09 Malibu vlx computer problems

[Bobby Light]

Yes I am , I am extremely upset!!I am dealing on a new nautique right now. I was a huge malibu fan that us why I bought the boat . This is my fourth new boat. And this one has left me broke down for half of the first summer , half of the second and all of this year. So I am not sure how you would expect me to react?do you have some positive input because I will listen?

I'm unclear as to what involvement your dealer has had in trying to remedy your issues? Can they not figure it out?

[dmfreier]

Thanks for that post. even though I am frustrated with my boat I am trying to help other people to.that is my intention!!

[Bobby Light]

Thanks for that post. even though I am frustrated with my boat I am trying to help other people to.that is my intention!!

I understand but it's hard to follow where you're coming from when you're blasting every malivue thread with 10 posts of the same thing. Has your dealer been there for you to help with this issue, or have you been troubleshooting this yourself?

[thtrog]

I hate to hear of anyone having these kind of problems; I've put over 300 hours combined on a '09 an '11 boat with no such issues. Is is not true that Medallion sources these systems for ALL, not just Malibu?

[Bobby Light]

Yes medalion does all the electronics for most of the boats I know of, Bu, Tige, Supra, etc... Not sure about CC and MC.

[thtrog]

Yes medalion does all the electronics for most of the boats I know of, Bu, Tige, Supra, etc... Not sure about CC and MC.

On a quick search looks like CC uses Murphy or used to.

[dmfreier]

I'm unclear as to what involvement your dealer has had in trying to remedy your issues? Can they not figure it out?

My dealer has been great . They have re wired the boat,with a new factory harness and have done everything the factory had advised them to do,they have spent countless hours out on the water eliminating every Possible wire and accessory . Not one person on this and other threads I found have come said there boat is fixed. I personally know of two more boats that are doing the same thing mine is now . One is a 09 vtx at our lake at a different dealer and the other is 09 vlx at the shop mine is at.neither as of Friday are fixed.the way i understand it ,the factory explained to me that it is confusion in the viper module and that it is a medallion issue. As far as I know (I may be wrong) my boat is is the trial boat for the new boxes .as of Friday they put the second custom built viper box in they are called service boxes( the first solution boxes are called 08 retrofit)We can't

Blame the dealers here this is a factory problem. If it was as easy for the dealer to fix it you would think that the factories involvement would have guided them through it.

[dmfreier]

I understand but it's hard to follow where you're coming from when you're blasting every malivue thread with 10 posts of the same thing. Has your dealer been there for you to help with this issue, or have you been troubleshooting this yourself?

My dealer has been there for me , they have had my boat and have been dealing with the factory on this issue.the reason I am blasting the threads is because a lot of our boats are off warranty as we go into next spring and I want everyone to be aware. My screen started rebooting continuously and never stopped. If you read other people post it did it once and they never thought much of it . And then started going funny . I just want people to be aware. Let's say it reboots once on the last day you drive your boat and then put it away. You take it out next spring when it is off warranty , and it happens to do what mine and others do , do you think it will be covered? At least with all these complaints on this forum maybe you will have a chance? Maybe not .I am on these threads to support the people with the same issues I am having.Thanks

[Brett B]

Every manufacturer has their problems even when paying a premium, this thread is a good example: http://www.planetnautique.com/vb3/showthread.php?21392-Getting-to-be-an-un-happy-nautique-owner

Beyond the original post there are several owners with a list of issues on their new boats.

Edited September 19, 2011 by Brett B

[Fman]

My dealer has been there for me , they have had my boat and have been dealing with the factory on this issue.the reason I am blasting the threads is because a lot of our boats are off warranty as we go into next spring and I want everyone to be aware. My screen started rebooting continuously and never stopped. If you read other people post it did it once and they never thought much of it . And then started going funny . I just want people to be aware. Let's say it reboots once on the last day you drive your boat and then put it away. You take it out next spring when it is off warranty , and it happens to do what mine and others do , do you think it will be covered? At least with all these complaints on this forum maybe you will have a chance? Maybe not .I am on these threads to support the people with the same issues I am having.Thanks

Leave Malibu and move on, thats what I would be doing... or go pick up the AXIS A22, you will get the same hull but no electronic components... this switch to AXIS has crossed my mind a couple times after seeing these problems with the Maliview and MTC. I purchased my boat for a 10 yr investment, I am starting to have doubts about how well it will hold up over the next 9 years...I have 135 hours this season and no problems with the Maliview, I did have my MTC replaced and it has been fine ever since. I would be "fuming" if my boat was down all season, let alone two weeks, they should have given you a "loaner" boat while they sat there and scratched there heads trying to figure out what was wrong. And they still dont have it figured out.

I feel for you, and you have every right to be pissed off.... its disappointing for me to hear how they handled this entire situation.... totally unacceptable in my book.

One question for you, how do you store your boat for the winter? Indoors? heated garage? I thought your profile said you were from Canada?, I always thought -10 degree weather with all these electronics could cause some serious problems... not saying this was the cause, but cold weather and electronics dont go well together.

Edited September 19, 2011 by Fman

[dmfreier]

Leave Malibu and move on, thats what I would be doing... or go pick up the AXIS A22, you will get the same hull but no electronic components... this switch to AXIS has crossed my mind a couple times after seeing these problems with the Maliview and MTC. I purchased my boat for a 10 yr investment, I am starting to have doubts about how well it will hold up over the next 9 years...I have 135 hours this season and no problems with the Maliview, I did have my MTC replaced and it has been fine ever since. I would be "fuming" if my boat was down all season, let alone two weeks, they should have given you a "loaner" boat while they sat there and scratched there heads trying to figure out what was wrong. And they still dont have it figured out.

I feel for you, and you have every right to be pissed off.... its disappointing for me to hear how they handled this entire situation.... totally unacceptable in my book.

One question for you, how do you store your boat for the winter? Indoors? heated garage? I thought your profile said you were from Canada?, I always thought -10 degree weather with all these electronics could cause some serious problems... not saying this was the cause, but cold weather and electronics dont go well together.

[dmfreier]

Thanks for the support. I store it in a garage , and it gets damn cold here! Thanks for the reminder. Lol.

[Fman]

Every manufacturer has their problems even when paying a premium, this thread is a good example: http://www.planetnautique.com/vb3/showthread.php?21392-Getting-to-be-an-un-happy-nautique-owner

Beyond the original post there are several owners with a list of issues on their new boats.

I came from a different builder, and it was no different here than on there site. There always is a small group in comparison to how many boats are built that end up having issues. Dmfreirer, is the extreme situation, and there were cases like this on my old boats site. Its unfortunate, just very disappointing how Malibu has handled this, 3 months without a boat.... wow, thats crazy.

Edited September 19, 2011 by Fman

[Bobby Light]

I hope malibu gets this resolved for you. They owe you that at a minimum!

[bubu]

It is the strangest thing that my computer worked after its little vacation away from my boat. What I didn't mention before is that I left the old viper box at the dealer because they said they would overnight the correct box, The next day they tell me it will be a few weeks before they get the the new one. So I had them ship the old one back so I could use the boat ( dealer is a few hours away ) hooked it back up and it worked fine. I should mention that everything worked fine aside from it just shutting down and rebooting every few minutes. I still have not hurd from the dealer about the new one. By the way I have 360 hrs. on my 09 LSV.

[Brett B]

It is the strangest thing that my computer worked after its little vacation away from my boat. What I didn't mention before is that I left the old viper box at the dealer because they said they would overnight the correct box, The next day they tell me it will be a few weeks before they get the the new one. So I had them ship the old one back so I could use the boat ( dealer is a few hours away ) hooked it back up and it worked fine. I should mention that everything worked fine aside from it just shutting down and rebooting every few minutes. I still have not hurd from the dealer about the new one. By the way I have 360 hrs. on my 09 LSV.

That’s interesting. This makes me think it could be caused by one or all of the following problems:

A) Environmental related. When sitting in the high humidity environment of a boat there could be some sort of condensation inside the viper box making it act up. Are the boxes supposed to be hermetically sealed? I would imagine/hope they are. After your box sat at the dealer overnight it could have dried out a bit and started working better. This could also be why they act up over time as seals weaken and begin to let in moisture. However a brand new box should then work perfectly for a while due to being sealed and dry (unless seals are faulty from the factory), and is probably why there aren't more recurring problems.

B) Mechanical problems with the harness plug. Check the harness plug where it connects to the viper box and see if it seems loose with some free-play or if it's tight. It's possible that the act of unplugging and plugging your box back in allowed for a better connection at the terminals making your box work better. If the harness plugs aren't designed well enough, pins can vibrate and make intermittent contact, causing all sorts of weird behaviors. This would also make it hard for the manufacturer to determine the problem as I'm sure they bench test each box and it works just fine on their bench when there aren't any vibrations present. dmfrier said they replaced his harness, but if it was just replaced with another faulty harness with a poor connection at the box than it isn't going to solve anything. It would be interesting to see what would happen if you relocated the box to a different location with a different mounting orientation, and added some clamps to hold the harness connector into the box tightly. Also, make sure you look at the pins on both the box and harness connector very closely, use a magnifying glass if needed. Look for signs of pins that could be corroded due to a bad seal at the plug letting moisture in. Also look for shiny or worn spots on the pins, this could indicate that vibrations are causing intermittent contact and wear. Vibrations could cause problems with the internal box circuits as well, but again a brand new box should fix this, at least for a while.

C) Noise on the viper signal lines from other wires. Did you have to unhook other things to get the viper box out? I believe that I read the viper uses a CAN BUS as the primary communications with all the systems on the boat. If you have lots of stereo equipment it's possible that the amps or heavy gauge power wires are introducing noise to the viper box or CAN bus lines since big power stereos can give off lots of electromagnetic noise. Try and make sure that none of the big power wires for the stereo are run near the viper box or its communication lines. It would be a good test to disconnect all of your amp power lines from the battery as well, and try a trip on the water to see how things work. If you are problem free with all stereo stuff disconnected this could be a good lead to investigate.

[dmfreier]

A)7 brand new boxes this year and immediate rebooting.

B)brand new wiring harness thoughout the boat.hours and hours of lake time with technician unplugging things like paddle wheel ,mux switches,the main fuse block, that should eliminate all accessories .they cleaned all connections ground power.

C)new harness all new connections , and it will reboot sitting on the trailer with no movement hooked up to water in there shop .brand new box put in and immediate failure.

This is beyond common sence, the factory insists that it is the viper modules "out of sync " with the way it controls the system ?medallion is " custom building boxes for my boat because mine is " special" and keep in mind this is at factory level

My stereo was disconnected all summer

Edited September 20, 2011 by dmfreier

[thtrog]

Has the dealer checked the condition/output of your batteries?

I'm not a tech nor qualified to troubleshoot your problem, but understand this is critical. I remember the first Maliview malfunction I ever heard about in '09 was all related to low input voltage.

I had a brand new deep cycle Interstate installed this spring that was defective. It would show full charge around 13.1 volts, but immediately after putting on any load it would drop to 11.8 volts. If my installer, MLA, had not put a voltage meter on the amp rack it would have driven me crazy trying to find out what was wrong.

I hope they figure yours out soon. Have they considered taking a Viper box out of another boat that's proven to be good?

Edited September 20, 2011 by thtrog

[dmfreier]

They checked the batteries and charging system. The factory insists that it is the viper box .common sence tells me no after 7 but that's my opinion

[Fman]

They checked the batteries and charging system. The factory insists that it is the viper box .common sence tells me no after 7 but that's my opinion

If they put "7" different viper boxes in your boat and all of them were defective you need to go out and purchase some lottery tickets.... those are crazy odds of all of them being defective.

[dmfreier]

That's the thing there is no way in the world they are defective.I don't understand why the factory is getting medallion to custom build viper modules for my boat ? But they insist that is the problem. What is so magical with my boat? And by the way I did buy a lottery ticket and I didn't win!

[dmfreier]

And there is no if there were 7 boxes put in.I have pictures of 4 of the boxes and was there for 2 and was in contact for the last one on Friday

Edited September 21, 2011 by dmfreier

[wakeboarder3780]

First let me state my condolences and express frustration that you aren't being handled better. This certainly sounds like an area malibu should be focusing more so on. I wouldn't even care if it was JUST YOU having this problem, it's still something malibu needs to handle appropriately to which I don't think you're being handled appropriately.

Let me secondly state that I'm not a mechanical wizard by any means nor an electronical one but I do tinker and the following advice so far is what seems accurate to me:

B) Mechanical problems with the harness plug. Check the harness plug where it connects to the viper box and see if it seems loose with some free-play or if it's tight. It's possible that the act of unplugging and plugging your box back in allowed for a better connection at the terminals making your box work better. If the harness plugs aren't designed well enough, pins can vibrate and make intermittent contact, causing all sorts of weird behaviors. This would also make it hard for the manufacturer to determine the problem as I'm sure they bench test each box and it works just fine on their bench when there aren't any vibrations present. dmfrier said they replaced his harness, but if it was just replaced with another faulty harness with a poor connection at the box than it isn't going to solve anything. It would be interesting to see what would happen if you relocated the box to a different location with a different mounting orientation, and added some clamps to hold the harness connector into the box tightly. Also, make sure you look at the pins on both the box and harness connector very closely, use a magnifying glass if needed. Look for signs of pins that could be corroded due to a bad seal at the plug letting moisture in. Also look for shiny or worn spots on the pins, this could indicate that vibrations are causing intermittent contact and wear. Vibrations could cause problems with the internal box circuits as well, but again a brand new box should fix this, at least for a while.

I think this is the most likely advice i've heard yet. I know they replaced the wires and connectors already but its possible you've got another sh*tty connector. Not only would I recommend trying to relocate the device and run it without vibration, but if the pins are far enough apart maybe you could put a slight amount of dielectric grease on each pin to help the connection stay true? Obviously if you squirt too much on all the pins and the grease touches 2 adjacent pins you're going to be in a short-out scenario but I think any way you can guarantee solid connections would be a great diagnostic step.

Troubleshooting aside I think there is something additional *you* need to do right now.

I find a severe lack in your understanding as to why they keep putting new viper boxes in your boat. As others have stated if they've put 7 into your boat and there are still problems - logic tells me thats NOT the problem. You *need* to talk with the shop and understand why they feel that continuing to replace these is the correct move.

You also stated you have a hint that your boat is "special" and that they are designing viper boxes specifically for your boat. There needs to be more understanding on your part as to what this means. Your boat isn't special. What's the real story here? Is medallion themselves sending you DIAGNOSTIC viper boxes that will gather data in which you send back to *MEDALLION* who is going to tell you what the problem is? If this is the case, what is the current status on medallion's findings?

If this ISNT the case and they're blinding replacing viper boxes, to me this tells me they're choosing to "ice" you until your warranty runs out which is unacceptable. These are all things *you* need to get with your dealer and fully understand why they're doing what they're doing. You need to evaluate how you think they're doing and cross reference that with the fact that your warranty is running out and you don't have a boat right now.

As you stated, your warranty is running out. You need to express your concerns around your warranty running out and figure out how you're going to be handled. I understand difficult situations occur and one offs may occur as well, but you need to be re-assured that your boat is going to be fixed even if it takes a while. Furthermore what about a boat in the meantime? I'm a serious rider. I ride 3 times a week and I'm going to be FURIOUS if there is an "unfixable" problem that's taking a month to fix. A month out of my season is huge. That dealer needs to get you hooked up with a loaner boat. An entire season without a boat is 100% UNACCEPTABLE - especially when you have a boat as young as yours.

Get your head right about WHY they're doing what they're doing and report back please.

Edited September 20, 2011 by wakeboarder3780

[dmfreier]

Let's remember there are other posts on here with the same issues.can any "techy"guys help them out too!I can only explain what is wrong with mine

[Nicvtx]

Wow dude that's unlucky and unheard of an issue with a Malibu like this before! Hopefully Malibu pulls their socks up and sorts this out for you.

I can tell you if this happened to us we would be down at my dealer forcing them to give us a brand new boat equivalent to what it is worth before these issues happened. It is unacceptable that you paid a huge amount of money to enjoy summer on the lake but yet the boat has sat in the workshop the whole season. Id be pushing for some kind of compensation from Malibu.

If you think about it a Malibu will depreciate every year, not by a huge amount though and you have barely touched the water, so by the boat being in the workshop you are loosing money on your toy you bought trusting Malibu that it would be worry free like most of the other Malibus getting round now