Dead on the water. 2006 Challenger 180

[Rescue9]

I took the boat out for the first time this season yesterday. Boat was winterized at the end of last season. Oil change filters spark plugs and rebuilt supercharger. Hooked up the battery and it fired up fine in the driveway. Once in the water she ran great. Just as she did last season not one issue. Ran the boat for about 30 mins. Threw the anchor and chilled for about an hour. When I was heading back to the dock I was running about 6500 RPM and the boat just died. Got a long beep and shut down. Long story short I got towed in. I was able to locate two fuses that had blown and get it started again but it kept blowing the same fuses. One being the 10 Amp fuel pump fuse. And the other a 15 amp fuse that I have no idea what it’s for. Any ideas what might cause this? In the pictures there’s an orange wire with a 30 amp fuse attached to the 15 amp wire it’s obviously aftermarket from the previous owner? As far as the battery goes is it a negative ground or do I attach the ground somewhere else? I can’t see that that would make much difference. Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[Macker29]

How old is the battery? Bad batteries can cause a lot of issues. I'm sure you've thought of that, but just in case thought I'd mention it.

 

[Rescue9]

How old is the battery? Bad batteries can cause a lot of issues. I'm sure you've thought of that, but just in case thought I'd mention it.

2018 on the battery. It was reading a little over 12v when I tested it. It was dead this morning but I forgot to turn off the switch last night. So got it charging and waiting to get it tested.

 

[Macker29]

I've had bad batteries blow fuses before at the beginning of the season. Once a battery is drained, it just seems to me that they are never the same. I'm switching to an AGM Marine battery this year.

 

[skiasylum]

The black wire with the red collar going to the negative terminal looks suspicious.

 

[Rescue9]

I've had bad batteries blow fuses before at the beginning of the season. Once a battery is drained, it just seems to me that they are never the same. I'm switching to an AGM Marine battery this year.

I've had bad batteries blow fuses before at the beginning of the season. Once a battery is drained, it just seems to me that they are never the same. I'm switching to an AGM Marine battery this year.

Thanks I’ll keep you posted.

 

[Rescue9]

The black wire with the red collar going to the negative terminal looks suspicious.

That wire is for my LED drain plug lights. I can’t imagine that making much difference?

 

[Rescue9]

At this point I’m just going to call it a bad battery. I charged it for over 12 hours the other day. Took it in to have it tested today and they said the battery was reading good it just needed to be charged. Fortunately it was still under warranty so I got a new battery and a $20 credit. If that’s not the issue I’ll keep you posted. Thanks for the help!

 

[ski-d00]

Your fuse values are all wrong. There should not be a 30A fuse in place of a 2A fuse and you can do major damage with higher values. That separate fuse with the orange wires I suspect somebody replaced the factory 30A fuse fuse holder and did a poor job of it.

Very rarely do batteries just fail while going across a lake and if it did it wouldn't blow fuses. To know what fuse blew, just read the list. I think you have another electrical problem and your battery is fine. I would guess fuel pump but need to know which 15A fuse also blew.

 

[Rescue9]

Your fuse values are all wrong. There should not be a 30A fuse in place of a 2A fuse and you can do major damage with higher values. That separate fuse with the orange wires I suspect somebody replaced the factory 30A fuse fuse holder and did a poor job of it.

Very rarely do batteries just fail while going across a lake and if it did it wouldn't blow fuses. To know what fuse blew, just read the list. I think you have another electrical problem and your battery is fine. I would guess fuel pump but need to know which 15A fuse also blew.

Not sure what 2 amp use you are referring to. I did temporarily stick a 30 amp into the fuel pump 10 amp slot to get it on the trailer. That is now back to the appropriate 10 amp.

Yes they did do a poor job replacing that 30 amp fuse holder with the orange wires. The 15 amp I’m referring to is next to the orange wires. It is going from power into the fuse box.

 

[ski-d00]

It looks like the fuses are in backwards order. Normally, when you are reading the panel the top F1 is also at the top and not the bottom.

 

[JPass]

It looks like the fuses are in backwards order. Normally, when you are reading the panel the top F1 is also at the top and not the bottom.

I agree. They definitely seem out of order based on the labels.

 

[Rescue9]

I agree. They definitely seem out of order based on the labels.

I thought so to. They are backwards but the numbers match up.

 

[Rescue9]

So I replaced the battery and took the boat out yesterday. Along with a bag of fuses! The boat ran great no issues the first half of the day. Pulled up on a beach for lunch and hung out for a couple hours. Heading back in I started having the same issues. Replaced the fuses and made it back in. Fuses start blowing at 6000 rpms. Same fuel pump fuse and the 15amp from power into the fuse box. I guess the next step is replace the fuel pump. Is it possible the the battery is not charging while under power?

 

[ski-d00]

The numbers match up because the previous owner was an idiot and took them out and then put them in backwards order. The factory won't put labels on upside down. I don't think you are blowing your fuel pump fuse.

Also, that hack job of wiring in the orange fuse holder should be a 30A fuse and so should the one that has a 15A fuse in it that keeps blowing based on there typically is two main 30A fuses and that looks to be one of them. You really need to verify all fuses before you catch something on fire or ruin something expensive like your ECM or gauges by putting in a 30A fuse where there should be a 2A fuse which is what you've already done.

 

[beergut]

been a mechanic for 15 years of my life- never in my life have I heard of a "bad" battery blowing a fuse.
something is causing a load strain or a short somewhere to blow a fuse. A short within the battery won't blow a fuse- a dead battery can't blow a fuse because, well.... it's dead. I would suspect the fuel pump may be faulty or you have a corroded connection somewhere causing increased current draw.

 

[Paaping]

i have a similar fuse box and it indeed is labeled backwards. On mine, if you look between the row of fuses and the wiring cables, the fuse slots are labeled 1 to 6 starting from the right side!!!

 

[Steve762us]

been a mechanic for 15 years of my life- never in my life have I heard of a "bad" battery blowing a fuse.
something is causing a load strain or a short somewhere to blow a fuse. A short within the battery won't blow a fuse- a dead battery can't blow a fuse because, well.... it's dead. I would suspect the fuel pump may be faulty or you have a corroded connection somewhere causing increased current draw.

Amen...goes along with "jumpstarting blows up MPEMs".

Not if you observe polarity...

OP, along with checking fuse amperages for circuits,
check to see if there's any loose/dangling wires...
chafed insulation...wires/connectors submerged in
bilge water...

 

[Macker29]

been a mechanic for 15 years of my life- never in my life have I heard of a "bad" battery blowing a fuse.
something is causing a load strain or a short somewhere to blow a fuse. A short within the battery won't blow a fuse- a dead battery can't blow a fuse because, well.... it's dead. I would suspect the fuel pump may be faulty or you have a corroded connection somewhere causing increased current draw.

Notice that I said a bad battery, not a dead battery. Bad batteries are capable of very strange things. Not saying that is the case here, but I've seen it happen twice, on two different boats.

 

[beergut]

Notice that I said a bad battery, not a dead battery. Bad batteries are capable of very strange things. Not saying that is the case here, but I've seen it happen twice, on two different boats.

yes, batteries can do strange things indeed- but tying to think of a scenario how a bad, dead or whatever battery could blow a fuse... a shorted battery won't blow a fuse, neither will a dead battery. DC voltage seeks to make a the shortest loop possible back to itself- a short in the battery won't affect the circuit by blowing a fuse. no short before a fuse will cause it to blow. a shorted battery won't increase the voltage either, so, as long as your fuses are correctly matched to the circuit- no blown fuses. if a fuse blows- it's occurring down stream by either an oxidized connection (causing increased current draw) or a short across another circuit (overloading a circuit.) would love to know the details behind the 2x where you had a malfunction in a battery blow a fuse...

 

[Rescue9]

Problem solved! Thank you for all the input and advice. As far as the fuse box goes it is indeed labeled backwards by the factory but it is correct and all the fuses are in the correct slots. So after a couple weeks of troubleshooting I found problem. First I replace the battery then I replaced the fuel pump took the boat out yesterday had the same issue blowing the fuel pump fuse. As I suspected all along it’s a short in the wiring. I don’t know how I missed it I traced the wires from the fuse box all the way to the fuel pump didn’t see a thing. Well it was right in front of my face the whole time. The wiring harness going into the fuse box was rubbing against the washer on the exhaust manifold. It melted the insulation on the fuel pump wire causing the short. So after spending $200 on a new fuel pump the time it took to replace it. I fixed my problem with a zip tie and some electrical tape on the water. I spent this morning going through all the wiring securing any loose wires making sure they weren’t touching any hotspots. Again thanks for all the help hopefully this helps someone else troubleshoot a similar problem.

 

[Rescue9]

Just to ease everyone’s mind about the fuse box.

 

[Macker29]

glad you were able to get it fixed. Time to go out and enjoy the boat!

 

[Andrew Higdon]

Problem solved! Thank you for all the input and advice. As far as the fuse box goes it is indeed labeled backwards by the factory but it is correct and all the fuses are in the correct slots. So after a couple weeks of troubleshooting I found problem. First I replace the battery then I replaced the fuel pump took the boat out yesterday had the same issue blowing the fuel pump fuse. As I suspected all along it’s a short in the wiring. I don’t know how I missed it I traced the wires from the fuse box all the way to the fuel pump didn’t see a thing. Well it was right in front of my face the whole time. The wiring harness going into the fuse box was rubbing against the washer on the exhaust manifold. It melted the insulation on the fuel pump wire causing the short. So after spending $200 on a new fuel pump the time it took to replace it. I fixed my problem with a zip tie and some electrical tape on the water. I spent this morning going through all the wiring securing any loose wires making sure they weren’t touching any hotspots. Again thanks for all the help hopefully this helps someone else troubleshoot a similar problem.

Awesome! I just joined this forum moments ago. The guy mentioning too much load or a bad connection was definitely on the right track. You’re mentioning that it happened at 6000rpm or above made me think that meant the fuel pump was u set maximum load. Any lousy connection anywhere is bad obviously. But an easy way to check is to look for an abnormally hot connection. For example with the fuel pump, if that was suspicious, quickly touch or almost touch either end of the power cable connection for the fuel pump. Gotta be quick before it cools off. Another tell is smoke. I’ll bet that wire touching the exhaust manifold was smoking at full throttle but by the time you pull the cover maybe it wasn’t anymore or maybe the exhaust fan had sucked it out. But it would appear that all systems were doing their jobs. Congrats