slongholio
Seaman Apprentice
- Joined
- May 15, 2009
- Messages
- 31
In a Sea Ray 205 sport.
Last year a couple times it just cut off on me after I had been crusing along about 2800-3000 rpms for about half an hour or so. I'm pretty sure the rpms aren't directly related, but I put that in to explain that it isn't at idle, etc. Just while cruising. Started back up after a minute and ran fine the rest of the day. Did this on two or three different outings over the season, but since it started back up fine and ran the rest of the day each time with no problems, I didn't have it looked at. I inquired at the shop but they said probably this, probably that, they'd have to diagnose it.
Since it only did it a few times the whole year, and I use the boat every day the weather is nice on weekends, I told them to hold off, since they likely wouldn't encounter the problem, and I'd just end up with a bill for their time to ride around in my boat.
Skip forward to this year. I take the boat out, cruise around all day - about 4 hours worth of engine time, and starting to head back, it just cut off on me. This time it wouldn't restart and we had to get towed back. It turns over and cranks fine, but no start.
I waited a few days and had them put it back in the water for me (it's kept in dry storage in a building) to try it out to see if maybe it's intermittent. It's not. Didn't smell any fuel after trying several attempts, so I turned the blower off and tried a few more times. Still don't smell fuel. Just more info.
So I told them to service it up for me, knowing that it will likely cost me an arm and a leg. I can change spark plugs, oil, even did my axles in my car once, but I'm by no means proficient, so I'll let them do what they do best and free my time up to go get the chores around the house done so once it's fixed I can get back on the lake.
So Wednesday rolls around and I haven't heard anything from them since I called them Monday AM to order the service. Long story short, they have no idea when they can start on it, maybe 1 1/2 to 2 weeks.
So now I'm going to try to see if there are some "easy" things I can try myself, just to get my boat back sooner. To start, I went in today to pick up a fuel filter. After giving a brief rundown to the obviously frazzled service guy working the parts counter, he says I can go ahead with the fuel filter, but he'd bet me any amount of money it's not that, and probably is the igition sensor, and would be around $200 including the part, when they whenever they can finally get around to checking on it. He was so busy I didn't press him with any more questions, but is that something I could try myself too? Where would I go about diagnosing or where can I get some good info on how to proceed? Kind of upsetting to be paying over $500 a month for a boat with just over a hundred hours on it, kept inside, and all maintenance done on schedule.
First thing I check is the lanyard, or kill switch - heh - since I know that will likely be the first thing everyone asks. Oh, and when I scheduled the service, they asked me if I hit anything, was there oil in it, was it overheating... No to none of the above. Nothing out of the ordinary other that it just suddenly quit, as if I had bumped the kill switch (which I confirmed I did not)
I'm the kind of guy that can mess up changing the spark plugs. I know how to do stuff, and I understand how they work, but I'm not really coordinated with my hands. For instance when I changed my spark plugs in my car, I dropped one of them and it magically landed in that hard to reach pan underneath the engine. And yes, it had the rubber gasket in there to keep that from happening. Another time I changed the wires, and even though I numbered them as I took them off, I still messed up the order and had to go online and find the right order, hehe.
I guess I'm trying to say I can do stuff if necessary, but my time is better spent on other things and letting the professionals handle it. In this case they're going to be too busy until after memorial day, so I'm gonna try to struggle my way through it. Any idea of some other things I can try while I wait that aren't too difficult? I'll have a friend in town next weekend who could take the engine apart and put it back together, but I was hoping to be out on the lake instead of working on the boat then. And we can't get parts on the weekend, so we'll be done with that anyway if any parts are needed.
Last year a couple times it just cut off on me after I had been crusing along about 2800-3000 rpms for about half an hour or so. I'm pretty sure the rpms aren't directly related, but I put that in to explain that it isn't at idle, etc. Just while cruising. Started back up after a minute and ran fine the rest of the day. Did this on two or three different outings over the season, but since it started back up fine and ran the rest of the day each time with no problems, I didn't have it looked at. I inquired at the shop but they said probably this, probably that, they'd have to diagnose it.
Since it only did it a few times the whole year, and I use the boat every day the weather is nice on weekends, I told them to hold off, since they likely wouldn't encounter the problem, and I'd just end up with a bill for their time to ride around in my boat.
Skip forward to this year. I take the boat out, cruise around all day - about 4 hours worth of engine time, and starting to head back, it just cut off on me. This time it wouldn't restart and we had to get towed back. It turns over and cranks fine, but no start.
I waited a few days and had them put it back in the water for me (it's kept in dry storage in a building) to try it out to see if maybe it's intermittent. It's not. Didn't smell any fuel after trying several attempts, so I turned the blower off and tried a few more times. Still don't smell fuel. Just more info.
So I told them to service it up for me, knowing that it will likely cost me an arm and a leg. I can change spark plugs, oil, even did my axles in my car once, but I'm by no means proficient, so I'll let them do what they do best and free my time up to go get the chores around the house done so once it's fixed I can get back on the lake.
So Wednesday rolls around and I haven't heard anything from them since I called them Monday AM to order the service. Long story short, they have no idea when they can start on it, maybe 1 1/2 to 2 weeks.
So now I'm going to try to see if there are some "easy" things I can try myself, just to get my boat back sooner. To start, I went in today to pick up a fuel filter. After giving a brief rundown to the obviously frazzled service guy working the parts counter, he says I can go ahead with the fuel filter, but he'd bet me any amount of money it's not that, and probably is the igition sensor, and would be around $200 including the part, when they whenever they can finally get around to checking on it. He was so busy I didn't press him with any more questions, but is that something I could try myself too? Where would I go about diagnosing or where can I get some good info on how to proceed? Kind of upsetting to be paying over $500 a month for a boat with just over a hundred hours on it, kept inside, and all maintenance done on schedule.
First thing I check is the lanyard, or kill switch - heh - since I know that will likely be the first thing everyone asks. Oh, and when I scheduled the service, they asked me if I hit anything, was there oil in it, was it overheating... No to none of the above. Nothing out of the ordinary other that it just suddenly quit, as if I had bumped the kill switch (which I confirmed I did not)
I'm the kind of guy that can mess up changing the spark plugs. I know how to do stuff, and I understand how they work, but I'm not really coordinated with my hands. For instance when I changed my spark plugs in my car, I dropped one of them and it magically landed in that hard to reach pan underneath the engine. And yes, it had the rubber gasket in there to keep that from happening. Another time I changed the wires, and even though I numbered them as I took them off, I still messed up the order and had to go online and find the right order, hehe.
I guess I'm trying to say I can do stuff if necessary, but my time is better spent on other things and letting the professionals handle it. In this case they're going to be too busy until after memorial day, so I'm gonna try to struggle my way through it. Any idea of some other things I can try while I wait that aren't too difficult? I'll have a friend in town next weekend who could take the engine apart and put it back together, but I was hoping to be out on the lake instead of working on the boat then. And we can't get parts on the weekend, so we'll be done with that anyway if any parts are needed.
) They had to give me new fenders and fire extinguisher because mine disappeared over the winter, even though my boat is stored on the top rack stacked 4 high all the way in the back of dry storage. Who would climb up there to steal them, but not take anything else, unless they had my boat out "fixing it"?