Engine cutting out and dying with Lost Engine Com message

[Mike Boyd]

Hello. Hoping someone on here with a little more experience than myself can help me. A friend just gave me a 2006 Sea Ray Select 200 with the 5.0L Mercruiser MPI and Bravo 3 package. I got the boat knowing that it was having mechanical issues.

The boat starts no problem. After the engine has run for a couple of minutes at idle the tach will drop down to 0 and the engine will cut out and die. The alarm will sound and the engine lost engine com message will announce on the tach. The engine will restart again with no problems until it again cuts out and dies with the same associated alarm and message.

If I bump the RPMs up to around 2000 in an attempt to keep the engine running, the tach will still abruptly bounce to 0, the engine cuts out for about a second and will return to life. While the tach is at 0 the alarm sounds. It will continue to cut out like this about every 5 seconds. The engine com message will show every time it does this.

At one point I ran the engine for around 5 mins letting it cut out but it continued to run due to the increased engine RPMs. It then posted a sensor fault message and right after a TPS fault message. Both of those messages continued to repeat until I shut the engine off.

I definitely feel this cutting out is electronically caused but I don’t possess the diagnostic testing equipment to confirm this. Would the throttle position sensor cause symptoms like this or would whatever is causing of the sudden and abrupt loss of rpm cause the the TPS to register a fault?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. I’m hoping it’s something… well… not as expensive as a ECU. Fingers crossed.

 

[Scott215]

Sorry about that sounds like a throttle position sensor possibly

 

[Golfman25]

Sounds something computer controlled to me. You might want to invest in a Rinda diagnostic tool and see if there are any codes being thrown.
https://www.rinda.com/

 

[Scott215]

I apologize throttle position sensor not the IAC motor My bad that would definitely make the condition that you are causing if it's not getting the right voltage to the computer

 

[Mike Boyd]

I apologize throttle position sensor not the IAC motor My bad that would definitely make the condition that you are causing if it's not getting the right voltage to the computer

Would the IAC motor throw its own code or message if it was faulty?

 

[Scott215]

I think it would.my boat is an 06 but I don't have a smart craft gauge

 

[Scott215]

Have you put the boat in the water yet to test it. An authorized dealer would probably only charge a half hour to put the rinda scan tool on it

 

[Mike Boyd]

Thanks for all of insight. I replaced the TPS this afternoon and it seemed to run better. (It didn’t cut out nearly as much). I ran the boat for about 15 minutes and it only seemed to cut out a handful of times. I started to suspect water in the fuel or bad fuel possibly.

The boat cut out one final time and the engine died. At that point I put in neutral and tried to restart it. Nothing. No initial alarm when turning the key on, no digital display on the tach, no fuel pump noise, nothing. I moved the key to start and the engine cranked but no ignition, no tach needle movement… Nothing. Did I fry the ECM? Pop a breaker? One thing is for certain. I made it worse.

 

[Scott215]

Check all fuses and ground wires

 

[Scott215]

Should be a breaker in engine bay not sure where on that boat

 

[Mike Boyd]

Not a breaker, fuse, not a worst case scenario ECM failure… Just an idiot newbie owner. The lanyard kill switch (or in this case it’s a stop/run switch next to the throttle quadrant). I must have inadvertently flipped it to off. I’m still learning. The take away from this experience… go back to the beginning and start with the simplest thing. All I could see as dollar signs adding up. A switch…. Ugh.

 

[Scott215]

They are called boat bucks, every boat buck is a grand. Get used to it. Expensive hobby

 

[scrumper]

Not a breaker, fuse, not a worst case scenario ECM failure… Just an idiot newbie owner. The lanyard kill switch (or in this case it’s a stop/run switch next to the throttle quadrant). I must have inadvertently flipped it to off. I’m still learning. The take away from this experience… go back to the beginning and start with the simplest thing. All I could see as dollar signs adding up. A switch…. Ugh.

You were inadvertently knocking the switch to off every time it cut out? Or it was off and the motor ran for a bit under that condition then cut out? Something isn't right with that switch if it's the latter...

 

[Mike Boyd]

You were inadvertently knocking the switch to off every time it cut out? Or it was off and the motor ran for a bit under that condition then cut out? Something isn't right with that switch if it's the latter...

No the engine was definitely cutting out for mechanical reasons but the last time I must have hit the on/off switch when I was manipulating the throttle. To be honest I saw the switch previously, just never put two and two together that I may have bumped it. I additionally never realized that moving that switch to the off position took the whole smart craft system off line

 

[PlayDate]

This sounds like another thread with a similar issue of the Smart Craft completely powering down while operating.

http://clubsearay.com/index.php?threads/communication-issues-with-8-1’s.110654/page-6#post-1412048


I still believe that the OP in that thread needs to check the power off the keyswitch and thru the system of connections.

The engine will crank and not start for a host of reasons but what you have described seems like a broken wire or connector.