2010 RXt 215 Junk

[Danny S.]

I have a 2015 RXT 215 Sea Doo that I have had serviced at the dealer at 10 hrs, 50 Hrs and 100 hrs. At 108 Hrs or so I had the supercharger rebuilt, which I thought was crazy for something that really only has 90-100 hours on it with the break in.

Well.... I get back and supercharger had a bad bearing or something and it was replaced. No issues with dealer, they helped work through it...

Then, the jet ski does not make it back to my dock and I find out that the drive shaft splines that go into the impellor are stripped! REALLY???? Who designs a drive shaft spline so that it strips before a sacrificial impellor??? The impellor had no physical damage that would show something came through to make this damage???? Must have been factory tolerances or slop in the drive shaft????

So, I send Sea Doo a couple emails and complaints and they finally respond by saying it is an engineering issue and then they get back and tell me it is LACK of Maintenance? Well, I had it serviced 3 times and rebuilt the supercharger per recommendations that I think are ridiculous. Again to note this ski only has just over 100 hours on it????????

I just wanted to post to see if anyone else had any issues with this and to have you please forward to all social media and other posts this issue. I would never own another Sea Doo and unfortunately I just bought a Spark before this happened..... Never again.

Please forward this on and if anyone is interested I will share photos, etc.... of the drive shaft spline... Oh yeah, it was $1600 to repair and maybe we can get another 100 hrs of it????

Disappointed Sea Doo Owner
Danny S.

 

[Spimothy Leary]

Lighten up francis....

IMO its just a bit of bad luck there, or perhaps some poor maintenance on the dealers part, worth looking into since you entrusted the dealer to take care of "things", not sure if the new models have the same zerk needs that mine does, but if that was skipped over, it would make sense as to why you had a problem.

as far as a bad bearing on the SC, that's kind of why they need rebuilding... not quite sure why that's an issue for you.

Sorry your disappointed, give me a good price and i'll buy them from ya !!!!!!

I've owned SD's on and off for the past 7 years, and i've had very good luck.

ps... is your RXT a 2015 or a 2010 ? , you say one thing but your profile indicates another.

make a bit of a difference... 110 hours on a 5 yr old SC,, vs 110 on a 1 yr old SC.

 

[Coastiejoe]

Not everything is or can be perfect. Sometimes bad things just happen.

Super Chargers (SC) can fail a few ways. Two main ways are bearings and age with the exception of those with ceramic washers (they fail often and at any hours. Seadoo no longer uses them). The age thing is, the squirrel cages get brittle and break. Then the bearings basically fall out. This is why BOTH the 100/200 hour rule AND the 2 year rule are important. It is a whichever comes first.

Shaft issues, Seadoo had a bad batch and have an updated shaft. The irony is, the updated shaft is the old shafts they used.

Shaft issues are pretty common for 09-10 models.

Get through these hurdles and you will have a nice ski.


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[Danny S.]

I have a 2010 RXT 215 and a 2015 Spark. Maybe bad luck on one but when you pay full price for a new one and have to spend thousands of dollars on maintenance is crazy. I'll take $7000 for it if you want it.

There is no zerk fitting where the impellor attaches to the drive shaft. Maybe I'm the only one but it is crazy to rip the splines out of it..

 

[Michael211_2000]

BOAT.... Bust Out Another Thousand, as they say. :-\

I do my own maintenance, and I love my 2006 RXT 215 SC IC SeaDoo! Yes it has it's flaws but I manage them. Once out of factory warranty at least, there's no reason not to learn how and to do your own maintenance... it isn't rocket science. My maintenance includes regularly pulling the pump and inspecting the drive shaft splines then lubing them with marine grease before re-installing the pump (since the impeller is attached to the pump and goes on/off with it). It's a wintertime thing I do after the main boating season is over.

However I will fault BRP for not issuing recalls and fixing mistakes they have made in their designs over the years... ceramic SC clutch washers, hollow exhaust valves, those weak drive shafts, weak PTO bolts, etc. ... all should have been recalled and replaced once BRP realized they were bad designs, destined to fail catastrophically! It's not just that these designs weren't the greatest, they were flawed and destined to fail in short order from the moment the 1st hour was put on the brand new machine they're ticking time bombs!

My original 2006 SC went ~96 hours and 9 years with only the original ceramic clutch washers replaced (at ~54 hours) and I actually had to rebuild it this Fall finally because the seal was starting to leak oil (and it was close enough to 100 hrs for me)... I don't subscribe to the 2 year rebuild idea. To each their own.

Danny do you ride in fresh water or salt water? Salt water requires a LOT more maintenance than fresh water!

I also don't understand, if the SC had a bad original bearing (necessitating the rebuild) or after it was rebuilt it had to go back again because a new bearing was bad?

They all have their issues, Polaris SeaDoo Yamaha, etc. If you want to have a PWC (aka "jet ski") or a boat you're going to have bad days. You either deal with the bad days, or sit on the shore and watch the waves lap at your feet while other's zoom about on the water having fun. :-\

- Michael

 

[Danny S.]

Thanks Michael. It is fresh water... The SC did not have a bad bearing I just followed the OEM recommendation to re-build at 100 hrs (about 108 when I had it done) and it went to hell from there. I guess I just do not see how something like this can fail in 100 hrs or so or really 90 hrs after break in period. Anyway, I appreciate your feedback.

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

I'm wondering which end of the drive shaft spline wore out, was it the engine (PTO) end or the impeller end? On my Seadoo, there's a grease zert on the PTO splines which requires periodic lubrication, or at least that's what the service manual claims. I grease this fitting twice per season using the service manual procedure and haven't experienced any failure (knock on wood).

For the impeller end, there's a plastic ring around the perimeter of the shaft just fore of the impeller intended to keep grease in the impeller splines. If this ring somehow was damaged and fell off or failed, the grease would wash out of the spline and dirt/sand could easily enter the spline coupling, either of which would likely damage the splines and cause premature failure.

If the engine is misaligned with the pump, this will cause premature PTO spline wear. The dealer should be confirming this alignment. If you own a Mercruiser sterndrive boat, the drive is supposed to be removed annually so the u-joints and input shaft spline can be greased and u-joint bellows checked for leaks. Engine alignment should be checked and adjusted at this time also, that's annually! Gear oil change, engine oil change, bla, bla, bla, an arm's-length list of maintenance items are recommended for the system to remain trouble-free as well.

Bottom line, all watercraft must be serviced according to schedule, at a minimum.

 

[racerxxx]

It was the impeller end as the op stated.

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[Spimothy Leary]

I had one when the impeller end was stripped because the motor was set just a tad bit forward it was obvious if it was just the tip.

to piggyback on what michael said above.. 100% agree... there is no perfect ski out there, they all have their flaws, they all have their advantages.

I certainly have my complaints about every manufacturer and i've read quite a few horror / lemon stories. I think SD has pushed the performance threshold quite rapidly and there have been some setbacks, but for the most part I think its a worthy tradeoff if you keep informed. (and have a little good luck)

to the OP:
one thing you must remember is that 100 hours in a car isn't much but for a pwc 100 hrs and 5 years is a good chunk of time. They run in extreme environments and if things aren't running 100% in sync, eventually a fault point comes into play.

 

[Michael211_2000]

So after the dealership rebuilt it, the SC experienced a SC main bearing failure... how many hours after the rebuild did that happen? That bites! SC'ed engines are a blast when the charger is working correctly but they suck when something goes wrong! Non-SC'ed PWC's aren't as much fun to ride (still fun though), but they don't have the issues and rebuild intervals to deal with. So it's like, you have to choose which you prefer... more fun, with more maintenance and possible hassles, or a tamer beast with less maintenance and fewer problems.

I've been learning to deal with mine's SC, doing the 1st rebuild myself earlier this fall... didn't work too well the instructions weren't exactly accurate for my year model's charger and the new needle bearings burned up in less than 2 hours run-time. So pulled the thing out again and started over, lesson learned... if the instructions seem to be omitting a step, they probably are! I greased the darned needle bearings by fingertip this time around!!! (kit instructions make no mention of greasing the needles during the installation step)

Right now you're frustrated and calling it "junk" and "never buying another SeaDoo"... you'll get it out of your system, you're venting I understand and you'll realize it too.

I know you spent a lot of money on that SC rebuild and then that drive shaft.... you can learn to rebuild the SC yourself (or pull it and mail it to one of the expert re-builders such as on here, still for a lot less money than going to a dealership), and things like good used drive shafts can be had on Ebay for a LOT less than you spent at the dealership (you can change the drive shaft yourself in 1 evening). You do need a better explanation as to why that shaft failed, something caused that and a replacement shaft may well suffer the same fate if the cause isn't addressed!

ps. Shafts are expensive yes, but the impeller is too... it's a half-dozen 1 or the other which one you'd prefer to have to replace. How the shaft splines could fail but the impeller splines still be fine, I have no idea! That needs a better explanation IMHO!

- Michael