The joys of boating! Part two

[David_J]

So with the events of July all sorted the idea was to go from Brighton, south of the Isle of Wight to Poole then eventually Westwards as weather and fancy took us. Day of departure follwed a heavy night with friends so no early start remotely possible, then horns had stopped working so it was afternoon by the time we were ready. Decided to go to the Solent to get out of Brighton and at least make a token of heading West. For various reasons we did two nights in Gosport then set off down the Solent. Saturday morning, great weather, not too busy and after a while we thought a short blast at full power was in order. After a few minutes the port engine stopped. No overheating prior to that no alarms, just shutdown. Looked in the engine bay, no leaks, no smoke, no bits hanging out! All looked normal. Interesting thing was the port engine instruments were dead. This was Saturday so earliest it could be sorted would be Monday so we decided to go to the Hamble.

On arrival we learnt that the bow thruster is only energised when the port engine is running. Dont ask!! Beneteau logic. So mooring in a bit of current on one engine with no thruster was interesting. Fortunately we used to have a single engine boat so it was not such a new experience!

On Monday they swapped HCU then PCU then ECU and no faults. Incidently, I was amazed at the shear physical size of the ECU bolted on the side of the D4.

This is only the begining of the story but what do you think they did to get it running again??

 

[AdeOlly]

what do you think they did to get it running again??

Hit it with a sledge hammer? Usually works for me

 

[Trundlebug]

Checked the battery terminals?

That's the first thing I would try, if no life in either the instruments or engine.

Got to be an electrical feed problem somewhere.

You know what they say, "If you can't fix it with a hammer, you have an electrical problem"

 

[RobWales]

Classic case of main earth failure??????

 

[enterprise]

Put the plug back in behind the ignition key

 

[carlton]

This is only the begining of the story but what do you think they did to get it running again??

Reset the kill-switch?

 

[CX54WEK]

This is only the begining of the story but what do you think they did to get it running again??

Battery isolator?

 

[carlton]

This is only the begining of the story but what do you think they did to get it running again??

Come on then - spill the beans!

 

[David_J]

OK, no DC

Come on then - spill the beans!

Sorry about the delay folks. I was away at the weekend doing some of that boating stuff. Got a prop fouled 20 miles out of Brighton but thats another story!!

Well all who recognised it was a power supply problem get a point or two.
They decided it was actually the emergency stop button on the stb side of the D4 which had failed and was permanently cutting the DC supply. They fitted a new stop button and all seemed to work.

I have to say I was not convinced as they had not clearly demonstrated or proven to me that it was the root cause. As a result we cancelled our plans to head out west and settled for a few weeks gentle mooching round the Solent.

A few weeks later we overnighted in Cowes ready to grab a reasonable weather slot to run back to Brighton. All ready to go early the following morning and the port engine was dead. No DC.

Call in a different dealer who reckoned it was the relay that is mounted next to the emergency stop button. They didnt have one but got one sent over from the mainland and fitted later the same day and all seemed fine. Trouble was we missed the weather opportunity and were stuck in the Solent for another few days. It was really windy. A big Sunseeker came in to collect a bunch of people for a run round and when he came back later in the day to drop them off he mooresd on the inside of the main breakwater then couldnt get it off again as the wind was stronger than his thrusters. He should have seen how easy a lifeboat training crew made the same operation look an hour earlier!

Anyhow a day later and we get started earlyish, head off East and around Ryde the Port engine stopped. No DC onto the engine.

What do you think it is now??

 

[Trundlebug]

It could be the ignition switch, or as was mentioned earlier, the connector into the back of it.

When you say no DC INTO the engine, could it also be no DC OUT of the engine? i.e. engine earth strap?

Or as I said above, dicky / loose connection on one of the battery terminals? I'd check them all just to rule it out completely.

Are there any other relays that would affect the engine starting or running? I'm not familiar with the details of your engine's set up.

Could be EMU plug / connector loose.

I think I would check all the ruddy connections from ign sw all the way to the injectors!