04 malibu vlx help! starter
 

Good morning,

I have an 04 vlx, I bought the guy put new engine in and had 60 hours on engine, it fired first time out of warehouse Saturday from winter, ran 3 hours great turning on and off. Stopped and it wouldn't start. It made a high pitch noise which everyone agree starter went out, replaced the starter for 160 and both new batteries. Now I just get a click noise when I turn it. Any suggestions, before I take it and spend a fortune for mechanic at the dealer to look at it. wondering if you have any suggestions, how do you test the relay? My other question I thought its weird, but there is a red light that is on under the kill switch lanyard, is that always suppose to be lit on?

Our Mobius red light always has one on by the throttle as well. I believe the other one is check engine but when we pull the kill switch the other red light goes off. I may be wrong, but I'm assuming the kill light should stay on if it's like our boat.

not enough voltage. check your connections. put a pair of pliers on the wingnuts and get them tight for real.
check starter connects 2x. you just monkeyed with all the vital leads on batts and starter connections. double check everything. Batteries charged? I know they're new, but what voltage are they showing? should be 13 at a minimum.
retighten everything AGAIN.
tighten the starter to the block - that's its ground. was that surface clean and free of corrosion/debris? pop the starter off and double check. tighten starter lead.

red lights are typically bad

spend an hour looking over your work before you hand some bonehead a wad to chase it down

Make sure the throttle's in neutral.

A single click or clicking?

Make sure the solenoid wire is connected to the right terminal. Get a simple screw driver tester that has the light in the handle to track down what is working and what isn't.

I dont mean to scare you but you really need to pull the spark plugs and make sure the cylinders aren't full of water before you do anything else .That nasty sound may have been the starter trying to turn an engine over thats hydrolocked. Sometimes the head gaskets crap out sitting as well as cracks from getting too cold in storage . How was the engine temp before while it was running ? Where you in the water or on the hose ?

Let's do some diagnostics before we jump to blown head gaskets

I agree I hate to think that could be his problem but it doesn't get any easier then pulling a few plugs to see if there's water in there and if so then why screw around with anything else .

The reason I said to do that is because I've seen the same thing happen more then once(actually twice last year) after not getting winterized correctly or just stuff getting old .

well, pulling the dipstick and looking for milky oil would be easier still and should rule out any HG concerns

boat did run for 3 hours prior to the problem.

also NSS wouldn't let a boat out of neutral 'click' as it interrupts power to everything

If I remember right it was a single click. I am going back up to the boat storage tonight to look at it and work on it. I will try all this and hope it works. I will try the batteries. Thanks for scaring me about the water in the engine UGH.

I had it winterized and I believe it was done right, I mean the guy did all 4 of the families that share the unit for storage. My buddy had this happen last 4th of july and it was the starter, he said it sounded identical. I will have to try that all thanks guys. The red light I been told is always on until its in gear or turns over. I also been told to hit the master reset on top of the engine somewhere.

Sorry to scare you I just dont want you wasting your time fooling with wiring if its something worse . Just pulling the dip stick doesn't always give you a accurate diagnosis either as the last Sanger215 I saw locked up you couldn't tell what so ever until we pulled the plugs .

Hopefully its something simple like a bad battery or crappy ground . So in your first post are you saying you were out enjoying the boat or you were running it in the warehouse for 3 hours ?

I was out wake boarding on the lake, started up first try ran great several starts. Then nothing. I took it to the mechanic, first boat figured id let a pro do it instead of me screwing it up more.

Fingers crossed its something simple !!!

You should have trouble shot a little more ... only way you will learn about your boat.

I'll bet bad connection or bad relay.

be sure to keep us updated

On my 2005 VLX the Red light under the kill switch was used for the V drive. when he boat was in neutral the light would be on and when you put it in drive it would go off. If the light stayed on while you were in forward, that meant you had a problem.

It should say something about Walter V-drive or something like that.

Does your boat have a remote solenoid by chance? My 01 mercy black scorpion has a remote solenoid by the ecu. I've had it fail twice...both times in the early spring after taking the boat out of winter storage. Same exact symptoms you are describing

low vdrive oil light

Nathan, you hear anything from your mech/shop?

Nacho, I have not. they are full swamped right now. I am going to head up there to tinker with it before they look at it to see if I can find a problem. I figured though brand new battery as well, I would take a brush and clean the wires to it. Then also test the voltage, and I guess hit the reset button on the engine as well. I don't know if it could be anything else, unless the new starter is broke. The low oil light, I am told it always turns on unless in gear, is that correct?

You are correct on the low oil light . Usually once you put it in gear it will go out . Sometimes it takes a slight increase in throttle to turn the light off .

So thanks for all the advice. So my shoulders are to broad to fit in there so I had a guy exchange the starter, well my buddy and I worked on it just before we were going to take it to mechanic, and well the other guy had the lines crossed so it is working WOOHOO, except no the bilge is out :(

that will make a difference!

Now go replace that car starter with a marine version so you don't blow up your boat.

Awesome news !!!

please don't leave it there over a bilge pump.....