lost engine com

[dino]

I was out last night for a cruise when a alarm went off and said lost engine com on the smartcraft. I looked down at the gauges and had lost tach, speed, depth on both the smartcraft and the gauges, engine seemed fine, temps pressure ect. could it be a sensor or a loose connection? When I got back to the marina I shut it down then restarted it and everything was back to normal. It is a 2006 260 SD 6.2 horizon b3. Thanks for any help

 

[Dave S]

You need to explain what happened a little better because it is unclear to me.

Did all your instruments all go dead? Did this happen exactly at the same time the alarm went off? Was the LED window still active? Was it a continuous alarm?

 

[dino]

Hi Dave
When I first heard the alarm I saw the message lost engine com on the smartcraft. I then tried to cycle through the smartcraft to check status of engine, the depth was gone, the rpm, oil pressure and h20 pressure were all not reading. only battery volts and temp were reading. the alarm was a single beep like when you first turn the key that would beep constantly until I hit the mode button, that would stop the alarm for about 30 seconds. When i looked at my regular gauges they were not reading speed or rpms as well. My regular gauges did read oil pressure and temp which were both normal. thanks

 

[tbirdvet]

Lost engine communication usually means a bad connection in one or more of the connectors. Did you check under the helm to make sure all plugs are tight? Also look at main harness at engine and be sure it is secure.

 

[Dave S]

I agree with tbirdvet. Remove the screws in the instrument panel and the panel will come out and you will see where the main Smartcraft Cable plugs into the back of the Tach. I would remove the cable and reinstall it. The cable is just pushed on and it is possible it may be loose or one or more of the pins has picked up some corrosion. Then I would do the same thing with the Smartcraft connector in the engine room at the ECM. Hopefully that will solve the problem.

Dave

 

[boatmailster]

on the boat with dual battery and single engine - engine computer (ecm) is hard wired to one battery and when that battery goes low it could cause that message (when engine runs from another battery). best way is to keep battery switch on "both" when cruising - to charge both batteries same time

 

[dino]

thanks for the quick response. I looked at all the connections in the engine and at the panel, all look good, tight with no corrosion. I have been watching the batteries because they are going on the 4th season. While engine is running they read 14.4 volts and while on the hook with refrigerator running they were at 12.3 volts. Have had no problems with them just getting to that time to replace, could this be a sign?

 

[MICHAEL TIGGES]

Any luck with resolving this problem, having same lost engine comm when idles.....Doesnt stutter, just throws lost engine comm and dies, it seems to start after engine warms up and runs for 10 minutes then after warmed up it does it starts fine then after 45 seconds it loses engine comm and engine dies, will start right back up, recently changed out water pump and impeller, transducer, distributor oil change , water control unit, new batteries, have checked grounds and all connections checked and reseated.