RichardS
New Member
Haven't had a chance to take the boat out for a week or so. Finally got the time to get to the boat and plan an early morning ride.
Got up and 6AM and the wife and I had our morning coffee, commented on how nicely the tide was coming in and how still the water looked, and were overall quite thrilled to be getting out for our long-awaited ride across the bay.
Went out and took off the covers (I NEVER leave the covers off when the boat is not in use) and unplugged the shore power line we use to keep the batteries at 100% charge.
Lifted the engine hatch to do my "pre-flight check". I always check fluids, check for excess water in the bilge, look for any issues that don't look quite right, all before turning the key.
Everything looked hunky-dory.
Activated the bilge blowers and lowered the hatch.
Turned the ignition key.
N.O.T.H.I.N.G.
Not a click. Not a click-click-click. Not a bizzzzzzzzz-bzzzzzzzzzzz.
Nothing. Nada. Zip.
Yes, I could hear the fuel pump activate, but not one sound from the starter.
And ya know those three smartcraft symbols that come up first that say BAT, TMP, PSI and an "OK" comes up under each one?
I got a "Bell" shaped icon with an "!" in each one.
Then, the message "LOST ENGINE COM".
Checked here on the forum, checked the rest of the internet, and got the same advice over and over....."Unplug cables and plug them back in again". So that's what I did. Every single one I could find, from the 14 pin main harness to every single relay and every single fuse and every single connector in the engine bay and at the helm.
NO CHANGE.
Tried disconnecting the batteries (which were fully charged) and reconnecting them.
NO CHANGE.
Unplugged the Navico gateway, plugged it back in, no change. FWIW, the Gateway has a green power light, solid, and the orange NAV light is flashing, as it should, when the Northstar GPS is powered on. The red CAN light is NOT lit, or flashing, indicating it is NOT talking to the engine at all.
The dealer, to his credit, on a VERY busy saturday, sent a knowledgeable, experienced mechanic down to my house to try to correct the problem. He was there 6 hours, checking everything he could check, and had zero luck. (Did many of the same things I had tried, no luck, as I said.) In fairness to him, he really isn't knowledgeable about Smartcraft, but was doing his best with the little he knows about it. Checked all the connectors and made sure everything was clean and tight. Stuff like that.
He did jump the starter and the engine successfully started and ran until we shut it down. (a couple minutes). I was hoping it would somehow "kickstart" the communications but no such luck. I get nothing on any of the gauges. Nothing at all.
He finally went home and has promised to come back this week, but I don't think he knows what to do next, and I am imploring you guys to suggest what may be wrong and what to do to troubleshoot this situation.
PLEASE guys. This has me as upset as I can be. I love my boat. But the damn thing won't even turn over until we clear up this COM error.
Ideas and suggestions VERY VERY much appreciated!!!
Got up and 6AM and the wife and I had our morning coffee, commented on how nicely the tide was coming in and how still the water looked, and were overall quite thrilled to be getting out for our long-awaited ride across the bay.
Went out and took off the covers (I NEVER leave the covers off when the boat is not in use) and unplugged the shore power line we use to keep the batteries at 100% charge.
Lifted the engine hatch to do my "pre-flight check". I always check fluids, check for excess water in the bilge, look for any issues that don't look quite right, all before turning the key.
Everything looked hunky-dory.
Activated the bilge blowers and lowered the hatch.
Turned the ignition key.
N.O.T.H.I.N.G.
Not a click. Not a click-click-click. Not a bizzzzzzzzz-bzzzzzzzzzzz.
Nothing. Nada. Zip.
Yes, I could hear the fuel pump activate, but not one sound from the starter.
And ya know those three smartcraft symbols that come up first that say BAT, TMP, PSI and an "OK" comes up under each one?
I got a "Bell" shaped icon with an "!" in each one.
Then, the message "LOST ENGINE COM".
Checked here on the forum, checked the rest of the internet, and got the same advice over and over....."Unplug cables and plug them back in again". So that's what I did. Every single one I could find, from the 14 pin main harness to every single relay and every single fuse and every single connector in the engine bay and at the helm.
NO CHANGE.
Tried disconnecting the batteries (which were fully charged) and reconnecting them.
NO CHANGE.
Unplugged the Navico gateway, plugged it back in, no change. FWIW, the Gateway has a green power light, solid, and the orange NAV light is flashing, as it should, when the Northstar GPS is powered on. The red CAN light is NOT lit, or flashing, indicating it is NOT talking to the engine at all.
The dealer, to his credit, on a VERY busy saturday, sent a knowledgeable, experienced mechanic down to my house to try to correct the problem. He was there 6 hours, checking everything he could check, and had zero luck. (Did many of the same things I had tried, no luck, as I said.) In fairness to him, he really isn't knowledgeable about Smartcraft, but was doing his best with the little he knows about it. Checked all the connectors and made sure everything was clean and tight. Stuff like that.
He did jump the starter and the engine successfully started and ran until we shut it down. (a couple minutes). I was hoping it would somehow "kickstart" the communications but no such luck. I get nothing on any of the gauges. Nothing at all.
He finally went home and has promised to come back this week, but I don't think he knows what to do next, and I am imploring you guys to suggest what may be wrong and what to do to troubleshoot this situation.
PLEASE guys. This has me as upset as I can be. I love my boat. But the damn thing won't even turn over until we clear up this COM error.
Ideas and suggestions VERY VERY much appreciated!!!