Seaweed causing throttle to stick in forward and check engine light

[jvc167]

We purchased a 2024 Yamaha 252 SE this year, and love it. But we are experiencing a very frustrating issue, and do not feel what the dealer is telling us is the whole truth.

We experience a weird issue when moving from high speed to low speed (mainly when coming back into the marina) one of our engines (mainly the port engine) has the check engine light come on and that engine is stuck in forward gear. The only way to get the boat out of gear is to turn that engine off. When we turn the engine back on, the check engine light comes back on and the engine goes right back into forward gear. Not the best scenario when you are trying to dock in the marina.

we are being told, by the dealer, that there is seaweed stuck in a sensor (our boat is all electric throttle, not cable throttle) which is causing the Check engine light to come on and experience this. The only solution is to turn the boat off, turn the battery kill switch, and then turn the battery back on and then the engines. This clears the issue and the boat is back to normal.

I just cannot believe that this is a seaweed issue, as it happens almost every time we take the boat out. for the price of the boat you think there would be something to help clear the sensor?

I have talked to other Yamaha owners who have similar boats 252 and 255 and they have never experienced this at all.

Has anyone else run into this? Is there anything else I can do? The dealer is sticking to the seaweed issue and saying there is nothing Yamaha can do.

 

[drewkaree]

"we are being told, by the dealer"

Did you take it to them, or are they diagnosing this over the phone?

It sounds as if they're diagnosing this over the phone, since it sounds like you're still having the issue.

Have you pulled the boat out of the water to investigate the pump area, or are you wet slipped, and can't easily access it until you can pull it out of the water?

I'd make sure to pull it out of the water, if you haven't been able to. Grab an inspection light and go over the area to see if anything stands out. While you're in there, take pics and post them for us. Don't use your phone as a light, get a powerful light to assist you.

You may see something as soon as you pull it out, that jumps out at you as being the problem, or someone else may see something from your pics you'll post. This is the first I can recall hearing of this issue, so this will be interesting to track the problem down. Please keep everyone posted and follow up with any attempts to resolve this, and what the results were.

 

[jvc167]

Yes we have taken it to the dealer three times to have this looked at. We even had them take it out on the water to test. They keep coming back that there’s something getting stuck on the sensor. When we pulled it out last time there wasn’t anything in the ports, or thrusters (including the shutes)

We will be pulling it out of the water in a week to prep for winter storage

It is just weird that we are the only one experiencing this in our marina (that has over 50 Yamaha jet boats currently docked) dealer said we are they only one reporting this issue to them.

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

maybe it has a bad sensor or bad connection