242 LSE Drive Control Error - No Start

[Thom]

@HELP Houseboating on Shasta Lake and having some issues with my 2016 242 LSE

History: Boat has 120 hours, regular maintenance. Intermittent Connext ERR GPS speed issue for the last two seasons, finally fixed when dealer replaced port side tach last week.

Two weeks ago, after floating for a couple hours starboard engine wouldn’t start, Connext error ‘check engine drive control’. +/- buttons would work in no wake mode, throttle levers did nothing, moving full forward, full astern had no effect. No obstructions/blockage, impellers felt fine. Rebooted a couple times, and starboard engine started. Still wouldn’t respond to throttle inputs. Limped to the dock and loaded up. Pulling out error message was gone, engines seemed to run normally.

Took it to the dealer so they could replace port tach. Mentioned the issue, they water tested and everything checked out. No stored codes.

Launched at Shasta Saturday. Verified GPS Connext error resolved. Went out yesterday and cruised for a couple hours, never WOT.

Got up this morning to get fuel and go boarding and noticed starboard engine wouldn’t rev past 6k when attempting WOT. Headed back to the houseboat to diagnose. Cooling outlets both flowing water as usual. Grates and impellers clear and feel undamaged, no obstructions. Both batteries have 12+ volts when completely disconnected. Oil level fine, air filter unobstructed. Starboard engine missing on cylinder 1. Swapped coil packs and plugs, same results. Plug looked ok. Jiggled wire harness and cylinder stared firing. Opened up harness wrap to inspect, no obvious issues. Applying pressure on the harness at the coil pack consistently allowed cylinder to fire normally. Removed and reseated pins in connector, no change. Swapped plug/coil packs back to original placement. Reconnected batteries and turned boat on - error message ‘check engine drive control’ and starboard engine doesn’t start or attempt to turn over.

Starboard tachometer LCD display flashing distorted pixels. Disconnected it, still no start. Disconnected port tach to confirm engine would start without tach connected. Reconnected everything, still no start. Diagnostic display first reported error code 183, now shows 186. Disconnected batteries for several hours, rebooted several times, still no start or attempt to start.

Anything else I should try? I’m wondering if I have more than one problem here - perhaps a harness issue and an ECU and/or tach issue.

 

[Thom]

In case anyone has a similar problem, it turns out there was a problem with the engine wiring harness. One of the coilpack wires was broken at the crimp connector inside the plug. The wire insulation was intact, so it wasn't obvious until the crimp connector fell off the wire. One of the 20A fuses was blown as well, which cased the error code and the no start.

Props to our local dealer for getting it in quickly and getting it figured out, as we only had a week between the Shasta trip and our trek to Maine (with the boat in tow) for the rest of the summer.

 

[Aqua Jetaway]

Thanks for the update on the root cause of the issue. This may very well help one or more of us get out on the water faster sometime in the future.

 

[ChrisM]

That will have you chasing your tail for sure. The first time I was out past sunset, 2 years ago actually, I noticed that half the helm instrument and switch back-lighting was out, had been working. I have a factory schematic now, but at the time I didn't. If it wasn't for me visually tracing the lighting wires and in doing so pressing wires around to follow the paths I would've never found the same thing you found. I removed the connector from the plug, and re-did the connection with solder.