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

[Scooter G]

I thought about throwing this to a new thread, but I'll just take it from here with a recent intermittent no start problem.
Started poking around a little, and had read about someone having issues with the fuse box on top of the engine (starting relays, fuses & misc.). Badly seated fuses were causing a start problem.


Found an unwanted visitor, I think he died on a hunger strike. Pulled, cleaned and re-seated fuses & relays.

Checked starter connections, all looked good.


Checked battery connections & voltage. I didn't do a load test, but both batteries are fairly new and registered 12.99 volts.

Interesting, and maybe someone can answer this question. There was a disconnected fused 15A ground wire on the port side battery (shown in the picture), and it's twin brother (connected) on the other battery. I went ahead and hooked it to the ground, but have no idea what is for? As far as I know everything is working on the boat (minus the start problem).

Another question. On the engine front wiring harness, I have an unconnected open terminal with no plug cap. Maybe a test terminal I'm thinking?


Yet another question, several of the main harness terminals are labeled as in this picture. I'm pretty sure this is not a factory thing, unless it was someone's 1st day. Is this an indication that you are thinking what I am thinking?


OK, moving forward, brief visual inspection, checked that harness plugs were tight in all areas that I could see, access & touch. Off to the lake, boat started 1st shot on dump in (still on the trailer of coarse), and we're off. Well almost, parked the trailer and sat on the dock for 10 minutes while my Son floated trying to re-start. Fire in the hole, good to go, again. So at this point do you just leave it running the entire session?
No sorry, not my style. No start again, umm, saw that coming.
Had my Son keep his finger on the start button and I went to work. For some reason my mind keep going back to the main wiring harness on the front of the engine. I grabbed the whole wad and gave it a squeeze, boom, fired. Felt like a boom because my face was next to the starter, lol.




2 choices, and not much room to work with unless you pull the exhaust manifold Y pipe (sure it has a proper name), do we start stripping tape to find the culprit, or do what any logical thinking Redneck would do?

That's right Ricky Bobby, so if squeezing it works, in theory adding more cable ties applies the Anaconda squeeze and accomplishes the same thing.
We had green light ignition the rest of the day. No duck tape or bailing wire was used in this scenario.
Our Supra had a similar problem and it ended up being a bad factory splice on one wire, took us a whole season to figure it out.
I know I am probably buying time, but for now, saves us a Saturday pulling parts to get to the root.
Any guesses to what wire, and what is going on inside the bundle of madness?
I may have forgotten, but I haven't seen much listed as to this scenario playing out for an intermittent starting problem...

Other references for anyone having starting issues:
https://www.planetnautique.com/vb5/f...2015-g23/page2
https://www.planetnautique.com/vb5/f...wiring-harness

[Scooter G]

Thanks jpwhit. Diacom would mean Dealer for me, and this time of year, see you in July, or nope couldn't get it to replicate. Livorsi, see you in July, lol. Super good stuff to know for future reference, or for when something goes down on the last run of the season (never).

[jpwhit]

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.

You diagnosis issues with the throttle base assembly using Rhinda Diacom. But unfortunately, you have to do the diagnosis when the no-start situation happens. As far as I know, there is no recall or service bulletin for issues with the throttle base assembly. If that is your issue, you can send it to Livorsi for repair rather than replacing it.

[BasaltRMK]

Gotta love a good connection, fingers crossed that it's resolved asap. 'never looked at the fill screen' - really??

- bob

[Scooter G]

Good stuff as always BasaltRMK, thanks.
I have a couple connections, dealer & NP that I can put out some feelers (and our 10% PN Discount, thanks Jeff). Boat sat at the dealer in Washington for about 3 weeks in January of last year while they punched out everything on the last remaining breath of the warranty list, throttle never came up, but it's worth a shot. It's bizarre sometimes dealing with mechanical/electrical, you would think something would just start slowly creeping up, like a prarie dog in the Spring. "Well now that was strange, it's never done that before", instead of Houston we have a full on consistant problem. You mentioned the FCC, I believe all noises, lights, display, and activity are normal, start button just isn't playing well with others. I think I should be able to diagnose the throttle switch based on the electrical.pdf that I attached. I'll run a batteries and connection test before I pull out the meter and head that direction.
The Dealer missed the Ballast Sensors, I had 2 bad ones, now I know how to replace them, grrr. I called the previous owner out on it, "I never looked at the fill screen, I just filled until water was coming out of the ports", goofball, lol. Word to the wise, never buy a boat without a full water test, you think I would know better...

[BasaltRMK]

Scooter G - I don't have anything too helpful, just commiseration and a couple of thoughts. First off, sounds to me like the throttle base assembly, given what I've read here and discussed with my dealer when they proactively replaced mine under warranty. I wonder if there was a recall or service bulletin, given that mine was replaced without encountering any issues? Might be worth checking with your dealer just in case they could get you a new one for free or dealer cost.

Secondly, I'm assuming your FCC is priming (when you say everything else was live)? I had an FCC issue that prevented starting on my previous G21, but thinking about it the boat would crank just not fire, which is not your issue.

Re: ballast readings, have you already swapped to the upgraded ballast senders? Not related to the starting issue (to my knowledge), but mine would jump around like you describe when they started to fail.

Doubt any of this will be actually helpful, but good luck!

- bob

[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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[Toaster64]

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

[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.

[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]

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]

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.