Back in the water... not running correctly

[Wing42]

Good morning all,

I have a 2008 Speedster 150, SC version. Last fall I had taken it to the local Seadoo shop to get it winterized... same as the previous year. Took it out of storage, hooked up the fuel injectors, cranked it up and it ran fine in the driveway... same as last year. Put it in the water yesterday and when I put any load on the engine it was very sluggish and had very little power... NOT the same as last year. It idles fine but no power and would only get into the mid 5,000 RPM range. Could they have done something different during "winterization" that they didn't do the first year?

Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

 

[Wing42]

Talked to the dealer... they said it could be a spark plug issue. Unless they change the plugs at the 10 hour service, they have not been changed. Also said it could be an issue with the supercharger. Should I change the plugs myself and put it back in the water to test it or just take it to them and have them troubleshoot it?

 

[KK40384]

Plugs are cheap. Throw a set in and see what happens.

 

[Wing42]

I had planned on doing that myself as I do all of the basic repair on my vehicles but the boat is still under warranty so I think I should probably just take it to the dealer and have them do it... just in case it has something to do with the supercharger or something else other than plugs.

 

[eggraid101]

I have a similar issue, which I posted in another discussion thread by accident. Did it sound like the video I posted here?

From the other thread:
"HI, I'm new to the forum and new to Sea-Doo ownership. I bought a 2006 Sea-Doo Challenger 180 boat, and I'm having an issue, and I figured the Sae-Doo owners would have the best chance of figuring this issue out.

I used the boat 3 times at the end of last summer after I bought it, loved it, it worked great, no problems. I winterized it myself: ran antifreeze into the exhaust, changed the oil, fogged the engine and the spark plugs, added fuel stabilizer. That was pretty much it. Yesterday we took it out on the water for the first time this summer, and it started up well. We no-waked out a little bit, and then started to roll. The problem, when I pushed the throttle, it didn't accelerate smoothly. At RPMs above about 3000, it would rev, then slow, then rev, then slow. IT would jump quickly from 4500-5200 and immediately back down, and our speed never got above about 13 MPH. I thought maybe it needed to warm up from the season, so we idled for about 30 minutes or so. Then when I hit the throttle again, "Halleluia!" Angels were singing, the boat was back to it's old self. We cruised around for about 45 minutes, the RPMs were smooth, the engine sounded great and I was congratulating myself. We entered a no wake zone for about 45 minutes, and then when I tried to open it up again, I had the same problem with the engine. We went back and took it out of the water, and it never improved for the 45 minute ride back to the ramp. The engine sounded almost like it was running out of gas, or like it was sputtering. There were also a few 'knocking' sounds I heard during the initial problem, but not in the second one. When pulling the plug, the water that came out was very very warm, and had an oily sheen to it.

Here is the link to a video I took of the problem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM3TcHY1gU4

2nd video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fLJQD82_pk

I don't have a lot of mechanical experience with engines, I am comfortable winterizing, changing oil, etc, but am not particularly skilled or knowledgeble in this area. Did I do something wrong during the winterizing process? I did get the ratio wrong for the fuel stabilizer, and ended up adding way too much. Is this the problem? spark plugs?

Please let me know if you think the problem falls into one of these 3 categories:
1. take it immediately to a shop, you're over your head and shouldn't deal with this.
2. Easy fix, you probably forgot to do (X) during the winterizing.
3. This was a normal first time out, just take it easy next time and give it time.

Thank you in advance, I really appreciate your help"

 

[chlarson23]

last summer I took my boat out for the first time and it started and ran fine at idle, it accelerated but never reached top speed, the rpms were all over the place and the boat just seemed extremely underpowered. After a little while I was cruzing along on my way back to the boat ramp and my rpms out of nowhere shot up and the boat took off on me. I thought whatever it was must have worked itself out but after i throttled down and tried again, it was the same as before. I was worried that my problem was severe but I pulled the plugs and swapped them out, when I took it out again the next week it ran like a champ. it is worth your time to just swap them and see what happens. I got mine from autozone and when I went to gap the plugs they were already where they needed to be so i just threw them in. give it a shot, it can't hurt.

 

[eggraid101]

It sounds like that's the problem, I'll switch out the plugs and report back.

 

[smc0922]

You won't believe the difference new plugs can make, especially a boosted engine.

 

[Floridan surfer]

I think the problem is condensation in the fuel, which eventually works itself out. Problem is usually gone after a tank or two. But bad gas can foul the plugs.

 

[Wing42]

Thanks for all the help!!! I took my boat to the dealer and had them do a full service... plugs, oil, grease. Took the boat back out and it ran better than when it was new. I am sure that is because I bought the 2008 model boat brand new in 2011 and as far as I know it was still on the original plugs. It had also been through two winterizations.

 

[spx800]

I have a similar issue, which I posted in another discussion thread by accident. Did it sound like the video I posted here?

From the other thread:
"HI, I'm new to the forum and new to Sea-Doo ownership. I bought a 2006 Sea-Doo Challenger 180 boat, and I'm having an issue, and I figured the Sae-Doo owners would have the best chance of figuring this issue out.

I used the boat 3 times at the end of last summer after I bought it, loved it, it worked great, no problems. I winterized it myself: ran antifreeze into the exhaust, changed the oil, fogged the engine and the spark plugs, added fuel stabilizer. That was pretty much it. Yesterday we took it out on the water for the first time this summer, and it started up well. We no-waked out a little bit, and then started to roll. The problem, when I pushed the throttle, it didn't accelerate smoothly. At RPMs above about 3000, it would rev, then slow, then rev, then slow. IT would jump quickly from 4500-5200 and immediately back down, and our speed never got above about 13 MPH. I thought maybe it needed to warm up from the season, so we idled for about 30 minutes or so. Then when I hit the throttle again, "Halleluia!" Angels were singing, the boat was back to it's old self. We cruised around for about 45 minutes, the RPMs were smooth, the engine sounded great and I was congratulating myself. We entered a no wake zone for about 45 minutes, and then when I tried to open it up again, I had the same problem with the engine. We went back and took it out of the water, and it never improved for the 45 minute ride back to the ramp. The engine sounded almost like it was running out of gas, or like it was sputtering. There were also a few 'knocking' sounds I heard during the initial problem, but not in the second one. When pulling the plug, the water that came out was very very warm, and had an oily sheen to it.

Here is the link to a video I took of the problem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM3TcHY1gU4

2nd video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fLJQD82_pk

I don't have a lot of mechanical experience with engines, I am comfortable winterizing, changing oil, etc, but am not particularly skilled or knowledgeble in this area. Did I do something wrong during the winterizing process? I did get the ratio wrong for the fuel stabilizer, and ended up adding way too much. Is this the problem? spark plugs?

Please let me know if you think the problem falls into one of these 3 categories:
1. take it immediately to a shop, you're over your head and shouldn't deal with this.
2. Easy fix, you probably forgot to do (X) during the winterizing.
3. This was a normal first time out, just take it easy next time and give it time.

Thank you in advance, I really appreciate your help"

Sorry to hijack, but did you ever figure out what the problem was? Ours is doing the same thing from 0 to 1/2 throttle. However it seems to run normal at WOT. Also, you can go from WOT to half and back and it runs fine without skipping a beat. It just seems to run like shit at idle up to 5000.