Engine stalls when I hit a large wake/wave

[fattymrm999]

I have an 06 SANTE 210 which runs perfect in every way except when I hit a large wave the engine stalls. This happened about 5 times the other day. The engine does not shut off completely. It still is running however and all the guages appear normal, but it has no throttle control. The only way to regain trottle control is to shut off the engine and restart it. It seems like the throttle linkage comes loose, but I believe these things are drive by wire so there is no physical linkage to come loose. Has this happened to anybody? Any recommendations?

Thanks.

[OKWAKEBDR]

RE: Engine stalls when I hit a large wake/wave

I've had this happen before on my '05, but only when I hit VERY large waves REALLY hard...maybe once or twice each summer.

I'm not sure what causes it. The boat will usually return to normal in a couple of seconds. Sometimes I'll have to restart the boat for the speedometer to reset though.

[surroundsound64]

RE: Engine stalls when I hit a large wake/wave

Sounds like a bad electrical connection. My guess (and I don't know a whole lot about the drive by wire stuff in the CCs) would be that there is a safety device built in that senses any sort of control loss and when you hit a big wave it bounces the boat enough to either connect or disconnect an electrical contact.

I'd probably start checking wires near the throttle control. Or better yet, it being an 06 and guessing it is still under warranty, take it to the dealer.

[knowscc]

Check the connections at the safety lanyard. Also, check the toggle switch connections at the on/off/bilge switch on the throttle panel.

[triplered]

Good suggestions listed above about checking eletrical connections.
If the problem is on the boat side it will be probably be isolated to loose or shorted wiring in the ignition circuit, kill switch, or grahill box. It's possible that you've got a loose connection at the throttle Control Position Sensor or Throttle Actuator Control. A sensor could also be bad.

[fattymrm999]

Thanks for the suggestions. I checked the safety lanyard and the bilge switch, they are not the problem. I'll check the connections at the control position sensor and throttle actuator control if somebody can direct me to where they are located? I appreciate all the help.

The boat is under warranty so I scheduled a service appointment for 4/11, but I'd like to have some idea what the issue is so they'll know what to fix.

[jkallen21]

I know this thread is 6 years old, but I have an 06 SANTE 220 that did the same thing this weekend. The engine did appear to still be running, but increasing throttle did nothing. Shutting off/on did the trick and it was all normal again. I would love to know if your trip to the dealer actually yielded anything useful on this. Not a big problem for me, just a curiosity thing.

[jrcarte78]

I recently had a somewhat similar situation on an 02 210. Hit a big wave hard but, in my case, everything went dead. To make a long story short, it ended up being the bilge switch got killed internally(switch was physically still in the on position). I flipped the switch off, then back on and was good to go after that.... Maybe these switches go bad after a few years....

[AirTool]

I recently had a somewhat similar situation on an 02 210. Hit a big wave hard but, in my case, everything went dead. To make a long story short, it ended up being the bilge switch got killed internally(switch was physically still in the on position). I flipped the switch off, then back on and was good to go after that.... Maybe these switches go bad after a few years....

Yes OP needs to check the toggle by wiggling the wires. My toggle had a loose tang and was intermittent.

[mbaumet]

I just had the same issue with my 2006 210. It turned out a wire to the switch had a connection that was loosening. I didn't diagnose it until the wire finally broke loose from where it was soldered to the switch. The original switch is garbage, had cheap tabs that the wires were soldered to. Nautiqueparts.com sells one that has screwed terminal post on the back. I replaced mine with this one. Seems much more robust.

[layzdude]

We had the same issue last year check the potentiometer, ours broke off the base where the linkage connects.

[Woody_tobius_jr]

We had the same issue last year check the potentiometer, ours broke off the base where the linkage connects.

Would you be able to post a picture of the potentiometer? I've read quite a bit about this, but have no idea where it is located and what it's function is.

[AirTool]

Would you be able to post a picture of the potentiometer? I've read quite a bit about this, but have no idea where it is located and what it's function is.

Open up your engine cover....then have someone work the throttle lever back and forth....and you'll see it moving.

here is a pic http://www.nautiqueparts.com/potentiometerassy-1.aspx (check the year model before ordering)

[jkallen21]

I had this happen twice yesterday and was able to let it sit in this condition for a few mins to take mental notes.
The engine IS running. The gauges are all one. I "think" the radio off for a second - but came back on - not 100% positive on that one though.
The boat will engage reverse and forward but at a VERY VERY slow pace no matter how much throttle you give. I was not able to reach 1000 RPM from what I recall.
The wakes I hit in each case were not that large. I hit much larger ones that day with no issue.
If it were the lanyard or kill switch, the engine would not still be running. I know almost nothing about the Potentiometer and what role it plays. Any other ideas are welcome too. Hitting stop and start again restores to normal.

[jkallen21]

I thought I'd post the fix for this on my 2006 SANTE. There is a positive (red) cable that connects to the back side of the breaker box panel at the driver feet that worked it's way loose. This became so bad in the end that the tiniest of wakes would kill the engine. When I finally found this, the nut was gone and I had to get a replacement. I had to pull the board off to get at it. Remember that you're dealing with a live wire so disconnect battery first. It's amazing that the early posters to this thread were spot-on about it being an electrical issue. This forum is awesome.