Steering sensor alarm

[pwrbotr]

I have a pair of 2016 F350s with helm master and Garmin autopilot and I’m getting a starboard steering sensor fault alarm. The boat has run fine (with the alarm) until yesterday when the starboard motor stopped responding to me turning the wheel. I shut down the boat, turned off the batteries and it seemed to reset the issue where I can steer but still have the warning fault on the Yamaha dash gauge. Anyone else had this issue and what was the fix? Is it a sensor or a brain possibly going bad? Trying to get a sense of what I’m in for.

 

[DennisG01]

I won't be able to help with the electronic diagnosis as you'll likely need to be hooked up to a Yamaha computer/scanner. However, the first thing I would do is to make sure you have healthy batteries (don't assume... check each individually by removing ground cables. Getting them charged and load tested would be good, too). Then, follow each lead, positive and negative, everywhere they go, checking for clean and tight. These systems are picky about voltage and when it's not correct, weird things can happen. Sometimes, proper voltage, but not enough AH can do it, too.

 

[seasick]

I suspect that the diagnosis is not something that a lot of members have dealt with. It sounds like a trip to the service folks. The only thing I would do is remove the cowling and check the harness connections and if possible the steering sensor connectors. My first thought is that the sensor is bad and the head end says that without knowing the position of the motor, I can not issues steering commands.
I would also look at the parts diagram to see how the steering sensor is activated. It may have a linkage (or may nor) that has come out of adjustment.
Let us know what it turns out to be.