Engine alarm couple times today

[oldjeep]

It was really wavy and windy today, and on the way back to the ramp the alarm went off and I got a SPN: 65593 FM:7 code 3 times.  Indicates a cylinder 3 misfire.  Changed the plugs at the end of last season, but I guess my options are plug, wire, cap/rotor or injector.  Will have to let it cool down and maybe pull the plug and cap tonight to have a look.  185 hours on the engine and the cap and rotor are original

[UWSkier]

Not sure if they've updated the cap/rotor setup since '01, but on ours, after 150 hours, it seems amazing there's any contact being made at all anymore.

Could just be a bad cap and/or wire too.  Try dabbing a bit of dielectric grease on the plug head and reconnecting.  Also validate a good seat.  Have seen plug caps wear from vibration before and make poor contact.  Usually on sleds, but could happen anywhere I guess.

[oldjeep]

Bakes says my cap is 2006 and up. $80 for cap and rotor. Hoping a visual inspection finds something so that I'm not just randomly replacing parts and seeing if problem goes away.

[oldjeep]

Plug looked fine and the wire was snapped down.  Swapped #3 for #1 so if I don't find anything and it is a plug with a defect at least I'll know when the code moves.

Now for the cap - how the heck do you remove it?  Do you have to remove the top of the intake to get at it?  doesn't seem like any way to get at one of the screws and there is no room to work.

 

 

[SkiZilla]

Keep in mind once you get the misfire all sorted out the code will not go away immediately.  Apparently on the catalyst equipped engines any code that can affect emissions will remain active until 3 full heat cycles are completed (90 to 150F).  Until I figured this out it had me completely freaked out. Similar misfire code, only on cylinder 2......complete ignition tune up solved the problem.  Thought I was loosing my mind because I could not hear or feel a miss and I still had this code and warning popping up ever 5 minutes. Sure enough after the third heat cycle all clear.

[oldjeep]

Hmm, good to know.  So it'll just continue to sound off every x minutes then?  Because what was happening is the alarm would sound, I hit exit and then it came back again twice more.  All within maybe 45 minutes.

Or are you saying that it'll just sit on the active faults screen without re-alarming?

[SkiZilla]

Yup.  The alarm / warning message would resound every five minutes or so and the code remained in active faults despite there being no miss until the first key on after the third heat cycle. 

[oldjeep]

On ‎6‎/‎8‎/‎2016 at 9:41 PM, SkiZilla said:

Yup.  The alarm / warning message would resound every five minutes or so and the code remained in active faults despite there being no miss until the first key on after the third heat cycle. 

Yup that was all sorts of fun today - seemed to sound every 6-7 minutes.  Tomorrow I'll pull it out and start it up till warm then put it back in the garage then repeat Tuesday.  Hopefully by wed the code will be clear.

[oldjeep]

Well, by my count this is the 4th day of alarms.  Guess I'll be buying the software to see what the heck is going on and be able to immediately reset the codes.  The engine still doesn't sound like it is misfiring at all.  Swapped the plugs, new cap and rotor and still cylinder 3 misfire.  I did order some new plug wires which should be here in a couple days, but mostly because the cylinder 8 wire looked iffy to me (misfire code is on 3).

[MichLivin]

I had the same issue this spring, plugs were 2 years old.  It really depends on how the boat was winterized, changed my plugs and everything was good.  The error code went away right away. If you change the cap and rotor I say do the plugs...

[oldjeep]

Just now, MichLivin said:

I had the same issue this spring, plugs were 2 years old.  It really depends on how the boat was winterized, changed my plugs and everything was good.  The error code went away right away. If you change the cap and rotor I say do the plugs...

plugs were changed end of last season, and then when I replaced cap and rotor I swapped the plugs on 1& 3 so that if the code moved I would know it was the plug that looked fine. Wires are really the only remaining item and they will get replaced in a couple days when they get here.

[oldjeep]

The cylinder 3 misfire came back again yesterday when we were taking a day off on the lake.  Haven't had the error pop up for the last 35 hours since the cap/rotor/plug wires were replaced.  This time it was weird, was accelerating at about 40MPH and all the sudden the throttle cut as the alarm went off.  Boat ran fine for another few hours with the alarm going off like it does every 6-7 minutes.   Ordered the Diacom software today and it is coming on Thursday because there is no way we are going to listen to that alarm for 3 more days until it resets.  Hopefully the software can tell me something more useful if it happens again, I'm going to keep a small notebook in the boat with the cable.

Edited September 21, 2016 by oldjeep

[oldjeep]

New toys arrived today, hopefully this will let me track down the real problem.  At least I'll be able to get the alarm shut off

 

[MadMan]

15 minutes ago, oldjeep said:

New toys arrived today, hopefully this will let me track down the real problem.  At least I'll be able to get the alarm shut off

 

I'm jealous.

[Michigan boarder]

Did you replace the plug wires too?

[oldjeep]

17 minutes ago, Michigan boarder said:

Did you replace the plug wires too?

Yes.  The original problem finally went away after the plug wires were replaced in June

175 hours (end of 2015 season)

     New plugs

Things that I did in June

186 hours

     Swapped plugs 1 & 3 (they were brand new end of last season)

     New cap and rotor

190 hours

     New plug wires

 

Then no issues for about 35 hours until Monday when the same fault showed back up. (Currently at 226 hours)  I'm curious to see the misfire counters to see if this was a one time deal or is happening a lot

Edited September 22, 2016 by oldjeep

[minnmarker]

47 minutes ago, oldjeep said:

New toys arrived today, hopefully this will let me track down the real problem.  At least I'll be able to get the alarm shut off

 

Source and cost?

[oldjeep]

6 minutes ago, minnmarker said:

Source and cost?

Rinda - http://www.rinda.com

#94030 (CAN kit) $699.00  - includes 94005, 94006 and 94029 adapters

Not cheap but the only game going, and still cheaper and easier than a trip in to the dealer.  I plan on picking up an older notebook to keep in the boat so I can log the sensors if this becomes a recurring thing

 

This has a chart at the bottom saying what adapter you need. 2006 and older can get away with the $579 standard kit since you don't need the canbus

http://www.rinda.com/acro/DiacomMarine.pdf

 

Edited September 22, 2016 by oldjeep

[electricjohn]

Now I remember why I love MEFI-4.

[oldjeep]

Just now, electricjohn said:

Now I remember why I love MEFI-4.

Why?  because it is $120 cheaper to get the software/cables for it?  

[oldjeep]

Not sure yet what this is telling me.  Only odd thing that I see is the -40 Manifold air temperature, guess it is time to start reading the indmar trouble shooting manual

 

[MadMan]

2 hours ago, oldjeep said:

Not sure yet what this is telling me.  Only odd thing that I see is the -40 Manifold air temperature, guess it is time to start reading the indmar trouble shooting manual

 

An even -40F sounds like a default value, does your engine have a manifold air temp sensor?

[oldjeep]

Probably not, the real time value (engine off) is also -40F. I'd think it would be throwing a separate code if it thought that was invalid.

Won't have time to actually run the motor until next week and do some data logging.

[oldjeep]

Haven't been able to get it out on the water yet to do any logging but was able to pull an RPM history from the boat.  Lot more idling than I would have thought, but I guess the 15 minutes that my wife is trolling around at launch and pickup time and all the no-wake zones add up.

 

Engine RPM History

       Engine Operating Hours    0 to 1000 RPM = 127.36 Hours

       Engine Operating Hours 1001 to 2000 RPM = 33.44 Hours

       Engine Operating Hours 2001 to 3000 RPM = 39.64 Hours

       Engine Operating Hours 3001 to 4000 RPM = 20.24 Hours

       Engine Operating Hours 4001 to 5000 RPM = 4.91 Hours

       Engine Operating Hours   above 5000 RPM = 0.20 Hours

       Total Engine crank revolutions          = 19,963,470 REVOLUTIONS

[oldjeep]

Went out and put about 2 hours on it this afternoon, cruising around and then stopping for a birthday dinner for my wife. No alarms, and I was logging data for about 20 minutes. Nothing interesting in the data. I did fill it up with premium before we left just in case it was a fuel issue, was only about 8 gallons of the last tank left.

So I guess it is just a random issue. I'll be keeping the diacom cables and computer in the boat so that I can look at it if it hates again.