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TL;DR - starboard NSS tab won't function at all - brand new actuator installed at the dealer, possible linc issue?
Full story:
Short backstory - picked up a '13 G at the beginning of this year and put ~100 hours on it with near flawless operation. Decided to send it in for an oil change at the 100 hours and hold off the major service for later this season.
The biggest issue we've had is the LINC screen won't always boot up when you hit start. It worked perfect for the first few months and then started to not boot intermittently, a problem that seems to be exacerbated when the weather is warmer. Sometimes the screen will boot up first shot (though not too often), sometimes it takes 5-10 tries of start/stop button hits to get the screen to read 'Booting...'. While at the dealer for the oil change I asked them to take a look at the LINC screen and see if they could figure out the problem. I was told they tested all the connections and it has the latest available software and that after talking to the factory rep they wanted us to send them the screen to re-flash or do a diagnostic. Since it's only annoying at the beginning of our day and never gets shut off during I decided to hold that off until the end of the season when I didn't mind not having a boat for weeks at a time.
Now here's the troubling part. Prior to the dealer troubleshooting everything about the LINC worked flawlessly once it was booted up. When I put the boat back in the water after the dealer did the oil change / troubleshooting the starboard NSS tab deployed and would not retract. Found this out when we tried to get a goofy rider up. I was worried about getting it on the trailer if the tab would hit but luckily it didn't, during the shutdown zero-out sequence the tab still didn't retract but it made noise like it was attempting to. I used my hand and without much pressure was able to push the tab back in. Went back out and the tab deployed and stayed stuck out. I repeated the process of pushing it back during the zero-out sequence on shutdown / boot up and it went back in.
Being somewhat mechanically inclined I pulled the cover off the tab and ended up manually powering the actuator with a car battery to get it to deploy, it made noise but didn't sound good and no movement from the tab. Took it to the dealer and showed them the video of this test, they put a new actuator in and I was told they tested it from the LINC screen but my understanding is the demo mode wasn't available until 2016 and that there's no way to manually activate them from a 2013 LINC? Maybe they didn't actually test the functionality?
Aside from making my next service appointment (as nice as the guys are at the dealer I don't really want to be best friends because I'm there every week) does anyone have any ideas on this?
My next step is just going to be pulling the dash and checking all the connections for anything that's loose / poor ground / etc thinking that it might be a bad connection from the LINC / PDM. The actuator still makes noise during the zero-out sequence on boot up / power down so it's still getting some juice from the system. I'll also try my test of plugging the actuator direct to a battery (which was successful on the port side previously). Won't have time until next weekend as I'm heading to Tahoe so any ideas in the meantime will be much appreciated and tested on sat/sun
I've done a search across these forums and think I've read every LINC / NSS issue related thread (and plenty unrelated) to try and see any similar issues and their solution but they usually seem to be solved by LINC software updates of which mine is current though I'm sure that's the next step at the dealer is to re-flash. I'll see if they'll send me the file to re-flash with instructions - I'd rather not trailer up and back for the 3 hour round trip 3rd time in 2 weeks.
Sorry for such a long post - trying to provide as much detail as possible, thanks for reading!
Full story:
Short backstory - picked up a '13 G at the beginning of this year and put ~100 hours on it with near flawless operation. Decided to send it in for an oil change at the 100 hours and hold off the major service for later this season.
The biggest issue we've had is the LINC screen won't always boot up when you hit start. It worked perfect for the first few months and then started to not boot intermittently, a problem that seems to be exacerbated when the weather is warmer. Sometimes the screen will boot up first shot (though not too often), sometimes it takes 5-10 tries of start/stop button hits to get the screen to read 'Booting...'. While at the dealer for the oil change I asked them to take a look at the LINC screen and see if they could figure out the problem. I was told they tested all the connections and it has the latest available software and that after talking to the factory rep they wanted us to send them the screen to re-flash or do a diagnostic. Since it's only annoying at the beginning of our day and never gets shut off during I decided to hold that off until the end of the season when I didn't mind not having a boat for weeks at a time.
Now here's the troubling part. Prior to the dealer troubleshooting everything about the LINC worked flawlessly once it was booted up. When I put the boat back in the water after the dealer did the oil change / troubleshooting the starboard NSS tab deployed and would not retract. Found this out when we tried to get a goofy rider up. I was worried about getting it on the trailer if the tab would hit but luckily it didn't, during the shutdown zero-out sequence the tab still didn't retract but it made noise like it was attempting to. I used my hand and without much pressure was able to push the tab back in. Went back out and the tab deployed and stayed stuck out. I repeated the process of pushing it back during the zero-out sequence on shutdown / boot up and it went back in.
Being somewhat mechanically inclined I pulled the cover off the tab and ended up manually powering the actuator with a car battery to get it to deploy, it made noise but didn't sound good and no movement from the tab. Took it to the dealer and showed them the video of this test, they put a new actuator in and I was told they tested it from the LINC screen but my understanding is the demo mode wasn't available until 2016 and that there's no way to manually activate them from a 2013 LINC? Maybe they didn't actually test the functionality?
Aside from making my next service appointment (as nice as the guys are at the dealer I don't really want to be best friends because I'm there every week) does anyone have any ideas on this?
My next step is just going to be pulling the dash and checking all the connections for anything that's loose / poor ground / etc thinking that it might be a bad connection from the LINC / PDM. The actuator still makes noise during the zero-out sequence on boot up / power down so it's still getting some juice from the system. I'll also try my test of plugging the actuator direct to a battery (which was successful on the port side previously). Won't have time until next weekend as I'm heading to Tahoe so any ideas in the meantime will be much appreciated and tested on sat/sun
I've done a search across these forums and think I've read every LINC / NSS issue related thread (and plenty unrelated) to try and see any similar issues and their solution but they usually seem to be solved by LINC software updates of which mine is current though I'm sure that's the next step at the dealer is to re-flash. I'll see if they'll send me the file to re-flash with instructions - I'd rather not trailer up and back for the 3 hour round trip 3rd time in 2 weeks.
Sorry for such a long post - trying to provide as much detail as possible, thanks for reading!
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