fuel injector fault ?

[fishinjim]

i've run into a little problem while up here vacationing on lake champlain.

motor is a 2007 250 pro xs with just under 200 hrs on it.

a few days ago i had a continuous beep warning with a smartcraft fault that said something along the lines of "injector fault." also said to "see dealer soon."
at the time of the fault/warning the engine temperature also started to climb. got up to around 138 degrees before i shut the motor down.

i let the motor sit for a while and then started her back up. this time everything was fine and there were no faults or high temps.

i put some fresh gas in and have been running the boat lightly for the past couple days. had no more problems until tonight when i had some warning beeps accompanied by a "fuel injector not working" readout on the smartcraft gauge. again, there was also the "see dealer soon."

tried searching bbc and google and can't seem to find much about the injector warnings.
i have one two more days of vacation and am wondering if i need to be using only the trolling motor until i can get this engine checked out.
its the "see dealer soon" reading thats throwing me off... kind of makes it not sound that critical. lol. with a fuel injector not working, will the cylinder it fires not be receiving oil?
seems like if that were the case the warning would say something more along the lines of "go to the dealer right now."

anyone familiar with the above faults and or injector problems?

thanks!

[howieranger]

The oil is injected into the crankcase not in the fuel so oiling should not be a problem. Under fueling on one cylinder could cause a burnt piston if the injector is leaking or sticking. If the injector is not properly opening due to electrical fault it would also cause a lean condition. I would get it checked asap. It is easy to pull the hood & unplug and check all the injector connections.

[ssimpala71]

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by howieranger &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The oil is injected into the crankcase not in the fuel so oiling should not be a problem. Under fueling on one cylinder could cause a burnt piston if the injector is leaking or sticking. If the injector is not properly opening due to electrical fault it would also cause a lean condition. I would get it checked asap. It is easy to pull the hood & unplug and check all the injector connections.</TD></TR></TABLE>+1 on that! Have you pulled the cowling and looked at anything under it? An injector fault may or may not be and actual problem with said injector. Problems associated with the injector and not neccesarily THE injector could set the fault. I have seen a couple pro-xs's that have had porous castings in the cylinder heads and spraying water onto an injector/ harness and caused an injector fault. There very well could be a bad injector though too.

[fishinjim]

thanks guys!
didn't want to push my luck, so i ended up pulling the boat out of the water and spending my last vacation day doing some touristy stuff and watching a tournament weigh in at the ticonderoga ramp.

now that i'm back home, i'm gonna go ahead and pull the cowling for a looksee, then it'll be off to the shop for a check up.

might be a few days, but i'll let ya know what turns up.

[ssimpala71]

[EuropeanAM]

One other thing.....

Quite commonly see #5 or #6 injector faults when there are issues with the cowling seal, the "rubber access plug on the port side of the lower cowling is missing", or excessive backwash is getting into the cowling.

Locate the SOURCE of water, ELIMINATE the source of the water, then properly clean the affected injector's connectors. 9 out of 10 times.... all will be "well" once this is done.

[ssimpala71]

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EuropeanAM &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Quite commonly see #5 or #6 injector faults when there are issues with the cowling seal, the "rubber access plug on the port side of the lower cowling is missing", or excessive backwash is getting into the cowling.



</TD></TR></TABLE> I meant to mention that!!

[fishinjim]

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EuropeanAM &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">One other thing.....

Quite commonly see #5 or #6 injector faults when there are issues with the cowling seal, the "rubber access plug on the port side of the lower cowling is missing", or excessive backwash is getting into the cowling.

Locate the SOURCE of water, ELIMINATE the source of the water, then properly clean the affected injector's connectors. 9 out of 10 times.... all will be "well" once this is done. </TD></TR></TABLE>

i think, and am hoping, that your onto something here.
keeping the above in mind, i pulled the cowling and took a look today.

the rubber access plug is still there, but is "loose." as soon as i applied the slightest bit of pressure to it, it popped out. it definitely wasn't as tight fitting as i thought it should be.
cowling seal did appear in good shape though.

looking at the injectors down each rail, i noticed that the number 5 injector was a bit dirtier than all the other injectors (both port and starboard side). it also looked had quite a bit of what i would think are water spots on and around it.

also noticed that the metal bracket that holds everything in place is cracked underneath one of the allen head bolts.
question... doesn't look like it would be much of a problem as the majority of the bracket is solid on the rail, but do these brackets have anything to do with grounding any of the wires leading to the injector and could that be a problem?

heres a pic of the injector and cracked bracket...



i'm still planning on taking it to the shop, but thought i'd go ahead and post my findings of the day.
btw... as far as cleaning the injector goes... any particular cleaning agents i should be using?

[ssimpala71]

The broken bracket wont have a grounding affect on the injector as it goes through the wiring harness to the injector. I would suggest it be replaced however in the event that it breaks,--it does hold the injector in under high fuel pressure right into a cylinder!! You should be using quickleen as your additive in every tank of fuel to keep carbon deposits down!

[fishinjim]

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ssimpala71 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> You should be using quickleen as your additive in every tank of fuel to keep carbon deposits down! </TD></TR></TABLE>

funny thing is that this happened after using quickleen for the first time.

i bought the boat at around 150hrs and it now has 200hrs.

the previous owner (2nd owner) said he never ran any additives.
i immediately started using seafoam and stabil as i had in my previous boat, and then (aprox 50hrs later) added quickleen into the mix when i filled up just before this trip.

i think its probably coincidental, but i wondered for a minute it the quickleen had something to do with it when the injector fault showed up.

[EuropeanAM]

Don't think Quickleen had anything to do with the bracket- I WOULD however replace the bracket!

You can clean the connectors with detergent solution and dry completely. I personally would utilize "electrical contact cleaner" (or brake cleaner spray).

Dry completely with compressed air. Take a careful inspection of the "plug".... taking careful note to ensure that the pins are snug.

Additionally, I'd be looking at both sides of the engine, too see if the "water spots" are limited "primarily to one side".... or relatively even on BOTH sides.

This will help to determine if you have a "single side LEAK", or perhaps are "flooding the cowling as the boat comes on and off plane".

[fishinjim]

picked the boat up from the shop today, so i thought i'd update.
took the boat in and they ran it through the computer for faults, but had problems isolating which injector was the problem. both injector 1 and 6 seemed culprit.
after about an hour of diagnostics and testing, the tech replaced those two injector connectors.
ran the boat for a while, and right after he said he thought he'd fixed the problem, another fault popped up on the smartcraft.
with this fault, the tech was able to figure out that the number one injector was the problem, not just the connector.
left the boat and they replaced the injector and that broken bracket. no more faults while they ran the motor this time.
hopefully i'm good to go.

btw,
looking over the water spotting under the cowl, the tech said that its concentrated right where he usually sees it... just above where the rear portside clamp holds the cowling on.
said water spotting getting through that clamp is typical of these motors.

thanks again for the help, guys.

[Zimmer250XS]

Had the exact same smartcraft messages. However, my read "fuel injector not working properly" "see dealer soon" I also notice a temp increase and shut down the engine since the contiuous beep was driving me insane. Let it sit for 2 minutes and start it back up and everything was fine. Took it to a dealer and we found nothing.

Turns out it was the #2 injector that faulted. The tec said that it was just some sort of electral failure. Needless to say, we did not change anything and the motor has ran fine for about 20 hours.