Electrical issues - 2018 242X

[Yamamaha]

Looking for a little help before I take my boat to the dealer. My wife and I purchased a great condition low hour 2018 242X in April, other than a few slow screen boot up issues it’s been great. In the last month or so we have had several communication errors, now this week Sunday and today a “Stop Starboard Engine” error with the warning alarm. I assumed based on searching both the communication errors as well as the engine error were voltage related. I have changed the house battery out and purchased a dual bank NOCO maintainer that gets plugged in after each outing hoping that would solve any issues with a low battery, if anything it has made it worse.
We had the issue on Sunday for the first time with the check starboard engine error, running the boat for ~5-10 min with the alarm on, then shutting it down, turning off both master battery disconnects and letting it sit for 20 min seem to have “cleared” the code or issue, today that was not the case, we did that twice and the alarm was still there.

A couple of things to note:
The boat has ~100 hours on it, batteries currently in there are a 1 year old Autozone Gold and a 1 month old Die Hard, both dual purpose 24 Series
The Connext system has always been slow to boot up, recently it takes as long as 5-8 minutes to come on
The engines will always start up before the screen comes on, that hasn’t ever been an issue until this week
Today there were several times the push buttons would not start the engines, almost like it was turned off

Voltage with key on is 12.5-12.7,engine on at first 13.2-13.5, after running for a while up to as high as 14 or 14.1 on the digital display

Mechanically both engines seem fine, no odd noises, oil level perfect and clean, all connectors are tight and clean, nothing hanging down or loose I can see.

Any ideas or direction on where to go next is appreciated, I don’t mind going to a dealer, but I am concerned they will blame it on voltage and move on without fixing the underlying issue.
Thanks!

 

[Cambo]

I'm not sure about the 2018 but the 2017 had the voltage readings wrong on the connext screen . They were both hooked up to the same battery .The 2018 had an updated connext screen not sure if they were still mixed up check the voltage with at the batteries. I would pull every connector and put a small coating of die electric grease on every pin.

 

[Yamamaha]

I will try that, thank you. What is the general consensus on an AGM for the house battery? Is that a big difference and benefit or as long as the batteries are good, new, and charged up that should not be a concern?

 

[Swenny]

I had all sorts of communication errors….ended up going through connections; pulled and checked fuses; disconnected the buzzer (couldn’t stand the sound of it) which was a mistake and made everything worse. There was a loose connection on my Wetsounds tower amp which solved the stereo comm issues. I am down to depth and water temp comm error which I am told is the transducer ….which is next project. I also disconnected the Connext screen from the back to make sure there was a true reset going on to it. I don’t know what more to say here ….sounds like you are trying all the right things. I will finish off the season with a faulty transducer it seems….all my decals are lifting and coming off the hull. I bought the 2020 242XE new so this Fall I will have Yamaha try fix all this.

 

[Yamamaha]

I had all sorts of communication errors….ended up going through connections; pulled and checked fuses; disconnected the buzzer (couldn’t stand the sound of it) which was a mistake and made everything worse. There was a loose connection on my Wetsounds tower amp which solved the stereo comm issues. I am down to depth and water temp comm error which I am told is the transducer ….which is next project. I also disconnected the Connext screen from the back to make sure there was a true reset going on to it. I don’t know what more to say here ….sounds like you are trying all the right things. I will finish off the season with a faulty transducer it seems….all my decals are lifting and coming off the hull. I bought the 2020 242XE new so this Fall I will have Yamaha try fix all this.

Thanks for the reply, is there a wiring diagram anywhere for these boats? Thinking since the current alarm is specifically starboard engine if I can find that connector and start there that would be helpful.
Are the dealerships any help on this kind of stuff? I work in automotive, so I am very familiar with the “well we would not duplicate the issue, your batteries were .2 v low, we suggest replacing them with OE then retest for issues line” but…. If they see this a lot and can help I don’t mind doing that, the closest large volume dealer is Lake of Ozarks which is a couple hours for me.

 

[Swenny]

Thanks for the reply, is there a wiring diagram anywhere for these boats? Thinking since the current alarm is specifically starboard engine if I can find that connector and start there that would be helpful.
Are the dealerships any help on this kind of stuff? I work in automotive, so I am very familiar with the “well we would not duplicate the issue, your batteries were .2 v low, we suggest replacing them with OE then retest for issues line” but…. If they see this a lot and can help I don’t mind doing that, the closest large volume dealer is Lake of Ozarks which is a couple hours for me.

I did buy a $32 shop manual….I didn’t see a wiring diagram right away but breezed through it. I have yet to have anything really major go wrong with this boat. The tower amp malfunctioned and I had to replace that under warranty through Wet Sounds. If I find a wiring diagram I’ll shoot it to ya….

 

[Yamamaha]

Update:
I took apart each of the electrical connectors on these 4 boxes today. Appears to me they are:
1 - Starboard Engine Computer/ECM/PCM
2 - Starboard Fuse box/ power distribution
3 - Port Engine Computer/ECM/PCM
4 - Port Fuse box/ power distribution


The computers have 3 connections coming into the side of them, I took each off, used a micro screwdriver and put dielectric grease in each connector pin.
I then took the 3 connectors off the power distribution block and did the same. I also put a socket on the incoming electrical on the side of each of the power blocks to make sure they were tight.



After that I did purchase a new AGM 24 series battery for the house battery, I moved my other new battery I purchased 2 weeks ago to the starting battery and used the AGM in the house position. I scuffed all the eyelets with a scotchbrite pad, cleaned all the terminals on the new battery and old with a wire brush and scotchbrite pad then reinstalled everything. We took it out this evening, no more alarms or issues yet, fingers crossed it’s fixed.

As a side note every bolt that holds those 4 items tight was loose, they have factory nylon insert nuts that hold them, one in each corner so 4 on each, 16 total, there were 5 missing the nuts completely that I had to replace.

Appreciate everyone’s responses, hopefully this helps someone else with this issue!