My boat is a 2009 bayliner, twin 350 mag bravo 3 duo prop and has the first gen axius steering. Took the boat out and while on plane the boat made a hard turn left turn and i totally lost steering. I refer to the manual and it said to shut down the engines and restart to regain steering. I did and the steering came back. Got on plane again and it did the same thing. opened the engine hatch and there was a bunch of steering fluid in the bilge. Chased the leak all summer and realize that Rod seal had failed on the axis hydraulic cylinder. I was able to find a local guy to replace the seals and found that a solenoid valve was also cracked. I bought that part to replace, but I am considering getting rid of all the axis steering and going with a seastar hydraulic steering system. I don’t like the idea that the drives move independently and that there could be a total loss of steering. My only concern is I am not sure if the ECU will put the engines in limp mode because the axis steering is removed. I called Mercury and talk to them and they told me because of liability they could not recommend or give me any insight on a fix unless I had a mercury certified dealer do a complete overhaul of the engine, transom housing, and out drives. That seems like a crazy solution. Has anybody had experience with axius and or removed their axius steering. And what was your experience when you did?
