Kohler Generator Not Firing

[Silverton34c]

Someone help! I am out of ideas.....

I have 2006 Kohler 5E generator with 33 hours (yes 33) on it. It ran great last month. Started it the other day and it ran for about 30 seconds and died. After troubleshooting, no spark to the plugs. Next evening I went down to the boat and it did the exact same thing as it ran for about 30 seconds and died. Again no spark to the plugs. Something is causing the generator to shut down electrically. I have: checked the oil and overheating sensors (ok), checked for fuel pressure (ok), changed the spark plugs, and checked for bad connections or loose wires....

Any suggestions?

 

[greenbush future]

Re: Kohler Generator Not Firing

I would have bet one of the sensors mentioned, but you said you checked. I give up, sorry.

 

[rbh]

Re: Kohler Generator Not Firing

If I had to guess, I would also guess the sensor/sensors was bad.

You can try shorting a wire across the sensor if it is to ground, or if two wire short them together.

"I would guess", just because it happen to a lot of folks, that the oil is down half a quart.

 

[foodfisher]

Re: Kohler Generator Not Firing

X2^^ Read about this in previous post. The oil level looks fine when shut down. Oil picked up and in use lowers the level just enough to shuter down.

 

[Silverton34c]

Re: Kohler Generator Not Firing

If I had to guess, I would also guess the sensor/sensors was bad.

You can try shorting a wire across the sensor if it is to ground, or if two wire short them together.

"I would guess", just because it happen to a lot of folks, that the oil is down half a quart.

Oil is yopped off and checked the antifreeze also...I give up. time to pull it and send it to the e.r.

 

[Silverton34c]

Re: Kohler Generator Not Firing

Someone else mentioned it could be a circuit board.

 

[foodfisher]

Re: Kohler Generator Not Firing

Sorry, let us know the outcome.

 

[arks]

Re: Kohler Generator Not Firing

I have a 2006 Kohler 5E too (with 44 hours).
Have you recently changed the coolant? Sometimes the 5E can get an air bubble at the top that's difficult to bleed off, causing an overheat condition. It happened to me, same symptom.

 

[ehenry]

Re: Kohler Generator Not Firing

I'm going to say its the oil pressure sensor. I have Kholer stand by unit on my house with a natural gas aircooled engine that did the same thing. I could check the oil and it check full. It turned out the sensor was faulty. I bypassed the sensor and it ran fine. I purchased and installed a new oil pressure sensor and haven't had a problem since.

 

[Silverton34c]

Re: Kohler Generator Not Firing

I'm going to say its the oil pressure sensor. I have Kholer stand by unit on my house with a natural gas aircooled engine that did the same thing. I could check the oil and it check full. It turned out the sensor was faulty. I bypassed the sensor and it ran fine. I purchased and installed a new oil pressure sensor and haven't had a problem since.

Dam thing wont even start now....gonna haul it out and bring it to the ER. I done, over it, fed up, disgusted, irritated, etc...If I had a gun, I would shoot it!

 

[Big Bubba]

Re: Kohler Generator Not Firing

Boy, I would love to get my hands on that generator and see if I could fix it. Hey, did you try to do a search on YouTube for your model. I have had luck finding out information on how to fix things I wasn't sure how to do but maybe YouTube has something on your generator issues.

I have also found some things from other folks with a similar generator to possibly help you out. Here is what they say.
Believe this or not ,i helped my friend work on his kohler this winter doing the same thing ,we could not figure out any thing to get it to stay running, would do the same thing run approx 4 min then shut off . Finnally we went to a kohler dealer that was just a couple miles away, he said (and i quote ) put in a new set of plugs and it will run find ,now i don't expect you to believe me but just try it. Started it up and it ran fine.

Most modern generators have a temperature shut of switch. It is basically a second sensor that if the coolant gets to an overheat temp it will shut down. It is not uncommon for this sensor to go bad. You need to find a shop manual for the generator and determine which sensor it is. If you are sure that it's not overheating then unplug it. If it runs past the 4 minutes then find a new sensor and replace it.

Check your seawater strainer ! Mine did the same thing this weekend and that was what I found "sea weed had it half clogged up and couldn't cool enough!

Jay

 

[Fireman431]

Re: Kohler Generator Not Firing

Kohler genset have 9 separate sutdown cycles that they go thru after each firing. It bypasses most of them during cold start up and goes thru the list, identifying any problem areas. If it finds one, it shuts down and won't restart until repairs are made or until the fail safe time-out mode has passed. Some of them are: Low oil volume, low oil pressure, no water flow, low water flow, too high amperage/voltage, too low amperage/voltage, etc, etc, etc. You see where I'm headed.

Here is a link to the Kohler troubleshooting and service manual. Start reading and go from there. BTW, generally speaking, if it was the circuit board or the K2 relay, it wouldn't start at all.

http://whalewatchingguatemala.com/yate/KOLHER-MARINE-GENERATOR-5E.pdf

 

[dolluper]

Re: Kohler Generator Not Firing

Bypass all the carp to straight ignition and go

 

[Silverton34c]

Re: Kohler Generator Not Firing

Just got the generator back after $650 worth of repairs...Igniter went bad...