Interior + Tower Speakers static/chirp sound on Bluetooth

[ahopkins22LSV]

14 hours ago, weekender said:

hi,

To revive this thread:

has anyone else had this problem so far and had it actually resolved yet?

just trying to get a gauge on how fast malibu can actually resolve this.

Thanks!

Did you contact your dealer and ask about the new harness @23LSVOwner and @IXFE speak of? Sounds like that is Malibu’s fix and you need to get your boat into your dealer. 

[weekender]

update: dealer got back to be with info from malibu.

Turns out the harness replacement was a trial fix, but didnt resolve the issue entirely.

Malibu still working on a fix, no ETA yet.

 

In the mean time.. need to fumble around with a wire to play music without annoying chirping, or deal with chirping..

 

[LucasC]

5 hours ago, weekender said:

update: dealer got back to be with info from malibu.

Turns out the harness replacement was a trial fix, but didnt resolve the issue entirely.

Malibu still working on a fix, no ETA yet.

 

In the mean time.. need to fumble around with a wire to play music without annoying chirping, or deal with chirping..

 

I have had the same response from my dealer , I guess there still sending these boats out the factory with this problem .

[LucasC]

On 5/22/2019 at 10:14 PM, LucasC said:

I have had the same response from my dealer , I guess there still sending these boats out the factory with this problem .

Just Bumping this up,  Has anyone actually got this resolved yet .

[IXFE]

56 minutes ago, LucasC said:

Just Bumping this up,  Has anyone actually got this resolved yet .

Nope, and I gotta be honest, I’m not holding my breath. 

[Eagleboy99]

Are there RF chokes on the wires to amps etc.?  Otherwise the wire might act as an antenna, picking up cell phones, GPS, engine electrical etc.

[weekender]

On 6/18/2019 at 4:00 PM, Eagleboy99 said:

Are there RF chokes on the wires to amps etc.?  Otherwise the wire might act as an antenna, picking up cell phones, GPS, engine electrical etc.

i dont recall seeing any chokes or breaks in the large gauge wires to the amps in the observer compartment area. The chirp sounds like cell phone interference actually.

 

As a side note, its been at least a month since this issue arose and it seems malibu is aware of it. Definitely doesn't take a month to figure this out.

If they were able to get recall kits sent out for the fuel issue within a 2 week span, they could solve this also.

 

My guess is its not prioritized. Im not counting on it being fixed this season at all.

If anyone hears otherwise or has a interim hacky fix. please let me know.

[ahopkins22LSV]

10 minutes ago, weekender said:

i dont recall seeing any chokes or breaks in the large gauge wires to the amps in the observer compartment area. The chirp sounds like cell phone interference actually.

 

As a side note, its been at least a month since this issue arose and it seems malibu is aware of it. Definitely doesn't take a month to figure this out.

If they were able to get recall kits sent out for the fuel issue within a 2 week span, they could solve this also.

 

My guess is its not prioritized. Im not counting on it being fixed this season at all.

If anyone hears otherwise or has a interim hacky fix. please let me know.

So a major safety issue that could blow a boat up and kill people is on the same playing field as static noise in the stereo?

A manufacturer has to prioritize activities otherwise nothing gets done. Safety first. Always, no questions asked. 

A month is also not a long time for a corrective action. Standard corrective action timing in the auto industry, for those who like to compare to that, is 90 days. By day 60 you are supposed to have your actions implement. 90th day ends validation it worked. If they don’t, back to the drawing board and that’s not uncommon at all. Sometimes it takes a month or two just to tool up a solution to figure out it doesn’t completely fix the problem. Proposed solutions are theories until proven out. If their wire harness supplier has to e hinder a completely new harbors tgar could take a month or two. 

We also don’t know what they have tried. You always go for the low hanging fruit first. If that doesn’t work then you move on to longer lead time, more complex solutions. Hopefully this is the case and haven’t rolled anything out because they are still going through this process. I’m sure no one with this issues wants Malibu to roll out 2-4 “fixes”, they just want one fix. 

[IXFE]

4 hours ago, ahopkinsVTX said:

So a major safety issue that could blow a boat up and kill people is on the same playing field as static noise in the stereo?

A manufacturer has to prioritize activities otherwise nothing gets done. Safety first. Always, no questions asked. 

A month is also not a long time for a corrective action. Standard corrective action timing in the auto industry, for those who like to compare to that, is 90 days. By day 60 you are supposed to have your actions implement. 90th day ends validation it worked. If they don’t, back to the drawing board and that’s not uncommon at all. Sometimes it takes a month or two just to tool up a solution to figure out it doesn’t completely fix the problem. Proposed solutions are theories until proven out. If their wire harness supplier has to e hinder a completely new harbors tgar could take a month or two. 

We also don’t know what they have tried. You always go for the low hanging fruit first. If that doesn’t work then you move on to longer lead time, more complex solutions. Hopefully this is the case and haven’t rolled anything out because they are still going through this process. I’m sure no one with this issues wants Malibu to roll out 2-4 “fixes”, they just want one fix. 

Forgive me for saying this, Hop... but I think you’re wrong on this. You’re giving Malibu way to much credit here based on a theoretical engineering argument. 

Seems every year there is some glitch with Malibu stereos. And every year it gets discussed here and every year we never see a solution posted. It’s way past ridiculous at this point.

I will tell you from actual experience here, Malibu is not burning the midnight oil on this issue. It’s simply not a priority, and it shows. And they are not following your automotive protocol. How do I know this? Because their first suggestion for me was to drag my boat back into the dealer (second time) to change out the AV harness. Boy am I glad I didn’t waste another day doing this. Cuz it turned out they were guessing, throwing arrows in the dark hoping for a bullseye. They didn’t actually test this solution in the factory, as you suggest. Their method (in this case) was to guess, ship a part, and rely on dealers and customers to see if it works. Seems Malibu was perfectly content having me try 2-4 fixes. Does that sound like any sort of scientific problem solving method to you? 

As for the prioritization vs. the fuel pump recall, again I respectfully disagree. We’re talking about completely separate engineering teams. Do you really think the engineer who’s supposedly troubleshooting the crickets is the same guy responsible for shipping out thousands of fuel pump gaskets?  Come on man... 

Edited June 21, 2019 by IXFE

[ahopkins22LSV]

29 minutes ago, IXFE said:

Forgive me for saying this, Hop... but I think you’re wrong on this. You’re giving Malibu way to much credit here based on a theoretical engineering argument. 

Seems every year there is some glitch with Malibu stereos. And every year it gets discussed here and every year we never see a solution posted. It’s way past ridiculous at this point.

I will tell you from actual experience here, Malibu is not burning the midnight oil on this issue. It’s simply not a priority, and it shows. And they are not following your automotive protocol. How do I know this? Because their first suggestion for me was to drag my boat back into the dealer (second time) to change out the AV harness. Boy am I glad I didn’t waste another day doing this. Cuz it turned out they were guessing, throwing arrows in the dark hoping for a bullseye. They didn’t actually test this solution in the factory, as you suggest. Their method (in this case) was to guess, ship a part, and rely on dealers and customers to see if it works. Seems Malibu was perfectly content having me try 2-4 fixes. Does that sound like any sort of scientific problem solving method to you? 

As for the prioritization vs. the fuel pump recall, again I respectfully disagree. We’re talking about completely separate engineering teams. Do you really think the engineer who’s supposedly troubleshooting the crickets is the same guy responsible for shipping out thousands of fuel pump gaskets?  Come on man... 

No that doesn’t sound like a any sort of problem solving process to me, at least one that is going to help you guys or them. Throwing darts does nothing other than cause frustration for everyone involved, and if that’s they case they need to step up. They handled the fuel pump flawlessly imo so follow that same process in the other departments. 

[Ronnie]

I can add this for my 23LSV.  Last year my '18 stereo was  noisy (not chirping) and I worked with a Malibu engineer on a fix. I sent him sound files, sound analizer graphs, part numbers, pictures with circles and arrows etc. We were able to get it better but not perfect. We worked on this most of the season. I can't say how long it took to narrow down the problem but we went through a lot of the boat looking for it. I finally found a plug that when disconnected, helped a bunch on the base noise. This isn't as easy as moving some RCA's away from the power cables. On these CanBus systems, so much of the boat is controlled on the same system and harnesses. Trying to trace down every little part, re-engineering parts and testing and rebuilding takes time.  

This '19 I have had some noise when I got it, nothing like last year's. I brought it to my dealer and they replacecd a harness, actually spliced in another harness, and I'm all good now. I'm guessing here but I suspect they just want to try a few fixes out in the field that they have had some sucess with at the factory.

[weekender]

Just to revive this thread. its now nearing mid august and still have no fix, and the 2020's are out so im pretty sure 19's are going to be forgotten.

Id imagine this will either never get fixed or is not happening this season for sure.

Anyone heard anything recently on a fix from malibu given a few people have had this problem?

[LucasC]

I spoke to my dealer the other day as my boat is in for other issues , There is no repair as yet from malibu there response is use the USB Lead . I have come to the conclusion I have a crap system and have to live with it until I change my boat . I Cant see myself in another Malibu .

[23LSVOwner]

Dealers can install the old Bluetooth dongle on the boat. You connect to the older one and the noise is pretty much eliminated.

[weekender]

2 hours ago, 23LSVOwner said:

Dealers can install the old Bluetooth dongle on the boat. You connect to the older one and the noise is pretty much eliminated.

has this been done by a dealer already? if so im just ready for the fix.

to me ridiculous to pay 120k+ for a boat that cant play bluetooth properly and basically having no fix all summer

[23LSVOwner]

2 minutes ago, weekender said:

has this been done by a dealer already? if so im just ready for the fix.

to me ridiculous to pay 120k+ for a boat that cant play bluetooth properly and basically having no fix all summer

This is the fix one of the CS guys at Malibu recommended.

[weekender]

I have solved the problem.

Buy one of these bluetooth USB to Aux receivers (link below)

 

Plug it in to your USB and aux port in glovebox. have your phone connect to it and run your music off the AUX input. 

 

I think this solution is even better since you can control the volume of the music from your phone now also wirelessly, as well as knob on the dash. I personally never changed songs from the dash anyway, always from the phone. so this solution is easier IMO.

Also i doubt the bluetooth problem will ever be solved, but this works for the time being, and if anyone else wants togo wireless asap, i would give this a try! worth the $20 or so bucks.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HDO66NK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

 

 

[Eagleboy99]

1 hour ago, weekender said:

worth the $20 or so bucks.

I have the Aliexpress $4 version for my POS Nissan audio.  It is OK.  But that is it.  I got a freaking BT toaster - and you can't get  a decent BT radio?  I thought this was 2019?

[wedge88]

On 6/20/2019 at 8:41 PM, Ronnie said:

I can add this for my 23LSV.  Last year my '18 stereo was  noisy (not chirping) and I worked with a Malibu engineer on a fix. I sent him sound files, sound analizer graphs, part numbers, pictures with circles and arrows etc. We were able to get it better but not perfect. We worked on this most of the season. I can't say how long it took to narrow down the problem but we went through a lot of the boat looking for it. I finally found a plug that when disconnected, helped a bunch on the base noise. This isn't as easy as moving some RCA's away from the power cables. On these CanBus systems, so much of the boat is controlled on the same system and harnesses. Trying to trace down every little part, re-engineering parts and testing and rebuilding takes time.  

This '19 I have had some noise when I got it, nothing like last year's. I brought it to my dealer and they replacecd a harness, actually spliced in another harness, and I'm all good now. I'm guessing here but I suspect they just want to try a few fixes out in the field that they have had some sucess with at the factory.

Do you have any other details about the noise in your 18'?  I have an 18' 22VLX and when boat is running with bluetooth playing and I put the boat in gear, I get electronic noise in the port side mid speaker.  No other speakers are affected.  As soon as I pull the throttle back, it goes away.  Dealer couldn't replicate, checked connections and it doesn't do it all the time but it did it almost the entire time on the lake this weekend.  Has to be a ground issue somewhere.  I know this thread is related to 2019s so if you have any other info, feel free to PM and if not, I'll stay tuned to this thread as it could be related.  

[justgary]

Bluetooth is a spread-spectrum signal on 2.4GHz.  WiFi is a spread-spectrum signal on 2.4GHz.  They use different modulation schemes, so they usually don't interfere with each other.  When you leave WiFi turned on but it can't find a signal to connect with, the phone turns the WiFi power up to full so it can find a connection.  This is why your battery dies quicker when you are not connected to a signal.  Anyway, WiFi ends up shouting the whole time you are in your boat, and it's in the very same RF band as bluetooth.

Somebody please test your bluetooth connection with your WiFi turned off.  If it changes the chirping, that's a potential clue.

By the way, RF EMI problems can be extremely difficult to identify, and even harder to cure.  I'm sure that Malibu doesn't actually employ any RF engineers....

[Eagleboy99]

1 hour ago, justgary said:

Somebody please test your bluetooth connection with your WiFi turned off

On my el cheapo BT radio, WIFI on/off makes no diff.  Connects 100% of the time.  I suspect unsheild wiring to be behind this.

[justgary]

49 minutes ago, Eagleboy99 said:

On my el cheapo BT radio, WIFI on/off makes no diff.  Connects 100% of the time.  I suspect unsheild wiring to be behind this.

I do too, but it's good to eliminate the easy things.  And this isn't about connecting if I read the OP right.  He can connect 100% of the time but has digital noise.  Finding the source of the noise is important if he wants to make it quit. 

Actually, I suspect a poorly designed BT circuit inside the unit itself.  Changing the harness may not help. 

Might be interesting to terminate all of the speaker outputs with 4 or 8 ohm power resistors, disconnect all of the inputs and watch the output on a scope using only the BT input.  If it's good, start adding wires and speakers. 

[weekender]

update: 100% sure this will never get fixed even if i keep pushing. just going to use the el cheapo bt receiver instead

[IXFE]

On 10/2/2019 at 10:00 AM, weekender said:

update: 100% sure this will never get fixed even if i keep pushing. just going to use the el cheapo bt receiver instead

Pretty sure I predicted this outcome...

I wish I was wrong. 

[Eagleboy99]

14 minutes ago, IXFE said:

Pretty sure I predicted this outcome...

I wish I was wrong. 

And yet people continue to buy this garbage.