2020 GS24 will sometimes not start after running music and floating with engine off

[ProsthoDoc]

New 2020 GS24 usually starts up fine and works great. We'll drive around for a few hours and get to a cove to just float and listen to music for an hour or so. When we go to restart the engine, nothing. This has happened at least 4-5 times within our first 50 hours of boat use. The Nautique dealer has tried to duplicate the problem at their shop and also taking it out for a few hours on their lake. Every time it starts right up for them.

Every time when we follow the start sequence, there is enough battery to turn on and start the radio and rear cam, etc. However, sometimes when we hold the start button to fire the engine, we get nothing. Whenever it fails to start for us, I'm assuming it is because there is not enough battery to start the engine. We've tried everything from running only on battery 1 when driving and then switching to battery 2 while floating and then back to 1 or 1 and 2 to restart the engine. We have the battery recharger that we plug in every night to recharge the batteries overnight.

The dealer has tested the batteries and says they are fine. They've checked all the fuses and wires. It's incredibly frustrating because they can't recreate the problem and there are no error messages or warning screens. It has gotten to the point where we are afraid to turn the boat off because we fear that it won't start and we will have to get towed back to our dock (which has happened 3 times now).

One other random thing. 2 of the times where we were left floating with a boat that wouldn't start, we turned everything off for an hour and then all of a sudden, the engine finally started after going through the start sequence.

The dealer is baffled and has told us to just try and take a video the next time it won't start, because they claim they can't find anything wrong to fix.....

[kylant]

battery i bet. mine will do the same if i use one battery.
it is odd that switching to the other battery will not start the boat though.
try starting with both batteries next time

[greggmck]

My money is that the throttle is not in neutral and the neutral lock out is doing its job.

[ProsthoDoc]

Quote removed by Admin for not following the Guidelines for Quoting Previous Posts in a Thread.

That was the first thing we double checked and made sure it was in neutral and that the kill switch was in place.

[XBIGPUN66]

We switch to one battery at the tie up then switch to both for the startup

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[bturner]

I'm with Greg on this one but I think it's either the neutral safety switch that's intermittent or the safety lanyard causing the problem. I don't think this is a battery problem, if it were you'd never be able to start. This is a starting circuit problem.

[gonefishin5555]

I have a 2017 GS22 with the exact same problem. It started this Spring.and is intermittant and we havent gotten stuck out on the lake yet as it always starts but sometimes its takes 2-3 minutes of sweating it out. Of course dealer was backed up over a month for a service appt so we have been tearing the boat apart ourselves looking for a loose connection. We also changed out the batteries to eliminate that as an issue. We did get some free consultations from our dealer service manager and right now we have it narrowed down to the ignition/starer relay switches. He did call Nautique and said he has done trouble shooting on a similar issue before so your not alone on this. The switch is not kicking over or its seated loosely is the consensus right now.

Next time it happens I am not touching anything but the relay switches and see if it starts right up. You may want to try the same. My boat partner is using the boat this weekend so I'll report back. If you can let us know if you fix the problem what you did it would be appreciated. Will do the same.

[Tigerxj]

Sorry to revive a somewhat older thread.

Did either of you gonefishin5555 or ProsthoDoc get this issue figured out?

We have been out twice this year on the 2017 GS20. We don't have upgraded stereo, so we only have a single battery. Starts up no trouble at the doc every time. Given the single battery, I am kind of neurotic (and the other boat's music is so loud anyways), so I don't usually leave the boat on at the waterfall. I don't turn the battery switch off either. When trying to fire it up to leave, dash, blower, bilge, lights everything works perfectly, but no start. First time, I was able to flip the battery switch off an on and the circuit breaker off and on once, and it fired right up.

Last weekend, I had to mess around with that circuit breaker and Batt switch for about 10 minutes before it would get started. We carefully checked the kill switch lanyard, the throttle position, etc.

I may try leaving the thing hooked on the charger next time we are there and see if that makes any difference.
Where is the ignition relay located?

[gonefishin5555]

https://www.nautiqueparts.com/produc...base-assembly/

I think I posted the resolution in a different thread. We finally got it into the dealer and by then we narrowed it down to a bad throttle assembly and the dealer confirmed this and replaced the part under warranty.

[Tigerxj]

Quote removed by Admin for not following the Guidelines for Quoting Previous Posts in a Thread.

thanks, we have the local dealer coming out this week. I'll mention the throttle assembly to them.

[Toaster64]

Had the same problem, was the throttle assembly that houses the neutral safety switch!

[mikenbike211]

tell them to check all of the PDM power connections as well as all connectors attached to PDM’s. Also, the ground buss next to the PDM’s. ive also seen the connectors on the back of the keypad not fully seated. We have seen ALOT boats coming from the factory with several connectors not fully connected and clicked into place. this has caused TONS of random electrical issues that have been challenging for dealers to diagnose.

[Tigerxj]

Had the same problem, was the throttle assembly that houses the neutral safety switch!

+1 for the throttle assembly. I think the part was like $740 or thereabouts.

[Scooter G]

Did this thread fall off a cliff in December of '22? Hey I have a problem, but I'm not going to let you know how I fixed it, geee!
Appreciaste your follow up gonefishin5555, good job man.

Last night, middle of the lake, no start. Everything is live, just no response from the start button. Powered down, turned batteries off, reset, still the same. Just kept pushing the start button 6,7,8 times, and then we get a start, almost like I'm not talking to you, nope, ok I'll talk now. Did that 3 different times to us. Throttle back and forth in and out of nuetral, kill switch clip off and back on, no effect. Here's what I thought interesting of a couple things I noticed, when I reset the batteries the front ballast stayed at 60%, but the 2 side bags went from 50% to 0%. Maybe that's a normal thing when you turn off the batteries. Also the water temperature was at 0 degress until the engine started (air temp was ok), maybe nothing to do with anything.

Have done nothing to diagnose this yet. Have the batteries on the charger. Will check connections and batteries this weekend. I would think there would be a way to diagnose the throttle assembly, prior to throwing down $600 on a maybe part, I just can't find anything on the how to. I did read that someone R&R'd their fuses under the engine cover with results, go figure. Electrical gremlins, got to love it, but a little different than trying to figure out why your trailer light isn't working. Thanks in advance for your feedback.

[Scooter G]

I did find the following in my stash of archives, might come in handy (Thanks Larry Shea):

5.04 2012-2015 Electrical Presentation - Larry Shea (1).pdf