2014 malibu lsv 23

[Steveknorr]

Just bought a 2014 lsv 23 with 400 hours on it.  Brand new to malibu.  Third trip out surf gates wouldn't work. Checked engine compartment and noticed excess water.  Had my son put the boat under power and water was spraying at the output shaft.  It then gave code spn: 65597 fmi:7.

Took the boat to local dealer and has been there for a month.  They now tell me it's a boat harness that's bad?  This seems to all stem from seal leaking at shaft?

65 man hours to replace boat harness is what there telling me.

Any recommendations. 

[smileysteve]

2014 should have had a dripless shaft and even if it weren't should not be spraying. Was the drain plug in?

For the wiring harness to go bad, I would expect water made it to the ecu level or was there for a long period of time. Is the harness only solving the surfgate issue?

I'd solve for the water ingress first. A new harness won't help if you take on water again.

[PNWoke]

My 2014 23lsv shaft is drip less.  I assume it’s original.  I get a bilge pump on light a few times per day when tilted up surfing, I assume most of that water is coming from leaky ballast tubes/fittings.  That said I have replaced 2 ecm’s - one from obvious water damage.  No the engine compartment didn’t flood, I simply left the engine cover/drying tray off overnight and happened to get a bunch of rain that night which overwhelmed my outer cover and drizzled down on the engine through the centerline gap. I didn’t think that much water would effect the seemingly robust ecm and harness plugs but it did.  Thankfully both times my harness checked out good and a $700 ecm takes only about 20 mins to replace.  There was a week of waiting bc ecm’s have to come pre-programmed for your boat from indmar - most dealers won’t have one in stock due to the huge variance of motors used and options selected.  60 hours is a lot of time but considering a main harness will likely require 2 guys crawling around testing and an extra guy to remove seats/structure, and run parts back and forth.  You could ask your dealer if you could cut some of that cost by doing some of the prep breakdown/put back together work yourself, if you feel confident mechanically.  I am confused how surf gate issues indicates main harness.  I would think it would just need the new surf gate controller and wiring harness for the surf gate system which I assumed was different than the main harness that runs the engine and displays.