Guardian mode unspecified

Great lakes pirate

Great lakes pirate

Active Member
Jan 5, 2010
667
Lake St. Clair
Boat Info
2000 35 Tiara Open
Engines
Cummins 6BTA's
It has been about 3 weeks since I started having problems with my starboard engine. It all started after I changed plugs, wires, rotors, IAC mufflers and had the drives rebuilt. Coming back from a trip in high seas I noticed that my engine did not have full power.

We hooked up a pressure gauge to the fuel rail and noticed a pressure drop when I accelerated. I replaced my high pressure pump. The pressure is good now but I still don't have full power.

The engine was makeing a loud air rushing noise so I removed the flame arrestor to find the IAC muffler missing. I then hooked up the rinda code reader and could not index the IAC so I replaced it.

Last night I changed the plugs because my mechanic thought maybe they were fouled out during all of this. A couple of them were wet. We took it out for a spin to see if anything improved. Nothing...... During the cruise we hooked up the reader again. Now the screen is showing "guardian mode unspecified fault". 100% power available.

So, I have no alarms and no codes. I looked in the fault table and it shows either Trim CKT or Steer CKT as the only 2 faults with no alarm and 100% power available. My mechanic is stumped. I am also.

Any Ideas. :huh:
 
Did you check your inline fuel filter (not the fuel water filter)?
 
What was wet on the plugs? Water, fuel, Oil, ?


Great lakes pirate said:
Last night I changed the plugs because my mechanic thought maybe they were fouled out during all of this. A couple of them were wet.

During the cruise we hooked up the reader again. Now the screen is showing "guardian mode unspecified fault". 100% power available.

Any Ideas. :huh:
Click to expand...
Did you try clearing the faults to see if they come back yet?

Seeing Trim CKT & Steer CKT in the scan tool would be considered normal unless you have them hooked up to a sensor and are inuse. If not inuse then you just ignore them. They will not affect the PCM power or horn wise.

It's just a guess but I have heard of unusual names pop up in the fault system that know one really knows about from time to time. Mercruisers answer is clear it and see if it comes back.

Another guess would be depending on what version your scan tool has from rinda technologies. It could be possible that your scan tool is not updated enough to read the unspecified fault you are seeing. The newest version from rinda technologies is now a 6.0 version. Maybe it's worth a call to rinda to find out.:smt001

It's an easy job to update the tool if needed. The directions are in their website. Just a thought is all. Good luck.:smt001
http://www.rinda.com/marine/marine.htm#merctool
 
Boat Tech said:
What was wet on the plugs? Water, fuel, Oil, ?


Did you try clearing the faults to see if they come back yet?

Seeing Trim CKT & Steer CKT in the scan tool would be considered normal unless you have them hooked up to a sensor and are inuse. If not inuse then you just ignore them. They will not affect the PCM power or horn wise.

It's just a guess but I have heard of unusual names pop up in the fault system that know one really knows about from time to time. Mercruisers answer is clear it and see if it comes back.

Another guess would be depending on what version your scan tool has from rinda technologies. It could be possible that your scan tool is not updated enough to read the unspecified fault you are seeing. The newest version from rinda technologies is now a 6.0 version. Maybe it's worth a call to rinda to find out.:smt001

It's an easy job to update the tool if needed. The directions are in their website. Just a thought is all. Good luck.:smt001
http://www.rinda.com/marine/marine.htm#merctool
Click to expand...

The plugs were wet from gas.

I swapped my ECM's on Friday with no change in performance of the starboard engine. I also re-checked the water seperator. All gas.

I have rinda version 6.3. I called merc and asked what a "guardian mode unspecified reason was", they wanted to know my dealer number.

I had a bunch of faults in the history but the only ones active were steering, trim and guardian. So I should clear the history of faults?
 
Back to the boat again tonight. Plugged the rinda in again. Both engines are getting sea water temp faults. I don't think this has anything to do with my problem. While scrolling through the PCM data I noticed that the timing advance on the bad engine was around 5-6 degrees advanced and the good engine was 15-16. I also noticed that the good engine had the Guardian mode unspecified fault showing on the code reader. The good engine runs fine?????? I wonder if there is something wrong with my scanner (brand spankin' new). Is it possible that all I need to do is reset the timing on the bad engine??? And to add to all of my fun I think I have a leak in one of my boots!
 
Is it posible the timing is a little slow due to a knock sensor issue. Is there maybe something loose making a rattling noise causing a faulse knock... just pondering!
 
Ron, thanks for your input. I will check for anything not secure next time at the boat. If the knock sensor was picking anything up I would hope it would be stored in history or as a active fault when the engine was running. I might swap knock sensors next.

When the engine is running the scanner reads "Engine state........ Stalled".
 
If the plugs are wet, the plug wires are not passing the voltage. Try pulling the plug wires to see if you can have them spark on the engine block. I suspect the wires are not the same as the ones you replaced. You need to replace the plug wires with the same output as the original... Any chance you bought cheapo automotive wires?
 
Nope, $100 per set. It may be possible that one of the wires was bad from the factory. If I had a bad wire or distributer could this cause the timing advance to change?
 
Called rinda this morning. I asked what the heck "Guardian mode unspecified" was. They told me that it was just a parameter and to check available power. I have 100% available power per the display. So at least now I know that my engines are not in guardian mode.
 
In the automotive world: the PCM uses timing to control "torque management" The timing will be dumped back during transmition shifts or wheel slip under acceleration. Dumping the timing back, dumps alot of power and also makes the intake sound a little throaty.

I use "AutoTap" to monitor PCM inputs/outputs on a 99 FireBird. Runs can be logged can via Excell, then reviewed later after a 1/4 mile pass.

With your Rinda can you monitor knock sensor noise?
 
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