Had a nightmare of an offshore trip Saturday. This boat is new to me, 2001 twin DF115's with just under 400 hours.
About 35 miles offshore, oil light starts blinking on the port motor. I don't know what it means but I don't think it's good so I kill the motor, check the oil level, which was good, and then read the manual. I find out it's the "change oil soon" light.
So, I go to restart the motor. Nope, it won't turn over, won't click, nothing. It does go through the bootup and shows the engine hours. Volt meter shows above 12 VDC.
At the time I thought I needed to clear it to restart. I now know that's not true. Since I needed to pull the kill switch, killing the starboard running motor, and were 35 miles from the beach, we motor over to a platform to tie up in case there are problems. It took about an hour. We tie off, and do the reset thing. Fire both motors up and we're good to go. No warning lights.
So now we make our long run, 65 miles out. I did this because I didn't think there was anything wrong.
While fishing out there, basically idling for about an hour, same motor that was reset shows a temp light. I put it in neutral and rev it up to try and increase the water flow and cool it down. It's rev limited to 3000 rpm.
It's got strong pee stream. I kill it and tilt it up to check the water intakes. They're clear.
Now the motor will not start again. Reading the factory Suzuki manual, it says that it will reset when the sensors cool down enough. I am incorrectly thinking that the motor is locked out of start mode. I now know this isn't true.
So we start the long run in on one motor, thinking we'll fire it up when it cools down and see if it will run without overheating.
It wouldn't ever start. At one point, we removed the temp sensors and cooled them down with an ice-water soaked rag. I checked the 60 and 30 amp fuses. They were fine. We looked at the thermostat and it was open when it was in the block and slowly closed after I removed it, so it wasn't stuck.
We tried starting the other motor about every hour on the way in. Nothing. While going to the dock, the good motor oil light starts flashing. This was expected as they are close in hours. I ignored it and kept going . 8 hours later, we get to the dock, kill the good motor, do the kill switch reset thing, and the other motor fires up like it's brand new. WTF?
It also started the next day in the driveway when I flushed it. It seems fine now.
My plan is to replace the water pumps on both motors, do the oil change, but that leaves an unsolved starting problem.
It looks to me, after reading the manual, that I have an intermittent problem with either the ignition switch, starter motor relay or neutral safety switch. I did move the shift lever back and forth though while trying to start it and that did no good.
It seems to be heat related so I'm thinking starter relay? Anyone have any experience or suggestions here? Do the starter wires pass through the ECM or will it turn over with a bad ECM?
Thanks,
Bruce
About 35 miles offshore, oil light starts blinking on the port motor. I don't know what it means but I don't think it's good so I kill the motor, check the oil level, which was good, and then read the manual. I find out it's the "change oil soon" light.
So, I go to restart the motor. Nope, it won't turn over, won't click, nothing. It does go through the bootup and shows the engine hours. Volt meter shows above 12 VDC.
At the time I thought I needed to clear it to restart. I now know that's not true. Since I needed to pull the kill switch, killing the starboard running motor, and were 35 miles from the beach, we motor over to a platform to tie up in case there are problems. It took about an hour. We tie off, and do the reset thing. Fire both motors up and we're good to go. No warning lights.
So now we make our long run, 65 miles out. I did this because I didn't think there was anything wrong.
While fishing out there, basically idling for about an hour, same motor that was reset shows a temp light. I put it in neutral and rev it up to try and increase the water flow and cool it down. It's rev limited to 3000 rpm.
It's got strong pee stream. I kill it and tilt it up to check the water intakes. They're clear.
Now the motor will not start again. Reading the factory Suzuki manual, it says that it will reset when the sensors cool down enough. I am incorrectly thinking that the motor is locked out of start mode. I now know this isn't true.
So we start the long run in on one motor, thinking we'll fire it up when it cools down and see if it will run without overheating.
It wouldn't ever start. At one point, we removed the temp sensors and cooled them down with an ice-water soaked rag. I checked the 60 and 30 amp fuses. They were fine. We looked at the thermostat and it was open when it was in the block and slowly closed after I removed it, so it wasn't stuck.
We tried starting the other motor about every hour on the way in. Nothing. While going to the dock, the good motor oil light starts flashing. This was expected as they are close in hours. I ignored it and kept going . 8 hours later, we get to the dock, kill the good motor, do the kill switch reset thing, and the other motor fires up like it's brand new. WTF?
It also started the next day in the driveway when I flushed it. It seems fine now.
My plan is to replace the water pumps on both motors, do the oil change, but that leaves an unsolved starting problem.
It looks to me, after reading the manual, that I have an intermittent problem with either the ignition switch, starter motor relay or neutral safety switch. I did move the shift lever back and forth though while trying to start it and that did no good.
It seems to be heat related so I'm thinking starter relay? Anyone have any experience or suggestions here? Do the starter wires pass through the ECM or will it turn over with a bad ECM?
Thanks,
Bruce
