Let's play a game: MPEM or wiring harness? Fix or replace?

[KiloRomeo]

My 2002 Sea Doo GTX 4tec has some electrical gremlins. Unfortunately this was attempted to be fixed by a local shop when they replaced the MPEM, ECU and wiring harness (used). Unfortunately the next time I took it out the wear ring disintegrated and the ski sat through summer and into fall. Fast forward to winter. I replaced the wear ring/impeller and I go for a test run. Ski runs fine and then boom....everything shuts off. No beeps, nothing on the gauge, NADA.

I bring it home and start messing with it and it starts running again. Unfortunately I keep getting weird codes that will go away if I clean wiring connections enough/apply Deoxit. A second ago I had it working well enough with no codes but again it will randomly shut off. If I reach down to connector A on the MPEM and move it a little the ski will come back to life. Sometimes it comes back to life with no codes, some times it has codes. I can also turn the ski off if it's running by reaching down and moving that harness where it connects into the MPEM.

What do you guys think? I need to sell this ski but every time I think I'm close I need to drop another $300. I'm at the point where I've recently put in $1600 into this thing. I just don't know if I'm $200 away from a perfect running ski or $200 away from a ski that has one more random thing go wrong with it.

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

If you still have the original MPEM, swap it back in.

Is that harness piece anywhere near a fuse box? I've seen several reports of intermittent fuse boxes.

 

[KiloRomeo]

Best I can tell the MPEM is also the fuse box, so yes. I don't have the original anymore.

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

I distinctly recall someones 4-tec was missing on one or more cylinders, he traced it to misfiring injectors and he replaced the fuse box, not the MPEM. He never posted a follow-up by my memory so I'm not certain if it really was fixed?

For intermittent problems I like to wiggle cables and such and lightly whack stuff with the plastic handle of a screw driver.

One other thing, several reports of lose connections on the back of the gauge pod. I think the lose connection was fooling the MPEM into thinking the engine RPM were whacko and the MPEM was acting in strange ways attempting to compensate.

I bet you ride in salt, this eventually gets into the harness connectors and causes them to corrode.

How about your throttle position sensors, those are known to become unreliable as they age, the thin resistive film under the potentiometer wiper delaminates from the substrate.

Just tossing out ideas, things to look for.

 

[mkov608]

Hey man I feel your pain. One of my '02s has been a real pain, but I've got everything fixed now. My first problem (with all the warning beeps and error codes) was caused by a faulty wire in the information center. I bought a new information center, and pulled the old one apart. There was a lot of corrosion inside the old one; one wire was so badly corroded that the a single strand of wire was the only thing competing that circuit. Then It started to randomly shut off (like yours), and I would reach down to the fuse on the MPEM and tap on the housing with the lanyard on the DESS post and wait for the two beeps. It would start back up. I replaced the started solenoid, but that didn't fix my problem. The last thing I did was to pull all the fuses, spray all the contacts with Deoxit, and install NEW fuses. Oh yea, I also pulled the two quick disconnects on the MPEM and sprayed those with Dexoit. It's been fine ever since.

What codes are you getting?

 

[KiloRomeo]

Hey man I feel your pain. One of my '02s has been a real pain, but I've got everything fixed now. My first problem (with all the warning beeps and error codes) was caused by a faulty wire in the information center. I bought a new information center, and pulled the old one apart. There was a lot of corrosion inside the old one; one wire was so badly corroded that the a single strand of wire was the only thing competing that circuit. Then It started to randomly shut off (like yours), and I would reach down to the fuse on the MPEM and tap on the housing with the lanyard on the DESS post and wait for the two beeps. It would start back up. I replaced the started solenoid, but that didn't fix my problem. The last thing I did was to pull all the fuses, spray all the contacts with Deoxit, and install NEW fuses. Oh yea, I also pulled the two quick disconnects on the MPEM and sprayed those with Dexoit. It's been fine ever since.

What codes are you getting?

Sounds exactly like my ski. The most recent round of codes are listed below. I kept trying to clean terminals with Deoxit and got a merry go round of codes but these last ones appear pretty consistently now. I've replaced all the fuses relating to the injectors but maybe I should replace the rest too just in case.

P0261 - #1 injector short to ground or open circuit
P0264 - #2 injector short to ground or open circuit
P0267 - #3 injector short to ground or open circuit

 

[mkov608]

Check out this post.

http://www.seadooforum.com/showthre...-where-to-start-Limp-Mode&p=496856#post496856

Oh, I see that you never did get this problem resolved from your original post. Sorry about that. Did you ever complete the wiring harness electrical checks?

 

[3ftDeep]

This will tick some people off, but I have a 10 year rule: after 10 years, all mechanical and electrical components in machines exposed to the environment (cars, boats, etc.) become unreliable. You can keep fixing it, but it'll never really be reliable, and so should always be run close to shore, or other safe situations. Good luck!

 

[mkov608]

3 Ft, I love you man, but 90% of failures are random ... not time based. There are many reliability studies out there, but the one frequently referenced is the Nolan and Heap study.

My '02s are running strong; it's all about the maintenance.

 

[3ftDeep]

I agree. The better the maintenance, the better the reliability. I'll find the Nolan and Heap study. Thanks.

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

The battery in my 32 year old daily driver just croaked, it was 8 years old. Original ball joints, I know they're worn and should replace them but the front tracks straight as an arrow still. Time flies!