New 222XD Electrical Issues

[TommyMcK]

Brand new 222XD. The thing was exhibiting "odd" behavior that wasn't consistent. I did a first quick shakedown running the boat a few miles last week from a ramp to temporary high and dry storage at a marina. I noticed some sort of error flash up, but wasn't quick enough to see what it was. The next time out (yesterday), the boat wouldn't start on the starting battery. OK, I wasn't sure what that was about (both start and house breakers were open during storage) but it started when I put the batteries in parallel. The boat then threw a few "BCU" errors. Again, not sure what that was about, but during the run, both start and main batteries were showing charge at around 14V, so I still wasn't sure what to make of it. This shakeout was a bit more involved, with a good 10 mile run down the Chesapeake from the Patapsco river, down to and up through the Magothy river and onto my lift. Seas were a bit choppy in places and all in all, it was a decent shakedown at relatively high speed. During that time, a few more error messages briefly popped onto the main display.

Bummer....

Made it onto the lift uneventfully (I have some observations about drive, but will save that for another post), went into the house for some lunch with plans to take it out in the afternoon to see if I could figure out what was going on. Turned the key to the on position, the display booted but shut back off. Hmmm... OK, turned the key on again and noticed that the house battery read about 9V, the start battery read about 10V and then it shut off again. Double bummer. Took the starting battery out and charged it fully. Put it back in, and bupkis. No display boot at all. Pulled the house battery, charged that fully, replaced it and still nothing. Threw the parallel switch, and turned the key on again, and the display threw a BCU error and turned off.

My lift isn't convenient to any ramps, and in general, I really didn't want to deal with a low speed tow for a couple of miles to get it on the trailer. I traced the battery cables into the engine compartment onto the bus bars and low and behold... Every single nut on every single terminal on each of the three bus bars (start, house and ground) were entirely loose and backed off, with one nut on the starter bus completely off and in the bottom of the engine compartment.

I'm shocked the thing ever ran at all. All's well that ends well though. Tightened everybody up and we're back in business. I'm assuming that the bus wiring from the bus bars to the battery compartment is a Yamaha thing and not a dealer installed thing, but somebody sure screwed that one up.

For reference in case any of you run into strange electrical problems, you might check bus bars. The red plastic covers in the picture below cover the start and house bus bars on the forward bulkhead behind the battery compartment, and the ground bus bar (bottom) is on the port side bulkhead next to ballast pump.

 

[suke]

ran into something not quite as scary as that when getting my boat ready for this season. Put the batteries in and turned them both on.......nothing. No start, no connext screen, no blower motor....nothing. Hmmmmmm that's weird. Turned them to parallel and everything boots. Hmmmm ok, guess the batteries are done. Checked voltage and both are at 12v as they should be they've been on a tender and out of the boat for months. Looked over the wiring and everything is connected properly. Tried again....same thing. Went to go pull the cables off to hit them with some sandpaper thinking maybe the connection wasn't great and found one of the power wires loose. Even though they looked tight. Tightened that down and everything worked as it should. That could have turned into me ripping all kinds of things apart. LOL!

 

[Judge]

The RV industry is horrible when it comes to wiring (actually quality and workmanship in general). I have found it is worth going through all connection before the maiden voyage. I was pretty lucky with my '22 275SD. Everything was pretty tight. But the batteries were not fully charged and it did cause issues with the throttle and drive-by-wire systems. I had to disconnect the batteries for a hard reboot and then fully charge them and they solved my issues.

 

[TommyMcK]

Sounds like reasonable advice... but digging deep into the engine compartment and removing bus bar covers seems like something that ideally the customer wouldn't be on the hook for. Good news is that I'm really digging the boat. I'm not sure that it outperforms my old '04 AR230, but it sure looks better! And like underwear, boats should be changed out every 20 years or so whether they need it or not...

 

[ripler]

I'd ask your dealer for a refund on the dealer prep charge.

 

[TommyMcK]

I'd ask your dealer for a refund on the dealer prep charge.

Not sure one way or the other whether the dealer or the Yamaha is responsible on that side of the firewall. It was installed at the factory, I'm guessing that isn't one of the items on the dealer prep list.

 

[ripler]

Not sure one way or the other whether the dealer or the Yamaha is responsible on that side of the firewall. It was installed at the factory, I'm guessing that isn't one of the items on the dealer prep list.

That's the problem no one knows what's on a dealer prep list. It varies from dealer to dealer and the cost varies dealer to dealer. It's just a way for a dealer to squeeze more money from a customer. When I bought my Yamaha years ago my prep charge was 199.00 and when I bought my new boat I didn't pay dealer prep. My dealer spends a lot of time on new boats before delivery, every boat is water tested and everything on the boat gets tested.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Sounds like reasonable advice... but digging deep into the engine compartment and removing bus bar covers seems like something that ideally the customer wouldn't be on the hook for. Good news is that I'm really digging the boat. I'm not sure that it outperforms my old '04 AR230, but it sure looks better! And like underwear, boats should be changed out every 20 years or so whether they need it or not...

That’s awesome you were able to trace the issue to the buss bars and a simple tightening got you back on the water! For sure Yamaha, and your dealer needs to know about that at the very least.

Boating is new to me, July of 20, before that it was dirt bikes, (still ride just not as much) with every new dirt bike, I would strip it down to the engine in the frame and put it all back together lubing everything, blue loctiting all fasteners, cleaned and put copious amounts of dielectric grease on every electrical connection. While I didn’t go that far on my boat I did go through a lot of stuff. Your story reminds me that I need to go through everything on my boat before this season gets into full swing.

Speaking of changing things…perhaps update the boat in your signature ?

Congrats on the new ride!

 

[TimW451]

@TommyMcK (FYI, you should update your boat type in your profile.)

The 14v you saw while underway was for the electrical system (engine generated), not the batteries. Once the engines are running the batteries are there for the ride.

The wires were probably already loose when you started and vibrated off/loose more during your cruise. Good thing you didn’t stop somewhere before going home!

Check every fitting and screw you can see this first year with the boat.

 

[TommyMcK]

@TommyMcK (FYI, you should update your boat type in your profile.)

The 14v you saw while underway was for the electrical system (engine generated), not the batteries. Once the engines are running the batteries are there for the ride.

Wasn't obvious to me (without a wiring diagram) where in the circuit the meter was measuring. Could have been on the battery side of the bus bar, in which case, I'd have expected wonky readings. The battery is there for more than just the ride though, which is probably why I was getting error messages thrown. The battery serves as a capacitor for the transients out of the charging system....

Changed the boat type! Didn't see "XD" in the list, so I just called it a 22' wake...