New Member, New Boat, Got Problems

[screwball]

Hi all, I'm Steve. Wife and I have had Seadoos for about 15 years. First a pair of GTI's, then when wife wanted faster we traded in for a pair of '99 GTX Limited's. This year we felt it was boat time so we bought ourselves an 08 215 hp Speedster. 10 great hours of fun. Took her in for the 10 hour service, picked her up and back on the lake. BOOM, the blower disintegrates. Dealer had it for 3 weeks, replaced the blower and a lot of peripheal stuff. Take her back out for a shake down, 20 minutes of running about 1/2 throttle and we get an oil pressure warning and the engine shuts down. 2 more weeks at the dealer and 3 hours running on the engine and they say it was the sending unit. Don't have a lot of faith in the little boat anymore. 2 more failures in 24 months and the Arizona Lemon Law kicks in. Anyone else having problems with a new 'floatie??

 

[sporsterjoel]

Sound to me like your supercharger washers went witch can be caused by useing the wrong oil. do you know what kind you used in it? when the clutch washers fail they go all through the motor into the oil pump witch is my guess why your got that warning light. Ceramic wash failer is a well know thing alot of people replace them with metal ones. (Hint there are to types of oil for these boats. theres (syntetic, used in 155hp and mineral oil, used in the 215hp call your dealer that did your 10hr services and ask what type of oil they used in your boat but be carefull how to word it or you wont get a truthfull answer out of them.

 

[screwball]

Fortunately this is all warranty work. They did the 10 hour maintenance and the rebuild. My wife is a very shrewd negotiate, and got the 4 year premium warranty including routine maintenance for freeby. Got a 2 page list of parts they replaced. Talked to the Maint. Manager about metal shavings in the oil, they 'assured me' (ya, right) they had thoroughly flushed the engine.

 

[Bretsuaz]

Screw, Where did you purchase at? Also, where do you go for service?

 

[kustomkarl]

I wouldn't worry too much about with a great warranty like that. Is it possible to take the seadoo to another dealer that is more knowledgeable? It sounds like the seadoo is fine....but the dealer is questionable.

Karl

 

[screwball]

Screw, Where did you purchase at? Also, where do you go for service?

Bought the boat at Sun-West in Bullhead City, Az. They did the 10 hr and the rebuild. When the boat failed again (oil pressure sending unit) they put 3 hours running time on it to get it to fail for them.

They have always done a great job on the GTX Limiteds and the the Polaris quads we bought from them. If I read the Arizona Lemon Law correctly, one more failure in the next 24 months and I get a new boat.

I wouldn't worry too much about with a great warranty like that. Is it possible to take the seadoo to another dealer that is more knowledgeable? It sounds like the seadoo is fine....but the dealer is questionable.

Karl

We can, the warranty is through BRP, the 'mother' company. We live in California, the boat 'lives' at our vacation house in Bullhead City Az. We are going back down for Thanksgiving, will put a bunch of hours on it then.

Thanks all for the encouragement!

 

[Dans97challenger]

Congrats on the new boat. Sorry to hear about all the problems you are having. It definitely sucks. A lot of people on this board have been having problems with brand new boats. I don't get it. Seadoo is suppose to be such a reputable watercraft company yet a lot of problems. Thank god my 97 Challenger doesn't have the problems everyone else is having.

 

[Bretsuaz]

Make sure you are documenting everything (how many days out of service, etc.). I think I would also be in touch with the manufacturer, and let them know you are disappointed. This is a brand new boat.

I bought a SeaDoo because of their name and reputation. But so far I am not that impressed. I recently had to get some warranty work done. The dealer had to send pics to SeaDoo to get approval for some of the work, and it was clearly a quality issue that needed to be corrected. Some of the parts took 2 weeks to arrive, and the ones that had to be approved took a month. It is 60 miles one way to the dealer. The real kicker is that when the 2nd parts came in, my truck was in the bodyshop because someone hit it. They told me that if I didn't get out there soon, that the parts would be returned because SeaDoo doesnt like parts sitting on the shelf.

 

[kustomkarl]

Bretsuaz, you need to add your seadoo year and model to your avatar, so we all know what you own. If your seadoo is under warranty why would you need to pick up parts?...If you do, did you know that there is a service called "UPS" that is cheaper than gas prices?...they even ship right to your house...such a concept. Next thing you now we'll have internet service to get problems solved on line....

Karl

 

[xrider]

UPS drools, FEDEX rules!

 

[screwball]

We also bought the Seadoo boat because we have had great luck with the 4 PWC we have owned. The GTX Limiteds we still have are 10 years old. Hers is still on the original engine and going strong. The engine in mine lasted 7 years, well over 450 hours when a 'fluke' killed it.

We have very meticulous records on the boat. Paper on when it went in, when they called to pick it up, when we picked it up, and all engine hours. The vacation house and dealer are 300 miles from home, so it isn't just a short trip to get the boat. They ( the dealer ) have offered to drop it off at our Arizona house, but I don't want to leave them a key to my garage.

We are complaining to BRP about something they should warranty. When the boat shut off the last time we were on the river and the current ran us into a rock, putting a 2 inch gouge in the gel coat. BRP would not pay to repair the gel coat. The dealer offered to split the cost. We'll see how this one comes out.

 

[seadoosnipe]

Satisfaction?..........

Well, I went through this thread and found it interesting. First, you have a dealership who wants to do you a good job. That means, you have put a lot of money in their pockets.

Second, your love of the Seadoo watercraft and the time your having, understanding why your having problems with your boat after having the others for so long with no problems.

Well, the 2 strokers your talking about are tried and true, reliable engines. They have been around for, how many years?.........The first 4-TEC came out in 2001 with the first supercharged version in 2003 and the supercharged-intercooled in 2004 or 05. As with any new product, there is a lot of trial and error that the engines must go through before they get that stamp of "tried and true". The research and development department of Rotax would like to think their engineers have thought of every possible scenerio that could happen but when building into this century of such high tech products, we're going to see more things go wrong. Computerized, digitized and composite construction is in it's infancy. We'll have to accept this if we want to advance in the high performance products that Rotax is designing for our future. No, I don't like it but it's progress. I can work on a 4-TEC in a very limited capacity because it's so technical (14 sensors that send signals to be interpreted by a computer). There is so many new things I'll have to buy to continue to stay up to date. With the older 2-strokes, I have a full tool box (practically 0 sensors).

Look at Microsoft, who is responsible for us being able to communicate with each other. They didn't get it right the first time. There is still many bugs that get worked out daily, we call them "auto updates". It's part of our operating systems that does this. If you remember, a few years ago, we had to manually go to Microsoft.com and do these updates ourselves. Remember the 56k modems?.........

In my opinion, 255hp engines are overkill for having fun on the water. But hell, I'm almost 50 years old, so my days of spinning out or racing in my 68 Camaro and drag racing my motorcycles are a memory. I have no need to go fast anymore. But, if I were 20 again, I'd be the first one in line for 255 ponies!............:cheers:

 

[Bretsuaz]

Bretsuaz, you need to add your seadoo year and model to your avatar, so we all know what you own. If your seadoo is under warranty why would you need to pick up parts?...If you do, did you know that there is a service called "UPS" that is cheaper than gas prices?...they even ship right to your house...such a concept. Next thing you now we'll have internet service to get problems solved on line....

Karl

I didn't need to pick up parts, but it is kind of hard for them to install them without the boat.

It took over a month to get Seadoo to approve the work and get the parts to the dealer. Even after that, the dealer had to contact a third party to do the work which took another week. In my opinion, that is not good customer service. Some may disagree.

 

[kustomkarl]

If your dealer had to get a third party to do the install...unless I missed somethng, you need to get a better certifird dealer to work on your seadoo.

Karl

 

[sporsterjoel]

I didn't need to pick up parts, but it is kind of hard for them to install them without the boat.

It took over a month to get Seadoo to approve the work and get the parts to the dealer. Even after that, the dealer had to contact a third party to do the work which took another week. In my opinion, that is not good customer service. Some may disagree.

cut out the middle man......

 

[screwball]

Snipe, I know what you are saying! I know the dealership is doing their best, can't fault them for the blower eating itself. They told me they were on the phone with BRP several times getting technical assistance. I would guess since they are the only dealer close they would have to have the test equipment and tools necessary to do the job. The second failure of loss of oil pressure could have been some of the metal shavings left in the system from the blower melt down. As you said, too many sensors feeding a computer that will shut down everything at the sign of a fault. We bought a new Porsche in 1974. Same scenario, a sensor failed or malfunctioned and the computer shut down the car. We joined Vessel Rescue so if we die on the water again, we can get pulled in without ruining someone else's vacation. Wife negotiated the extended warranty because we knew the blown 4 stroke was fairly new and we wanted to cover our ass.

OH WELL, sooner or later all will work out. When the Porsche dealer finally figured out what was wrong with the computer the car just screamed. I'm sure Seadoo will get this figured out.

funny you saying your almost 50 and are loosing the need for speed. I'm almost 63 (next week) and it is getting worse.

 

[Nate Surveyor]

funny you saying your almost 50 and are loosing the need for speed. I'm almost 63 (next week) and it is getting worse.

That's great!

If I even hint of a bad mood, my wife takes the storm out of me as soon as she can, and I don't even remember where I was headed!

So, we have another one on the way. Due in May. Wifey wants to sell the Doo, and maybe add on to the house!

I just want to add on, and buy either a deck boat, or pontoon boat, and KEEP the doo, so we have 2 craft at the lake.

We are not wealthy, in money, but loaded with experiences! Right now the economy is not working good. Maybe after the election, things will pick up for us.

I hope you get all your befugleties worked out on your craft!

Nate

 

[kustomkarl]

It seems like a lot of members here are on the same seadoo water craft...Over that 40+ young group...and creeping up on too much experience and the need for speed still persists. I still like cruising at 140+ in my Dodge Charger with a HEMI and jumping 8' Waves on my 200speedster at 50mph...Now if I could only figure how to go back in time to my 20's.....

Karl

 

[sporsterjoel]

That's great!

If I even hint of a bad mood, my wife takes the storm out of me as soon as she can, and I don't even remember where I was headed!

So, we have another one on the way. Due in May. Wifey wants to sell the Doo, and maybe add on to the house!

I just want to add on, and buy either a deck boat, or pontoon boat, and KEEP the doo, so we have 2 craft at the lake.

We are not wealthy, in money, but loaded with experiences! Right now the economy is not working good. Maybe after the election, things will pick up for us.

I hope you get all your befugleties worked out on your craft!

Nate

Hey if you know alot about boat... you can some times save money by buyin damaged boats check this site out www.crashedtoys.com there lots of pontoon boats on there. here a big 39ft boat you could probably live on lol http://www.crashedtoys.com/index.php?fuseaction=car.view&id=2478528

 

[Nate Surveyor]

Thanks Sportsterjoel!

Wife and I went and had a look at that site.

(Wife said it made er sea sick!)

I will have to wait 'til after the baby, and then she will be more sane!



(I do love her though!)

Nate

 

[sporsterjoel]

No prob... most damaged to boats are from stupid people. there are deals to be found just have to do your home work. I would buy that one boat i posted but it would be way to hard to ship it.