2015 23 LSV radio and screen issues

[Superquadro]

Hey guys,

I'm a long time lurker and finally new member to the forum. My best friend and I purchased a 2015 23 LSV December 2015 and took delivery in May. The boat is awesome, the wake is amazing however we've been having frequent issues with the touchscreens as well as the radio.

Every now and then, the touchscreens (12" and 7") freeze and become unresponsive thus forcing us to turn off the boat and reset the system. We have the latest January 2016 firmware. Any ideas?

Also, the Rockford Fosgate radio cuts off randomly. Sometimes it comes back on, other times we have to turn off the boat for it to restart working. Additionally, we noticed a power loss and a loose fuse on one of the amps however we managed to tape the fuse properly thinking it would solve our issue but it still happens.

Any input would be very appreciated. 

Thanks!

Sam

[BlackBluMalibu]

Under warranty... Get with your dealer. Most likely a new computer flash/update, possibly a loose connection. Again with it under warranty, don't take chances and let your dealer fix it. Best of luck... Safe and fun boating to you!

[ID AX]

We have been fighting some of the same issues.  Only difference is our 7" screen starts acting like there's someone inside pushing the buttons as fast as possible. Luckily we haven't had much freezing.  Have you noticed the power button flashing?  This is also a known problem with the 2015s.  Ours had it and it would cause everything to freeze.  

 So far our dealer has changed the 7" MTC screen, replaced the power button and checked all the connections and still the same.  We also disconnected the black box all together and still the same issue with the 7" screen.  Dealer has new wiring harnesses to see if maybe there is an issue there.  

make sure you are talking with your dealer.  I think there may be something coming from Malibu for some of the 2015 boats.  

[Superquadro]

Thanks for the reply guys. I have contacted the dealer and we'll be scheduling an appointment shortly.

I called Malibu directly and they referred me back to the dealership.

ID AX, the power button on the 7'' screen sometimes turns off and on really quickly as you're describing, it's really frustrating.

I'll keep this thread up to date on how things go on our side.

Happy surfing!

[ah2oguy]

I have the same boat and similar issue.

Does your 7"inch screen freeze up and radio start doing its own thing with volume and power?  Check you voltage next time out and if below 13.5 your alternator is going bad slowly.

When the computers don't get the right voltage and sign waves they go heywire.

 

My alternator  was replaced and the problem went away immediately 

[mikeo]

The 7" touchscreen is the main "brain" to the boat electronics, it's a Windows (embedded edition) computer that interfaces with the Viper II control boxes, radio, and other components on the boat; the dash display is the equivalent of an industrial laptop/computer touchscreen display with no logic inside. While there are many factors that contribute to problems on the boat, if the 7" display is acting up that is the first (and only) thing to troubleshoot. Until you have the 7" display working properly anything it interfaces with could have issues based on erratic control signals being sent from the computer.

As mentioned above, the first step is to contact your dealer who can plug in (yet another) computer to get relevant information from the onboard computers. The engine computer can log and report voltages, etc. that can easily pinpoint issues such as the bad alternator discussed previously. While it can be a pain for those people who don't live near a dealer, as long as you're under warranty and can get a diagnostic appointment at your dealer that's the best place to start (after basic troubleshooting for a dead battery, etc.)

[Superquadro]

Thank you for the additional info guys, I'll keep an eye on the voltage this weekend.

[ah2oguy]

It took about 3-4 outings after the first glimpse of a problem and slowly got worse and then I noticed the voltage slowing dropping and then one day the alternator just stopped  working. 

If you thing your boat is possessed its ur alternator 

[dalt1]

3 hours ago, ah2oguy said:

It took about 3-4 outings after the first glimpse of a problem and slowly got worse and then I noticed the voltage slowing dropping and then one day the alternator just stopped  working. 

If you thing your boat is possessed its ur alternator 

I remember that day.

[ID AX]

5 hours ago, ah2oguy said:

I have the same boat and similar issue.

Does your 7"inch screen freeze up and radio start doing its own thing with volume and power?  Check you voltage next time out and if below 13.5 your alternator is going bad slowly.

When the computers don't get the right voltage and sign waves they go heywire.

 

My alternator  was replaced and the problem went away immediately 

I do believe you just solved my problem.  I will be calling the service manager in the morning. 

Last outing I noticed the voltage bouncing between 13.9 and 14.2.  

Quick question for anyone else with this problem.  What motor do you have?  I have the 2015 LS3.  

I will update after I talk to my dealer.  I know that Malibu is having this problem more than what we are seeing on here.   

Edited June 17, 2016 by ID AX

[amorin]

I have a 2016 with the Raptor 410, same issue. 20hrs first trip to the dealer didn't resolve the issue. Hopefully the 2nd time will. Voltage always hovers between 13.8 to 14.2 with engine running. 

 

 

[ID AX]

Dealer says voltage bouncing between 13.8 and 14.2 is ok.  If below 13.5 then possible issue.  I am towing the boat there tomorrow to change a wiring harness and test the batteries and alternator.  I will report back if we find something. 

[amorin]

I'm going to rule out the alternator on mine. I fully charged both batteries and isolated each one with engine off and the screen keeps acting like it's possessed. 

Wondering if it could be tied up to the stereo?  On that note I tried unplugging the transom remote, it made no difference. The only other thing I didn't try is to unplug the rear seat Mux switch. 

Please keep us posted as to what your dealer comes up with. 

[Superquadro]

Hey guys, just a quick follow up.

I unplugged and replugged pretty much everything that I could behind / under the dashboard. After that I turned the boat on and "Reset" all the settings. It seems to have solved my problem.

We were on the water for 7 hours straight and the screens / radio did not act up once. With that being said, I kept the bluetooth connection set to off but I'll give it a shot tomorrow and report back.

I also kept an eye on the voltage and it was always between 13.8 and 14.2.

Let's see if this holds up!

[Superquadro]

Hey everyone,

I hope you all had an awesome weekend! I believe we have singled out the problem to the bluetooth. As long as bluetooth is off everything works flawlessly.

The screens and radio bugged only once on Saturday but other than that they worked flawlessly Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We put over 24 hours on the boat those 3 days and everything was working properly.

So for those having issues, you might want to try turning off the bluetooth on the boat.

I hope this'll help some of you out!

Sam

[ponderosasurf]

Any chance you could elaborate on how to turn the bluetooth "off" on the boat? I guess I always thought it was just on. @Superquadro

Thanks!

[mikeo]

20 minutes ago, ponderosasurf said:

Any chance you could elaborate on how to turn the bluetooth "off" on the boat? I guess I always thought it was just on. @Superquadro

Thanks!

@ponderosasurfOn the 7" display go to the "settings" page and bluetooth is one of the top options; you can toggle the boat's bluetooth on/off from there, but if it's off you can't use PerfectPull either (but you're not missing anything). You can then either use the direct line in that is in the glovebox or get a bluetooth module for the RFX6000-SX in the observer's side storage compartment. If you don't use the Malibu bluetooth you don't get ID3 tag info on the dash either.

@Superquadro If the boat is new I would lean on your dealer to fix the issue especially if you have the sport knob; the functionality of using the sport knob to control the stereo (track forward & back) is nice to have, you'll still have volume and mute no matter what input you're using. I'd start with asking the dealer to reflash the firmware with what's on there, it should be either 022015 or MY2015-01-2016V1. The longer version (MY2015-01-2016V1) enables the surfband if you have one.

[23LSVOwner]

Always make sure the dealer updates it to the newest one.

 

MY2015-01-2016V1 For a 15.

MY2016-01-2016V2 for a 16.

 

The V1 and V2 might be flipped, but it doesn't matter.

Edited June 20, 2016 by 23LSVOwner

[ID AX]

Update:

dealer changed the wiring harness per Malibu.  No difference in the MTC ghost.  Dropped the boat off again last night and dealer is going to try a couple other ideas today.  The service manager has a couple tricks up his sleeve and I will update if anything works.  At this point if it doesn't get fixed Malibu will have to come up with ideas.  Both the dealer and I are getting frustrated. 

[mikeo]

I don't think Malibu likes to do it, but it is possible to swap out the 7" display/computer. Depending on how well you work with your dealer, and what they have in stock, you might be able to get the mechanic to swap a 7" with another boat. The mechanic would need to make sure that the 7" has the correct "firmware" loaded on it for your boat. What we all refer to as the firmware for the boat/7" display is really just an application running on a Windows computer; it happens to be the only application we can see.

If swapping the 7" display fixes the issue then the problem is in the computer and your dealer should be able to get a replacement from Malibu. If there are still "ghosts in the machine" after swapping the 7" display then the issue is in the wiring harness or another component in your boat.

Even if the "swap test" works, I would only run with the alternate boat's 7" display until Malibu can get the replacement unit to your dealer for installation. The 7" display is a serialized component that is tracked in a database at Malibu, you don't want to have the wrong computer in your boat if there is a service bulletin or recall at some point in the future. Swapping components permanently could make it very confusing for you and another boat owner to figure out what updates are really relevant for your boat. (but I still think it's a good idea to swap the computer to test)

[ID AX]

That's what they are doing today.  Hopefully try it out tonight.  And no Malibu does NOT like to test this way.  They want the 7" screen sent back for testing.  I however am not ok with losing my boat for a couple weeks during peak summer season.  We sent back my first 7" screen and Malibu said "nothing wrong with it". This led to the wiring harness change and still not fixed.  Personally I think the screen is bad and for whatever reason they didn't catch it the first time.  

I did try shutting the BT off and it seemed to clear the problem.  Dealer is going to call Malibu and run that by them.  

Edited June 22, 2016 by ID AX
Add more info

[amorin]

Great input guys, I'm still going through the exact same issues. Boat has been at the dealer's since Monday with no updates. 

Turning the Bluetooth off didn't solve anything for me. 

 

[Superquadro]

Hey guys,

ponderosasurf, mikeo explained exactly what I did in the menu.

mikeo, I will be bringing the boat to the dealer eventually for maintenance and will get them to look at it at that point. We went on a few evening sessions this week and everything was working flawlessly... I don't really want let the boat sit at the dealer and would rather use it without having bluetooth. We don't have a surfband either.

I will get the dealer to update the firmware in due time and will report back if the bluetooth works properly at that point.

I hope everyone else having issues gets to solve them promptly!

[23LSVOwner]

19 hours ago, mikeo said:

I don't think Malibu likes to do it, but it is possible to swap out the 7" display/computer. Depending on how well you work with your dealer, and what they have in stock, you might be able to get the mechanic to swap a 7" with another boat. The mechanic would need to make sure that the 7" has the correct "firmware" loaded on it for your boat. What we all refer to as the firmware for the boat/7" display is really just an application running on a Windows computer; it happens to be the only application we can see.

If swapping the 7" display fixes the issue then the problem is in the computer and your dealer should be able to get a replacement from Malibu. If there are still "ghosts in the machine" after swapping the 7" display then the issue is in the wiring harness or another component in your boat.

Even if the "swap test" works, I would only run with the alternate boat's 7" display until Malibu can get the replacement unit to your dealer for installation. The 7" display is a serialized component that is tracked in a database at Malibu, you don't want to have the wrong computer in your boat if there is a service bulletin or recall at some point in the future. Swapping components permanently could make it very confusing for you and another boat owner to figure out what updates are really relevant for your boat. (but I still think it's a good idea to swap the computer to test)

Make sure your dealer knows that you have to replace a '15 screen with another 15 screen. The 16's are not backwards compatible due to internal hardware changes.

18 hours ago, ID AX said:

That's what they are doing today.  Hopefully try it out tonight.  And no Malibu does NOT like to test this way.  They want the 7" screen sent back for testing.  I however am not ok with losing my boat for a couple weeks during peak summer season.  We sent back my first 7" screen and Malibu said "nothing wrong with it". This led to the wiring harness change and still not fixed.  Personally I think the screen is bad and for whatever reason they didn't catch it the first time.  

I did try shutting the BT off and it seemed to clear the problem.  Dealer is going to call Malibu and run that by them.  

From speaking with my dealer, Malibu has done this at times to get the customer back on the water quickly. They also do not require your screen to be sent back and tested before replacement. The dealer orders another one under warranty. They install it in your boat, file the claim and then the old one is sent back. If a dealer told you something other than this they are trying to pass the buck IMO.

[ID AX]

55 minutes ago, 23LSVOwner said:

Make sure your dealer knows that you have to replace a '15 screen with another 15 screen. The 16's are not backwards compatible due to internal hardware changes.

From speaking with my dealer, Malibu has done this at times to get the customer back on the water quickly. They also do not require your screen to be sent back and tested before replacement. The dealer orders another one under warranty. They install it in your boat, file the claim and then the old one is sent back. If a dealer told you something other than this they are trying to pass the buck IMO.

My confusion on top of confusion between Malibu and dealer.  I assumed the MTC screen was the screen that had been replaced.  Wrong, Malibu sent the 12" screen and asked the dealer to change it first.  Then when that didn't work, big surprise, they sent a wiring harness.  That didn't work.  They are now waiting for a new MTC screen to arrive. We reflashed the software last night and I am going to try that this weekend but we don't have much hope. I'm pretty sure it's a BT issue but I'm no expert.