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Malibu Touch Command screen delamination


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My 2014 VLX has a progressing delamination of the touchscreen (lower right on helm) that controls start/stop, bluetooth, surfgate, wedge up/down, ballast fill/drain.  The virtual "buttons" are getting more and more unreliable.  This screen was used from 2011 to early 2016 in all wakesetters. SKU number 3962052 model 6913-00503-01

This issue has been discussed in prior forums.  The local dealer will sell one for $2400 with only a 30 day limited warranty.  Bakes is about $2200, and the warranty is at "the discretion of Malibu on a case by case basis" up to 30 days from date of sale-- so the shipping time is using up warranty.  This is a pretty sorry warranty for a very expensive screen, and one that is known to have a short life (a few years) in the OE installation. I have attempted to call Medallion (the manufacturer) tech support multiple times.  It goes to voicemail and I leave messages, and never get a call back. 

Do any fellow members have any suggestions?  Does anyone have an aftermarket rebuild program for these?  If not, are there any Malibu dealers you know selling at a lower price that will ship?

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Hi OskiD,

 

This has been a thorn in my side since I bought my boat. I bought my 2011 Wakesetter from Grandpa's Marine in NC in 2013. It had 12 hours on it.  When I brought it home to Canada there were a TON of issues; but namely the MTC and a faulty position sensor in the throttle.  I could barely use the boat, it was that bad. It left me stranded a few times. I kicked and screamed, etc. Everyoneeeeee gave me the run-around - telling me that basically I was the worst person ever for not supporting my local dealership, etc... nobody would support me (not even Grandpa's Marine). My local dealership in Canada shunned me.  Eventually I wrote to the CEO himself; a handwritten letter and explained that basically "Hey, Im just a regular guy who works 9-5. Im not rich. I saved up $70,000 and bought one of your boats and now it's basically useless".  Still no luck.  I ended up befriending a guy on the river I ride on who is best friends with the local dealership's owner. The guy eventually went to bat for me with Malibu and got me a new screen. I installed it. It worked perfectly.... for a few months. Then it started to delaminate. I contacted everyone again, except this time nobody wanted to hear me out. Medallion wouldn't respond, Malibu washed their hands of me, etc.. annoying.  I can't justify dropping $2200 USD (which is actually a TON of money in my world) on this screen; so now I just live with it. 

I'll be buying a new boat in the near future; but it won't be a Malibu/Axis. I can not support a company that doesn't support it core clientele. I'm not cheap, but there is no way you can tell me that that price-tag on a known-faulty main component is justified. 

In any case, with COVID I have nothing but time on my hands. If anyone else out there wants to get together and discuss our legal options I'd be all for it. I suspect there's more than just OskiD and myself out there with a delaminated touchscreen. Also, for what it's worth Oskid, I checked and your screen is 90 numbers after mine - meaning there are potentially 90 defective screens just between you and me.... 

 

Ryan

Edited by wakeparadise
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I have some delamination in the corners but so far hasn’t effected functionality at all.  I have been putting some cash away ever since I bought the boat figuring on buying one in the next couple of seasons.  I’m basically just holding out on the possibility of just trading current boat in on a newer one and letting the dealer deal with the screen.  In the past year I have seen probably about 3 of these hit he classifieds here on tmc.  Last one was a guy who had a dealer send him a warranty replacement just before he lost the boat in the Houston flood iirc.

Edited by PNWoke
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1 minute ago, PNWoke said:

I have some delamination in the corners but so far hasn’t effected functionality at all.  I have been putting some cash away ever since I bought the boat figuring on buying one in the next couple of seasons.  I’m basically just holding out on the possibility of just trading current boat in on a newer one and letting the dealer deal with the screen.  In the past year I have seen probably about 3 of these hit the used classifieds here on twc.  Last one was a guy who had a dealer send him a warranty replacement just before he lost the boat in the Houston flood iirc.

 But is that even a sustainable strategy for most of us with these screens? That doesn't get to the root of the problem. The screen should not be delaminating; period. They're ALL delaminating; and even before they were delaminating, the first few hundred were SO SO SO garbage that you couldn't even use them; period.  There's a better way than just passing the buck on to the next guy, Medallion should fix the issue and send out new screens; period. 

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There are guys who have deciphered the Medallion protocol for stuff like speed, and since it is all CAN bus, I would think a decent electrical engineer could figure this out for control by a tablet.  Mercury has VesselView as an aeample, so it ain't rocket science.  https://www.mercurymarine.com/en/ca/gauges-and-controls/gauges-displays/vesselview/  Even has a wakesurf mode built in!  :)

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I am 100% behind any type of group pressure we can put on oem to replace them, as I agree, they should not be delaminating within 2-4 years of delivery.  

  • Like 1
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The center screen on my Bu started delaminating two years ago. 
 

I want to replace it but my wife is dead set against spending $2000 + on something that may very well fail again. The only good thing about it is that mine isn’t the touch screen so it hasn’t effected my use. 
 

Normally I’d say out of warranty out of luck but this is absolutely a known issue with a large amount of boats. Malibu should do something to stand behind it. 

  • Like 2
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We need to assemble a list of people with this issue. If you google "Medallion Screen Delamination" it's obviously not just Malibu, its Tige, Chaparrel, Mastercraft... 

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8 hours ago, wakeparadise said:

We need to assemble a list of people with this issue. If you google "Medallion Screen Delamination" it's obviously not just Malibu, its Tige, Chaparrel, Mastercraft... 

This is actually the problem. If you get mad at Malibu, fine, but everyone has this same issue, so where are you going to go?

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49 minutes ago, braindamage said:

This is actually the problem. If you get mad at Malibu, fine, but everyone has this same issue, so where are you going to go?

...Medallion; or conversely apply pressure to the Company that manufactures the boat.  When Ford has a recall because of a component issue the Ford owner doesn’t goto the component company...

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57 minutes ago, wakeparadise said:

...Medallion; or conversely apply pressure to the Company that manufactures the boat.  When Ford has a recall because of a component issue the Ford owner doesn’t goto the component company...

This is exactly my point. We go to Malibu, but they know that MC and all their competition has the same issue, so threatening to move to another brand holds no weight. And if you do change, there will be people from their competition that move to Malibu. I just don’t see how to create leverage other than a 3rd party selling a compelling quality replacement.

i was ready to sell my new to me ‘12 TXi when I first learned about this, until I figured out how to replace the MTC with switches. I have no idea how to mimic the functionality of the MaliView.

Edited by braindamage
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@OskiD take a look at the attached thread, start at page 9. You can replace your MTC with a switch bank for probably less than $200. @4skinuts was going to order one but I haven’t heard if he did it done or not. This rids you of the MTC issue once and for all. 

 

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It's nice that we can hack away at our prized possessions and modify them to suit the problem; like adding switches and key-overrides; ultimately I just want the screen to work. 

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16 hours ago, Eagleboy99 said:

There are guys who have deciphered the Medallion protocol for stuff like speed, and since it is all CAN bus, I would think a decent electrical engineer could figure this out for control by a tablet.  Mercury has VesselView as an aeample, so it ain't rocket science.  https://www.mercurymarine.com/en/ca/gauges-and-controls/gauges-displays/vesselview/  Even has a wakesurf mode built in!  :)

You can bet that if I had one of these, I'd be all over creating my own fix for it.  The business of creating a digital discrete switch bank is trivial.  The business of creating a cute display to go with it is where the money is.  Having never seen one on the hoof, it is difficult for me to know exactly what it does and doesn't do.

How many of you would prefer a decent looking hardware switch panel, and how many would prefer a cutesy touchscreen display?  What about a decent display but with hardware buttons?

  • Like 2
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11 hours ago, justgary said:

How many of you would prefer a decent looking hardware switch panel, and how many would prefer a cutesy touchscreen display?  What about a decent display but with hardware buttons?

I could care less about the screen. I just want my boat to work. That’s why, if my screen ever fails, I’m going to a hardwire switch bank.

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Sorry but it is absolutely insane to have to consider some DIY manual switch solution because the touch screen in your $100,000 (or more) boat is junk. 

  • Like 3
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Just pulled my 2013 VTX out today and the touch screen has been getting worse every year, it now has a 1/2 inch bubble up both sides and the top but still works, but now the cruise control and preset screen above the steering wheel took a dump the buttons on both sides quit working so I guess I'm looking at $5000 to get this junk replaced, really considering an older boat as I can not afford to do this every couple years, and I see the cost of the touch screen at bakes online was $1950 last year and now it's almost $2300, looks to me like Malibu knows it's and issue and just plans to capitalize on it.  It honestly makes me sick cuz myself am not welthy this boat was a stretch it was supposed to be our forever boat, looks like it's just a forever piece of s**t if anybody makes any headway on a resolution to something that in my opinion should be a recall because it happens to all of them sounds like count me in

Edited by jmiller17
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Want to message me privately? I’m serious about reigning down on this issue. I’m sitting in my boat now and nothing is working. Angry!

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Thanks you all for your responses.  It was sad to see there are no practical solutions.  My touchscreen was working in spite of the delamination.... That is, until yesterday when we were out surfing on the holiday weekend.  The right side 1/3 of the screen stopped responding to touch.  One of the other forum threads explained how to bypass the MTC screen functions by moving fuses.  We had to do that to get home.  Unfortunately, there is no bypass for the surfgates, so you can't continue to use the boat for activities, just use it to get home. Also, the bypass does not recognize the safety measures for the power wedge.  It will raise it in any condition, which could injure someone behind the boat if you are sitting still.

So I'm up for a class action lawsuit, but I am no attorney.  Please continue to post or message other owners and see if we can find an attorney with a Medallion touchscreen delam that wants to take this on.  We should be able to get plenty of people across many boat brands. 

Not only has the price become outrageous, but the warranty of 30 days is just crap.  My local dealer said that Malibu is even fighting over that with boat owners, trying to blame improper installation (which is also crap, it is plug and play!!).  Sounds to me like Malibu doesn't have enough leverage with Medallion to get them to warrant the new replacement screens at all, and is honoring an extremely short and limited coverage themselves.  Bakes Online will not take returns at all, saying you have to contact Malibu if you have a problem.  Problem with that is neither Malibu nor Medallion will respond to calls or emails.  Do any of you have the phone number for a Malibu factory rep??

I will post again after I contact my dealer tomorrow.

 

  • Thanks 1
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Have any of you who replaced screens tried a squaretrade warranty?  It costs $345 to cover a $2000-$2500 "miscellaneous electronics" device for 3 years.  You must purchase within 30 days of buying a new item.  I am seriously considering this to avoid disaster with Malibu's uncertain 30 day coverage on a part that is known to fail early.

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5 minutes ago, OskiD said:

Have any of you who replaced screens tried a squaretrade warranty?  It costs $345 to cover a $2000-$2500 "miscellaneous electronics" device for 3 years.  You must purchase within 30 days of buying a new item.  I am seriously considering this to avoid disaster with Malibu's uncertain 30 day coverage on a part that is known to fail early.

Interesting idea - but there are more than a few loopholes in the T&Cs: https://www.squaretrade.com/terms-standard  "Weather" for instance.  I'd get coverage predetermination in writing first.  

Also, a Class Actrion suit is likely not the way to go since it takes years and the lawyers usually take a huge chunk.  The discount I get, but can you afford to wait years for a new screen?  I would look to a consumer protection claim under the Fair Trade Act, or your state/province consumer laws.  Fit for purpose and all that.

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11 minutes ago, Eagleboy99 said:

Interesting idea - but there are more than a few loopholes in the T&Cs: https://www.squaretrade.com/terms-standard  "Weather" for instance.  I'd get coverage predetermination in writing first.  

Also, a Class Actrion suit is likely not the way to go since it takes years and the lawyers usually take a huge chunk.  The discount I get, but can you afford to wait years for a new screen?  I would look to a consumer protection claim under the Fair Trade Act, or your state/province consumer laws.  Fit for purpose and all that.

I agree the class action lawsuit is probably not a great option. I’m open to supporting an action, but I believe we just don’t have much leverage.

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Update: Today my Malibu dealer informed me that his restock order for the touchscreen is backordered indefinitely from Malibu with no estimate of when it can be shipped.  So I am exploring repair options and/or workarounds so I can use the boat.  Will keep you all posted.

Side note-- my boat has surfgates and bluetooth controls on that screen.  There are no corresponding bypass slots on the CPU panels for these.  So in my case, I cannot make a physical switch panel to handle all the functions needed.

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God that sounds painful. It makes me hateful towards Malibu for not supporting it and Medallion for creating this mess...

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