222XD BCU Errors

[TommyMcK]

I have a 222XD with about 25 hours on it. The boat regularly throws a BCU error on startup. Often when this happens, the starboard engine will display in forward on the Connext, but sometimes not... The control is set to neutral on startup of course, so the BCU is somehow confused as to the position of the bucket. Other times, it'll throw the BCU error at startup but showing both engines in neutral. So far at least, it has always only happened when first starting out for the day. Subsequent stops and starts don't throw the error. I don't have enough data points to say for sure, but it seems like it only happens when I stop the engines with the wheel steered off to one side or the other. That may be a red herring...we'll see. It sometimes takes several tries to clear it, but it always sorts itself out in the end.

In any case, every electrical connection that I can find from the batteries to the bus bars and beyond are tight and secure so far as I can tell. Not necessarily expecting a solution here, but figured I'd mention it in case anybody else has something similar happen. This will be on my squawk list at the end of the season if I haven't resolved it by then... I don't plan on losing good boating by having it sit in a dealer's lot unless absolutely necessary.

I'll post with any updates...

 

[D3nN1s]

I have a 222XD with about 25 hours on it. The boat regularly throws a BCU error on startup. Often when this happens, the starboard engine will display in forward on the Connext, but sometimes not... The control is set to neutral on startup of course, so the BCU is somehow confused as to the position of the bucket. Other times, it'll throw the BCU error at startup but showing both engines in neutral. So far at least, it has always only happened when first starting out for the day. Subsequent stops and starts don't throw the error. I don't have enough data points to say for sure, but it seems like it only happens when I stop the engines with the wheel steered off to one side or the other. That may be a red herring...we'll see. It sometimes takes several tries to clear it, but it always sorts itself out in the end.

In any case, every electrical connection that I can find from the batteries to the bus bars and beyond are tight and secure so far as I can tell. Not necessarily expecting a solution here, but figured I'd mention it in case anybody else has something similar happen. This will be on my squawk list at the end of the season if I haven't resolved it by then... I don't plan on losing good boating by having it sit in a dealer's lot unless absolutely necessary.

I'll post with any updates...

Ive had the same issues on my 255xd, Dealer explained that the buckets are overly sensitive when they perform the BCU check. It doesn't take much resistance or binding to trip the engine code. I found an easy was to clear it from the guys on another post on the site. But, overall a pain in the ass so far. We had it out the other day and didn't trip it once so we will see how the season plays out.

 

[URODAVE]

Ive had the same issues on my 255xd, Dealer explained that the buckets are overly sensitive when they perform the BCU check. It doesn't take much resistance or binding to trip the engine code. I found an easy was to clear it from the guys on another post on the site. But, overall a pain in the ass so far. We had it out the other day and didn't trip it once so we will see how the season plays out.

What other post? Having same issue with the BCU error

 

[TommyMcK]

Not sure about what the other post was, but the "procedure" that I used was to turn the key to the off position, turn both battery switches to off, and start over. Two or three time through this and it would stop throwing the error. I don't really know that the battery switch was necessary or not (I don't really have enough data points...) but it always eventually clears. It only ever did it on the first start of the day by the way.

For what it's worth, it hasn't done this for a couple of months now. Can't explain that either.

 

[URODAVE]

Thank you… mine cleared after a couple of tries and never occurred for the rest of the day. Kind of unnerving though when you are out all day and fearful of needing a tow.

 

[aamburns]

Ive had the same issues on my 255xd, Dealer explained that the buckets are overly sensitive when they perform the BCU check. It doesn't take much resistance or binding to trip the engine code. I found an easy was to clear it from the guys on another post on the site. But, overall a pain in the ass so far. We had it out the other day and didn't trip it once so we will see how the season plays out.

I have a 2023 255XD as well with less than 10 hours on it, 3rd time in the water. Just had my first BCU Stop error on both engines yesterday. I was on the water for 15 minutes then lost both engines. After a frantic text to my salesman and a reading the manual's troubleshooting section, I was able to clear the code on my port side engine, however my stbd engine never cleared. I was, thankfully, able to limp back to the dock with minimal steering and get back on the trailer. After scouring the web and this forum, I figured it best to call the dealership given that it seems to be a "could be a quick nothing" but "could be something". I've been told to expect it to be in the shop for a while due to the nature of not understanding what actually causes the problem or how to actually fix the problem. To boot, even if they are able to clear the code and everything is fine in their mind since they won't be able to recreate the problem that caused the code, it seems to be a matter of "when" it happens again not if. From what I can tell, this is a known engineering issue by Yamaha that they can't seem to figure out. But they seem plenty happy to sell these boats without any mention of this problem. That is unless you do some deep searching on the web and in forums. I apparently did not dig deep enough before purchasing, because had I, I would not have purchased this boat. Now I have a brand new boat that I will never trust. I couldn't imagine being on a big lake or in the salt water in any kind of chop or hazards and have this pop up again. These boats should have a mandatory big red warning label plastered on the Yamaha website or it should be disclosed by the dealer.

I tried to turn the batteries off, the key off, etc from the forum. It cleared one engine's code, but not the other.

 

[TommyMcK]

For what it's worth, After the first few months of this happening regularly, it hasn't happened in about a year now. Not a satisfying answer, I know. There are evidently a bunch of things that can cause that generic error. Anecdotally, the bucket position not being in the position that the control unit expects is one of the more common things. I suspect (but don't know) that on startup, the BCU records the position sensor of both buckets. After that, it keeps track of the commanded positions based on steering and throttle input and will throw a BCU error if for whatever reason the position sensors don't match what is predicted based on control input. It loses confidence that it's controlling the boat properly. It would in fact be a bummer to have the boat accidentally putting the buckets into reverse when the throttles are in neutral, so I understand the need for such a fail-safe.

In my case, my theory is that the loose connections at the breaker bar ended up causing an intermittent problem with either the position sensors or the control signals. I'm not sure why it took a few more outings after I tightened everything up for the problem to entirely resolve. And my theory may be wrong. The BCU is used for a bunch of things, but these problems seem to be more prevalent on boats with electronic throttle in particular.

 

[D3nN1s]

Anyone with a 2024 experience this problem? I noticed that the nozzles and buckets looked different for 2024, was wondering if this issue was cause for an update, or has something to do with the new drive system with dock hold, etc…

 

[Paul in Ohio]

YES! I have a 2024 252SE with 25 hours, and I am being plagued with a recurring Check Engine Stop BCU error. After doing research on the forums, I have learned several theories:

1) Yamaha BCU is overly sensitive to low voltage. My batteries (and boat) are only 3 months old, but often display 12.2 - 12.5V. That can cause BCU error.

2) I read that Yamaha jet boats do not have an alternator. And the stator/magneto does a poor job of charging the batteries, and does not significantly charge the batteries at RPM's under 7000. So you need to use a portable battery charger between outings.

3) I read that the BCU gets confused if you shut down the engines with the shift lever in Forward or Reverse, and can throw the error next time you run it. Also, shutting down the engines with the steering wheel hard over is problematic for the BCU and can cause the error.

Can anyone on the forum verify the truth of each of these statements?
Thank you!

 

[Rickster462]

I have a 2024 222SE. I had the BCU error come up. Seems like the port was forward and starboard was in reverse. I didn't know the issue or fix, so I got back to my slip on the port motor which started. At the slip I could feel the starboard bucket down and wiggled it, then killed the batteries. Then turned them back on, felt the buckets and both back up, started both with no issues then. Ran 30 minutes after to check and about 3 hours the next day. So far so good (knock on wood).