[M5finally]

Thats right, has anyone had this happen?   I have and I am still in the process of troubleshooting this issue.

Boat is a 1996 3100 Open with Volvo Diesels that have just over 1430 hrs.  Boat is maintained very well and I have owned it since 2014. It is also kept on a lift which made this issue more exciting.  Well on December 19th 2021 I went to check on the boat and found the port motor running on the lift.  Keys were locked up in the cabin and I have camera's on it so nobody was on it messing around.  Motor was overheated for sure and the boat almost burnt down.  I dont know how long the motor was running as the key switch was off and the hour meter had no power going to it.  

Well its possible there was no catastrophic damage but that has not been confirmed yet.  Yes the battery switches were left on however I now shut them off. These are mechanical motors so I can only see it being either a bad key switch, short in the wiring harness, bad start solenoid, and maybe a wiring issue on top of the motor.


Thanks in advance

Tom

[MC1600]

I honestly can’t wait to see what kind of responses you get. I’ve been around boats a long time and never heard anything like this and can’t imagine what’s going on!

[RMS]

First thought is the keyswitch, I remember this happening on older boats with flybridges. The 'upstairs' helm switch would get wet via rain and start the engine. Let us know how the situation unfolds.
Bob

[MC1600]

Might want to consider joining and posting over at BoatDiesel too. That’s a ridiculously smart group.

[OurHighLife]

Do you have an upper station with start/stop buttons? Friend of mine had a twin engine express with a tower, Volvo 41 series, he went out to his boat 1 day to find an engine running,, some type of short in the tower.

[jmk]

There have been several similar posts like this on BoatDiesel over the years. Condensation in the key switch is a hypothesis. Water is an ionic conductor.


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