.

But at least I know its not serious and it didn't cost a small fortune to find that out. I'm sure the dealer would have found a way to get $1000 out of our pockets we got this far for $110, and with any luck it will e in the late tomorrow.

Son in Law just found the GCP/4G diagnostic Service Manual online Ill check that out and see if anything in there helps.

[hal2814]

Which safety switch? There’s that switch that ties to the safety lanyard and the neutral safety switch that prevents you from starting the boat in gear. If your starter isn’t engaging at all, I’d run a jumper wire across the neutral safety switch and see if it fires up. If you engine overheated, then your transmission probably did, too. It’s possible that switch was damaged. You also should have some sort of starter fuse and relay. You should be able to find a manual for your engine to see where those are to check them. It’s encouraging that the engine runs fine when shorting the starter. Those codes shouldn’t prevent the engine from running. You’ll want to clear them eventually but that’s not your issue here.

[The NY Dad]

The Lanyard switch is ok you can hear it making and breaking contact at the motor when you actuate it. I will check the neutral switch on the transmission, We checked all the fuses yesterday. I'll test relays today with a meter, Thanks.

I am really curious about that connector I found just laying on top of the engine, I know it's not part of the reason the boat won't start but would just like to know what it is. The one wire makes me think you plug it into the Can Bus plug and use the wire to ground it for some purpose, haven't tried grounding it and don't want to unless I know what it's for.

[The NY Dad]

Got it going, kinda weird, shifted forward and reverse a few times, put it in neutral and tried it again for the **** of it, and it started. shut it off and tried restarting half a dozen times and its ok now. Did the same thing yesterday with no results. Well off to the lake in a few minutes to try again. Thanks for the help everyone.

[The NY Dad]

Well today was an interesting day on the water. Boat started fine when we put it in the water. Rode around awhile, and stopped for a swim and lunch, it wouldn't start again, Had to jump across the starter terminals the rest of the day to start it. Engine ran fine no overheating. we were heading back to the ramp doing about 25mph and the engine just quit. it started right back up when we jumped across the starter. I ran it had for about 6 miles back to the ramp figuring if it was a loose connection it would die again. It was fine dropped my daughter off at the dock to go get the truck and was just idling round waiting for her and it died again, but started right back up jumping the starter again.

I am going to check out the neutral switch, then I guess I will start pulling wiring connections apart spraying the connectors with contact cleaner and plugging them back together. Any ideas would be appreciated.

[The NY Dad]

Anybody know where I can get a wiring diagram for a 2015 Ski Nautique 200 with an Ex-343 engine.

[functionoverfashion]

I just read through this for the first time. Are your battery connections nice and tight? Just throwing something out there that's easy to overlook...

[The NY Dad]

A neighbor that is quite knowledgeable on nautiques (he works on a lot of boats in the area) stopped by, he was going to clear the codes for us with his tool. He thought that the chewed up impeller may have partially plugged the cooling to the cats causing it to shut the engine off to keep the cats from overheating. I kind of have my doubts on this, the boat ran at normal operating temps 163-167 all day long. No over temp warnings of any kind when the engine died either time and it started right back up, if it was an overheating problem I would think it wouldn't start until the cats cooled down, but we were jumping across the solenoid to start the engine both times because it wouldn't start at the keypad, so maybe that bypasses any overheating safety there might be.

I figure it couldn't hurt to clean out the cooling passages and hoses to the cats to be sure. Would like to have a manual before I tear into it, I can't find a manual or a wiring diagram online anywhere.I'm sure its not difficult, but it's just nice to read over what's involved instead of jumping in blind.

Here's another weird thing we had to jump across the solenoid when we tried to start it after lunch and both times it died. While the neighbor was there he put it on the fake a lake and punched in the code and it started right up.

[MTRBTR]

That sounds exactly like what a bad neutral Saftey switch or starter solenoid would do to me. Been there and very frustrating but cheap easy fixes.

[The NY Dad]

Finally got to work on the boat some, flushed the entire cooling system with garden hose, good flow through system no blockage got a very small amount of rubber bits out when flushing it.

I was going to check the neutral safety switch but our boat does have the electric has no safety switch on the transmission, apparently it is built in the shift/ throttle assembly and I have no idea how to remove that to check it.

Ran the motor on the fake lake and it heated up again and threw a high temp warning, putting in a thermostat today to see if that fixes the problem. I have a question though. The gasket for the thermostat housing hose a small brass ringlet in it; there is no water passage on the housing or the manifold that matches up with this what is it for. the reason I ask is of course the dealer has the thermostat but had to order the gasket so I was just going to go to the parts store and get a piece of gasket material and make one. I just want to be sure there's not going to be a problem if it doesn't have that little ring in it. I'm guessing its either to prevent compressing the gasket to much when tightening the bolts or its a kind of safety feature if to much pressure builds up it blows out the gasket and leaks.