ECU Failed?

[angleiron4]

That was my whole point...it could not have just walked away! The SmartCraft monitor gauge has been there from day 1, and the boat is at a Mercury dealership. It seems to me because they could not figure it out what caused the problem they are just going to balme "rigging". The engine was put into warranty late May of 2004 and had 42 hours on it. Rigging problem?...I don't think so.

This whole thing does not make sense. I have been a long time merc owner, and though I have never had any issues in the past this one does not sit well with me. IF the old ECU walked, and they cannot figure out what happened to it (what caused the fault), what is the reasoning for blaming the customer? The dealer spent 6 hours (seems a long time to me) to try to find out what happened by checking ALL of the wiring for my boat, and they found absolutely nothing that would have caused this problem.

I wonder why Mercury has a problem with realizing that an electronic component failed...as it happens all of the time in the real world? What bothers me is that they are using a previous example of where something like this did occur where a dealership hooked up the full SmartCraft gauge system wrong, and this generated a similar failure (according to Mercury). The full gauge system does involve involving the 12 volt system of the boat...but the monitor gauge does not, it cannot be hooked up wrong, tapped into, and the dealer verified that everything was correct.

What do I do?

[sosmerc]

You say your boat is now at a Mercury dealership.....is this the dealership that rigged the boat?

[1BadAction]

A voltage reference circuit fault indicates a primary or even secondary sensor is not receiving or delivering the appropriate amount of "reference voltage" to the ECU for sensor signal processing and recognition of that component.

There was a 2000 150 opti that was having weird problems, and wouldnt run right. jump on the gas and the motor would go into protect mode... several dealers said it was an ECU and wanted to charge the guy over a grand. It ended up being the sensor in the oil tank was broken. the ecu was fine. I'll tell ya, some dealers are real greedy assholes.

[angleiron4]

Not the dealer that sold the boat to me, as no one sells Stroker's local.

[SCAngler]

well it's kinda strange but you just had an independent authorized merc dealer tell you nothing was wrong with the rigging.the dealer you have it at nowmore or less has proved merc wrong.if the dealer you have it at was the dealer who setup & sold you the boat then i would say they maybe covering there a**.but since the dealer you have it at now is saying everything was wired & rigged up fine (he should after 6 hours of looking) all eyes should be loooking at merc & wondering why they want honor there warranty.gets people thinkin