Engine Warning

[anjin-san]

My 2013 R29 with a 260hp Yanmar gave me some issues today. Working through 5-6 foot seas and taking some significant water over the bow I got the neutral start warning on the engine display. I wasn't far from the harbor so I kept trucking in spite of the beeps and warnings. Got into the slip and started trouble shooting. Turned the key from off to the run position, never going to start, and the engine fired right up and the glow plug light stayed illuminated along with the tone. I think some water got into the switch and is shorting it out. Anyone have any other ideas? The bilge was dry along with the engine compartment. Thanks for the help!

 

[Todd]

Sounds like your problem is with the ignition switch, not the neutral safety switch. While under way the ignition switch tried to activate the starter motor, which it was prevented from doing by the neutral safety switch, you were not in neutral. Back at the dock, in neutral, turning the ignition to on was all that was needed to activate the starter.

 

[anjin-san]

For those interested we spent all day yesterday troubleshooting this problem. It was a bad Engine Control Unit, which on the R29 is inside the black plastic box on the port side of the engine. The process of elimination required to come to this conclusion was fairly extensive, but only required a multi-meter and basic hand tools. The downside is that
Boat requires a new ECU, which has to be programmed by Yanmar in Georgia and then shipped to us- its programmed specifically for each application so if you have this problem you are going to be out of commission for several days at a minimum. Even worse if you are out in the wilds without phone access- the joys of computer controlled engines... Thank you Andrew Custis and Tom Motta from Mack Boring for the assistance!

 

[baz]

This kind of happening only goes to highlight the benefit of having a towing policy in place. You just never know when there's going to be a sun flare that bombards us with great bursts of electromagnetic energy and particles that can affect our ECUs. Maybe we should surround our ECUs with lead shielding or some form of Faraday Cage. :roll: