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Did I really need a new ECM?


TallRedRider

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This thread has been a long time coming, but I have a question for the crew.

My 2006 247 has been an awesome boat. In January of this year, I clicked on 300 hours. I do the oil changes and such myself, but there are some other things that I don't want to bother to do that should be done at 300 hours. So I took it to my local inboard dealer (does Supreme and Centurion) for a 300 hour service. I printed the 300 hour checklist for the service department and said 'do all this'. I also mention that sometimes the starting seems to be difficult. It always starts, but just seems to take longer on the starter than any boat that I have owned. It seemed to gradually worsen over the time I have owned the boat (since 186 hours).

The dealer calls me up and says that the boat is doing some crazy things at startup. The ECM is putting out all sorts of goofy timing codes when first starting. He says that he has times that it will not start at all, or just sputters for upwards of 30 seconds or more until it starts getting the right timing and then runs fine. It never did that to me before, but whatever, I ask that he just make it so that it starts whenever I turn the key. He surmises that there is a sensor bad that is giving bad readings to the ECM and therefore the ECM is acting on false data. He replaces every sensor, but it still is giving him fits. So he calls Indmar and they suggest that he replace the ECM as it must be the computer itself that is messed up. He replaces the ECM and like magic it fires right up. The boat has run great all summer, and I started the year with 0 hours.

I trust the dealership and I am confident that they want to earn my business. The guys seem like standup guys and I really don't think that there would be any attempt to deceive me here. But maybe a misdiagnosis. I especially think they are straight shooters because he even gave me the old ECM back.

The only thing that I could really complain about is that he saw fit to reroute my heater so that I don't have any warm water when idling. I installed that myself and knew right away that he botched that job when my heat was lukewarm at best when idling. He was just trying to help, but did it without asking me. Thankfully he didn't throw away the venturi valve and he put it back the way I had it without question once I explained that this seems to be a Malibu specific issue, and that he should become a member of the malibu crew if he is going to work on these. :rockon::rockon:

So here is the kicker. I put the old ECM back on just to see what would happen. It runs perfectly fine with the old ECM. I assume that it is possible to have an intermittent ECM issue that only presented itself when it was in the shop, but that sounds pretty unusual. What do you guys think happened here? Does anyone need to keep a spare ECM in the boat? Is there any market for my old ECM that I am convinced probably has nothing wrong with it? The thing costed $1200, so not a trivial amount of money here.

Thanks for listening to the long story...but that is what friends are for :biggrin:

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I had similar with maliview screen. Would go erratic, started changing screens without touching any buttons and eventually froze on a screen and no buttons would work. Dealer updated/reflashed the computer twice and that did not work so they replaced the computer (Viper control box) and that seemed to fix the problem on the final test on the water with dealer. Very next day first thing out, screen was frozen again... Could not get it working that day so we manually drove the boat and filled the ballasts full and moved the wedge having to visually inspect where it was as the maliview screen was frozen on the media screen. That night I reached up through a 3" access hole for wiring to back of maliview and pushed all the connectors and wiring. The next day everything was back to normal and have put 20 hours on it since and no issues. IMO it was a loose connection... Not the computer... Sounds like yours could have been th same issue... A corroded connection or just a loose connection that when the dealer changed the computers out he connector was now making good contact. Sounds like you do a have a good spare and yes their probably is a market for them, but not what you paid for it. If I wre you, I'd put the old back in and carry the new through the balance of the season and if no issues with the old sell the new as new or talk to he dealer and see if he would take it back and give you a credit towards other work or parts. Good luck!

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I had the same issues with my LSV23 with a Monsoon 340. Backfire, power loss, sounding like timing was off, etc. The funny thing is it started at the beginning of summer and would do it every other lake trip. Sometimes it would run great for 8 straight hours. After replacing everything else that it might be, I went out on a limb after talking to a mechanic and spent the $1500 for the ECM. Ever since I replaced it I get better gas mileage, no gas smell when idling and it runs better than ever. It has not had an issue in the past 5 weeks (8 lake trips). The average life of the ECM on a boat engine from what 2 mechanics have told me is 7 to 10 years so I would leave the new one in or at least keep it just in case. They are really hard to sell used.

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it may be something as simple as an intermittent connection at one of the many pins attached to the ecm.

there are LOTS of individual connections and the likely-hood that ALL are perfect all the time doesn't match up with the reliability we see on these rigs. thank goodness.

perhaps that intermittent connection bit the dealership and they acted in good faith to attempt to fix your problem?

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TRR, what motor do you have? My Hammerhead certainly takes longer than my Monsoon did. If I cycle the key a couple times on the first start up it seems to help but not sure. Dealer said they changed the cap and rotor (40 hrs ago) but I haven't double checked that...

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TRR, what motor do you have? My Hammerhead certainly takes longer than my Monsoon did. If I cycle the key a couple times on the first start up it seems to help but not sure. Dealer said they changed the cap and rotor (40 hrs ago) but I haven't double checked that...

Is yours an 06 too Ndawg? What size is the wire from the starter to the batteries?

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I'd lean a bit more to a bad connection. These ECMs are pretty voltage dependent and if you have a bad connection and couple that with a voltage drop during starting, you could get some errant readings. Just a thought though. The ECMs are stupid expensive, I am surprised there isn't an aftermarket set up to replace them.

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Is yours an 06 too Ndawg? What size is the wire from the starter to the batteries?

07, man I hope that's not my problem!!!

Adding the alternate battery to the starter / block is really easy as a test, with minimal investment.

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TRR, what motor do you have? My Hammerhead certainly takes longer than my Monsoon did. If I cycle the key a couple times on the first start up it seems to help but not sure. Dealer said they changed the cap and rotor (40 hrs ago) but I haven't double checked that...

Somehow my thread got lost to me until now...

It is the Hammerhead engine, and it has always taken a longer crank on the starter to get it going.

At the 300 hour service, we replaced the spark plugs, and inspected the rotor and cap and wires, which all looked good.

I bet it was a loose wire at the ECM.

I should probably put the 300 hour ECM back in the boat, then put the 45 hour ECM in when I sell it. :innocent::blush:

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