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Good Beeps, Starter Turns but pistons don’t?

Dylan.O

New Member
So we have a 2011 Seadoo GTI 130. When purchased a few months ago we were informed that it needed a new battery casing(the plastic) in the front and possibly and oil leak somewhere. In February we started it up by just connecting a brand new battery to the terminals (which were very corroded) and pressing start. It started up good on the first few cranks (we were surprised) so we ordered the parts we needed for the battery casing and went from there. Additionally we took the battery out from February to now and stored it in the warm house, battery has since been checked with a multimeter and seems to be in good working condition even now. Now within the past few weeks we have installed the battery casing, cleaned the corroded terminals and relay, degreased and hosed down the engine bay, checked and replaced the spark plugs. When we went to start it, it just clicks and beeps now giving us a check engine light. We get 2 beeps (meaning the key is being read) but nothing after that. We have replaced the starter solenoid relay with a new one but still the same issue occurs. We have “jumped” the starter solenoid relay using 2 screwdrivers to bypass it and get the starter moving. At this point the starter sounds good but we don’t have any piston movement. We are stumped here and can’t seem to find a solution on any forums. We have cleaned and checked the keys and the connect for the keys, both seem good. We tried to connect an OBD II device to the diagnostics port using a converter but found that doesn’t work. Anyone have any ideas before we spend the $$$ on having a tech look into it or purchasing an expensive diagnostics tool to try and read the codes?
 
What you describe all sounds like a bad battery. You can't really test a battery with a voltmeter. It should be load tested and if you haven't charged it for that long then it probably lost most of its charge regardless of the voltage reading with your multimeter. When you say no piston movement, I assume you mean the engine won't turn over but the starter engages into the flywheel with a slight clunk. If you had a good battery, the engine should turn over at normal speed. You'll never get an automotive scan tool to work on a seadoo, completely different system. Don't jump start it from a running vehicle unless you want to spend a thousand on a new ECU.
 
Thanks for the reply! Sounds like we should take a look at the battery, although it is brand new as of a few months ago and was put on a trickle charger before putting it back into the machine. Additionally, after we got this check engine light, and after we tried the few other things described earlier, we also thought it might be the battery and we did jump start it from a running vehicle for a few minutes. There has been no notable difference in what’s happening. But it sounds like we may have potentially added another problem to it by doing this. Is there any way to check the ECU?
 
No easy way to test the ECU. I usually try another ECU from a different ski but even then it has to be married to the cluster using BUDS. I'd say more than likely you fried your ECU.

I would get a good known battery that starts other skis and try it and see what happens. If it won't crank at all after the 2 beeps, then remove the key and jump the solenoid and it should turn over at normal speed.

Proper starting procedure for your ski is to 1. press the start button to wake up the ECU. 2. install key and you should get 2 beeps. 3. press and hold start button until it starts.
 
Hey, Just tested a good battery and still the same issue, proceeded to fully trickle charge the new one bought for this ski and try again, still the same issue. Tried that step by step startup method, still the same issue. Beeps twice when key is attached then just interval clicks while holding start but nothing happening, we get 2 beeps again when letting go of the start button, and the check engine light comes on.
 
Sounds like a bad connection. The wires can corrode from the inside. If you add new wires you can track down the bad connection.
 
We have now tried a load tester which shows the battery is good, additionally we have ran diagnostics and got the fault code U16A4. I’m currently thinking it might have been triggered if I pulled something too hard when changing the battery and cleaned the terminals. We will take a look at some of the connections and grounds. Any advise on where to find the majority of them? I have located some grounds on the front of the engine block so far.
 
Update: we got it! Found a corroded loose ground. Thanks so much for the help!
where was the corroded loose ground? I'm having similar issue with my 2016 GTI 130. cranks slowly but will not start. I took battery to AutoZone, load tested, it's good. also shows 12.7V.
 
where was the corroded loose ground? I'm having similar issue with my 2016 GTI 130. cranks slowly but will not start. I took battery to AutoZone, load tested, it's good. also shows 12.7V.
What worked for us was following the wires from the battery back to the 2 connection points (one red one black) on the bottom of the engine block. They were a little difficult to reach and see so we used photos and mirrors to check them and eventually pull them off to clean and re-grease them. We also tested the continuity of wire itself, by just using an Ohmmeter to see if there was any issues with it. Just make sure to reconnect your red and black wires correctly. Don’t want to accidentally get those backwards. This photo is what ours looks like under the block at the connection points.
IMG_6020.jpeg
 
Thank you, I will check that out! I already replaced the starter relay and the little square box solenoid in the fuse box, didn't help, so I bet it's a corroded ground or the starter. I've had the crank-pause-crank on this seadoo for a couple years. We have two and one does that, the other not. I read a thread about that on this forum... And I already bought a new SBT starter so I might just put that in instead of waiting for failure of the original 2016 one that's been on it since we got it new in 2016.
 
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