After running perfectly for years and 100's of hours, I've had my first issue with my SX. Twice I've had a scenario where the boat will crank, but not start. I think I've diagnosed the problem, but I'm hoping for the experts' opinions. I don't want to get stuck out on the lake!
First occurrence: We spent the evening on the lake, had numerous starts and stops, everything was fine all evening. After going through the boat lock to get home, I went to start it again and first noticed that the ignition buzzer did not sound. The gauges still activated, and the motor would turn over fine, but would not start. I pulled the boat over to the side, and spent the next 5 minutes or so looking around the boat trying to see if something came loose. I couldn't find anything wrong, tried starting the boat again, and surprisingly I heard the ignition buzzer and it started perfectly. Got home without issue.
Second occurrence: Spent Saturday afternoon out on the lake, mostly idling around at about 1000rpm and enjoying the sun. Had numerous starts and stops, no issues. It was a fairly hot day, over 35C. After turning the boat off to take a swim break, I went to start it, and the ignition buzzer did not sound, and it would crank, but not start. We were a fairly long ways from home, so I started trying to diagnose the problem.
Diagnostic Steps
1. First thought is maybe the emergency lanyard was off - Checked that, pulled the button in and out, no change. Even went as far as bypassing the switch, still no start.
2. Is the neutral switch working - tried wiggling it, looking for loose wires, etc... Still no start
3. Checked all of the breakers under the dash - No start
4. Checked all of the connections on the ignition switch - No start
5. Checked the fuse near the battery box - Removed and reinstalled, still no start. Removed this fuse and tried to start the boat, dash would not light up, so I confirmed it was nothing to do with this switch.
6. I then moved onto the fuse box on the engine. I removed each fuse, confirmed they were not blown and reinserted, Still no start.
7. I then looked at the relay box on the front left side of the engine. I pulled each relay and reinserted, nothing looked corroded. I noted that the EFI relay felt very hot. After putting all relays back in, the boat started.
This led me to believe that I may have a faulty EFI relay. Once back on the dock, I removed the EFI relay and tried to start the boat. This caused the dash to turn on, but the ignition buzzer did not sound and the boat would crank but not start. Basically it replicated my problem, leading me to be fairly certain that my problems are related to the EFI relay, however I'm hoping one of the experts here can confirm my diagnosis.
Questions:
1. Can relays sometimes work? I thought they were either 'good' or 'bad'... Meaning it either works or doesn't. My problem seems to intermittent.
2. What could cause it to fail?
3. Is it an off the shelf Toyota part?
Lastly, here's a couple pics of the offending part:
