Repair for Dead Gauges on 2003-2006 Nautiques Caused by Bad Faria Gateway

[brit_hunsicker]

Let me preface this with I copied and pasted from what I posted on the Nautique Boat Owners group, so my apologies that it’s explained a little more than this group needs. Does anyone in here have experience with both kits an have a preference? I have my own pros and cons for each kit looking int them, but never dealt with one hands on. This is for a 2006 SV-211.

Looking for input from people who have done either of the available gateway conversion kits for mid 2000s Nautique’s. Bonus points if you’ve had experience with both kits as your insight would be very valuable. I want to know which product seems to function the best and integrated the most seamlessly. The price difference in kits isn’t enough to sway me one way or another.

SP-14-1246 - This is the kit NautiqueParts.com offers. It has been around for quite a few years, but had several different changes throughout the years. I know the most recent update was 2022 or 2023 but haven’t read much feedback on it since that update. It appears all gauges match now, they didn’t for a while, let me know if you know otherwise. I like this kit because it appears to keep all factory functions in the allotted factory dash holes. No problem leaving stargazer PP in place and powering it. It does seem to be a bit more complicated to install, but if it gives me a better finished product, that is fine.

TRD-2001-CC - This is the kit that Ron Tanis developed and sells on skiboatpartsonline.com. A few years ago he switched from Faria gauges to his own gauges and they have connectors to plug and play with factory wiring. This kit easier to install from what I’ve read. The kits appears very nice and is offered in black or white. I’m confident in quality coming out of Ron’s shop with his name on it. However, the downfall to this kit is you lose the depth/temp gauge, in the factory holes anyways. He says an additional gauge can be ordered and pigtail added on his harness to regain those functions, but the gauge they sent me a link to was a generic Sierra gauge that was ugly and only appears to do depth alone. I’m waiting for a response on if they offer a different gauge that does both or if they can adapt the Faria gauge offering that Nautique uses in their kit to do depth and temp. I’m not willing to lose depth or have a janky looking add on gauge, so hoping there is a good option for this.

Ultimately, I like both kits for their own reasons, so I need some real world feedback. I wanted to go with TRD because I’ve had great luck with Ron and his expertise is invaluable when it comes to all things boats. Maybe I just need to call him on Monday to get for sure answers to my questions.

[TechBeer]

Hi Jody. Sent you an email but I assume it's really support@nautiqueparts.com??

[teamseal]

My GW Box CAN Msg to the dash is likely corrupt, or the Speedo & Tach LCDs both went bad at the same time. When I started the last ride of the year to pull the boat out this fall, both the LCDs had minimal segments working, and the Speedo went into alarm mode. When I bought the boat in 2020 the Oil & Temp gauges didn't work, and continued to not work when I replaced them.

2006 is a one year only application for pcm engines as it is a MEFI/DBW configuration. gateway conversion kits are nothing more than installing a analog set of gauges and a over complicated wire harness. keep in mind all pcm engines generate a analog signal through their ECM's.

TechBeer: is this a hobby to repair gauges or do you do this as a job? would like more info on what you do repair or can repair? we get a lot of calls at DIM for many of the gauge failures of many manufacturer boats. you can direct email me to support@nautiqueparts.com

Merry Christmas
Jody

[TechBeer]

Interesting. I've never seen a situation where 2 of the small gauges worked and the gateway had an issue. I believe Temp actually come from the engine ECU via the CAN interface. Oil pressure comes from a separate sending unit, at least up to 2005. Not sure on the larger gauges but garbled messages on the LCD is a classic symptom of gauge failure.

If you have some down time I would be happy to test all 4 gauges in my lab. If they are all functional I would just ship them back to you. PM me if you are interested.

[Brucetheshark]

Brucetheshark Not sure if you are still looking at this but I can certainly fix your individual gauges that don't work. The gateway is blamed for a lot of issues but 90%+ of issues are a flaw in the individual gauges which is easily repairable. Especially for a gateway without the pitot tubes. PM me if you want to go into more detail.

I agree that the engine ECU data is likely just a CAN J1932 protocol. However the output of the gateway is a 2 wire proprietary that is not a simple CAN bus. If the data is available on the LCD screen(s) but not on the smaller gauges, the problem is with the gauge, not the gateway. If you get garbled data on the LCD and/or the nav lights don't work and/or the needle doesn't move this is an indication of a bad gauge (fixable).

If you want to keep the original look of your Nautique I suggest fixing the gauges that go bad.

My GW Box CAN Msg to the dash is likely corrupt, or the Speedo & Tach LCDs both went bad at the same time. When I started the last ride of the year to pull the boat out this fall, both the LCDs had minimal segments working, and the Speedo went into alarm mode. When I bought the boat in 2020 the Oil & Temp gauges didn't work, and continued to not work when I replaced them.

[TechBeer]

Brucetheshark Not sure if you are still looking at this but I can certainly fix your individual gauges that don't work. The gateway is blamed for a lot of issues but 90%+ of issues are a flaw in the individual gauges which is easily repairable. Especially for a gateway without the pitot tubes. PM me if you want to go into more detail.

I agree that the engine ECU data is likely just a CAN J1932 protocol. However the output of the gateway is a 2 wire proprietary that is not a simple CAN bus. If the data is available on the LCD screen(s) but not on the smaller gauges, the problem is with the gauge, not the gateway. If you get garbled data on the LCD and/or the nav lights don't work and/or the needle doesn't move this is an indication of a bad gauge (fixable).

If you want to keep the original look of your Nautique I suggest fixing the gauges that go bad.

[tngmotorsports]

I'm working on my neighbors 06 limited with these gauges. I need a fuel and volt gauge repaired, or if anybody has retrofitted to the new setup and would be willing to sell thier old gauges. We're interested in purchasing them. All of our systems are working properly, just need the indicators. Thx

[SilentSeven]

...I don’t like to spend good money after bad on a company that caused my situation.

. lol....I like you already.

[Brucetheshark]

Hi Jeff, regarding 'why not' the Nautique Parts retrofit kit:
The NP Gateway replacement kit has shortcomings, I call it a “downgrade kit’. The hour meter is not tied to J1939, only records hours powered-on. I assume it maintains the MIL light function, but it does not provide clarification (that J1939 provides) of what issue caused the MIL light. My plan is the same price and provides the J1939 data to the Tach LCD, which can be menu toggled to get all engine data, lake temp, air temp, lake depth, DTC's.
The NP kit uses Faria gauges, the company that created this system that we've discussed for ten years and 14 forum pages now. I don’t like to spend good money after bad on a company that caused my situation.
Hopefully not coming off as rude, just giving details for others not far enough down this path to know the history.
Thank you for your work on this forum,
~Bruce

[tngmotorsports]

Working on my neighbors 06 Ski Nautique Limited and need the fuel and volt gauges repaired . I see that techbeer can rebuild these. Could you please contact me through an email to tngmotorsports@aol.com as I've tried to send a PM through this forum but it appears that as a newbie, I cant.
Thanks
Jerry

[NautiqueJeff]

Why not just do a standard Gateway Bypass that you know will work?

https://www.silvercovemarine.com/res.../gatewaybypass

[Brucetheshark]

Hi, I have a 2006 196LE, (Gateway, no pitots) purchased in 2020 with Water Temp and Oil Pressure gauges inop. Tried replacement with used gauges, no change. I was reading the oil pressure and water temp on the Tach MFD LCD using the menu buttons until August 2025 when those reading were gone and replaced with the letters for 'no data' (something like that). Last week the Tach LCD is partial segments of text, basically useless. I read this thread extensively in 2020-2021, it seams that two root causes exist, gauges developing mechanical failures and the CAN data from the Gateway box becoming corrupted. I suspect mine is the CAN data stream.
I researched in 2020 and again this week, 'Livorsi' gauges. They have SAE J1939 gauges that I think will work if I connect the MEFI data directly from the engine and bypass the Gateway box. I'll get a matching non-CAN electric Livorsi gauge for Speedo.Their 'Vantage View' line of CAN Bus Gauges are here: https://livorsi.com/product-category...an-bus-gauges/. Large CAN Tach and 4 small CAN gauges for OIl, Water, Temp & Volts, large Electric non-CAN Speedo, wiring and menu switches are about $1600. I'll have to mount the menu switches somewhere since Livorsi VV series doesn't offer a Speedo or Tach with menu buttons.
It's a lot to spend on a plan that I'm only 90% sure will work. I confirmed my boat's CAN language is SAE J1939 and MEFI version is MEFI-4b using part number on back of the ECU and BillaVista. com Tech Article, which has great MEFI info. I'm curious if anybody has investigated using new CAN gauges like Livorsi, VDO, Veratron. If you've thought about this also, please reach out to me so we can collaborate. Thanks, Bruce

[Liamfm]

Liamfm , are volts reading properly on the LCD? If so, TechBeer can help you with the Volt (and likely the Tach) gauge.

He is also working on a conversion kit that would allow you to get speed from a source other than the pitots which eliminates the risk of flooding the Gateway if the pitot connection develops a leak.

Edit: (Starting over) - The LCD on the tach is dead, so I can’t see any information there. I pulled the dash and the tach is the first one in the daisy chain, so it must be getting signal and power since the remainder of the gauges work (except the volts, which is the last in the chain). Thus, I suspect the gauge itself is dead, as is the gauge for the voltmeter. TechBeer if you care to PM me, or here, I’ll gladly take some advice on trying to bring these back to life.

[sgregg]

Liamfm , are volts reading properly on the LCD? If so, TechBeer can help you with the Volt (and likely the Tach) gauge.

He is also working on a conversion kit that would allow you to get speed from a source other than the pitots which eliminates the risk of flooding the Gateway if the pitot connection develops a leak.

[Liamfm]

Recently acquired 2003 206 limited. Tach and volt gauge not working.
Looks like Oil pressure gauge was replaced with a nautique brand (but different) gauge. But it functions properly and from the stock sending unit (maybe through the gateway? I'm not sure). Speedo functions as it should, including all aspects of the digital readout.

This leads me to think that the gateway is functioning properly. However, the tach is completely dead including the backlight. Same for volts. If I understand things correctly (after reading 14 pages of this thread), the signal for the volts comes daisy chained from the temp and fuel (and oil?). So if those are working, the issue is the gauge itself, or the last bit of the connection?

Sounds like the tach would go through the gateway.

I guess i'm curious, is there also a 12v power and ground for each gauge that would control the power for the stepper motor and backlight? Thinking perhaps I just have a bad wire (optimistically) vs bad gauges. I could live without volts, but a tach would be nice.

Another question: if I were to install stargazer PP, where does the tack pull from and how is that wired? I've only installed on a GT40 boat, and that was straight forward - tap off the tach wire next to it.

Thanks! This thread is awesome!