Hey Sea Doo guys. I’m beginning to question Yamaha’s reliability. First two Yamaha jet skis were fantastic. Purchased a 2000 XLT1200 and later purchased a 2003 1300R. Here is the story. 1200 – Within one month the packing from the pump gasket came loose and the back mat was defective both were replaced, later a PV failure causing major head, cylinder and piston damage, then and starter failure. GP1300R story - first week of ownership hull inserts defective, the unit leaks water this problem not yet resolved and now cylinder # 3 is spiriting gas. I may take a serous look at getting rid of both and going Sea Doo. I always stayed away from Sea Doo because of quality issues. Has this changed? I want a reliable unit above all other features.

If that oil line hadn't come off you'd still be riding that XLL...starter relay problems not included. Mats are easy to fix and sea-doos mats arent' the greatest.

force yamaha to fix that water leak on your 1300.

Mike, it's sea-doo 951 that caused their reliablity problems. The 4-tec units are pretty **** tuff.

I would stay away from any Supercharged 4-Tec's. The Superchargers are not good. (junk in my book)
Some have had good luck with them but most have not and its getting worse. If you want to gamble and wonder when you will break down al the time, get the doo, personally get a Kawi.

I don't think is a fair statement to say that most have not had good luck. A portion of the .05% of sea-doo owners that are on the internet are having trouble. Do you think that it is any coincidence that a large percentage of the people on the internet message boards are moding their skis? I hear stories of dealers not even aware of this problem. What about the 1000's of people with GTX Sc's? I have not heard of on single failure from a gtx. What about the fact that these superchargers have been out for at least 2 1/2 years now and until the last 3 or 4 months there was no mention of anyone having a failure. I understand that you are upset because it has happened to you, but please don't start this crusade against sea-doo. You modified your watercraft and if you didn't understand the risks you were taking by doing that than you had no business doing it. If you can't accept the results of your actions, buy a stock ski and the extended warranty and leave it alone as thousands(if not more) of others are doing without problems.

bankyf,
That was well said.
Sunfunzoom is you mod you have to expect anything.

Very well said.

Dang bankyf, that was so moving it **** near brought a tear to me eye

I thought the SC's were the ones with the most failures?

I know of one, bone stock SC that failed and took the engine with it. Considering I really don't know that many folks with them, that's pretty significant to me. Not to mention all the reports of hoses popping off.

The Grey Ghost went down with a blown clutch a month ago. I havent heard what they found yet. To be fair it had a Riva air intake, so it wasnt totally stock.

Oh yeah. I wouldn't put up a fight about Yamaha quality. My 2002 had a few issues. Some major, some minor.

IMHO, they all have a lot to be desired.

If it is reliability that you seek then both Sea-Doo and Yamaha make a 2 cylinder 800 engine that is bullet proof. But you are like most of us and want the top end of performance. It doesn't matter what brand or type of vehicle you ride, you sacrifice reliability for performance. If it is the fastest model a certain brand makes then there will always be "issues".

quote:

Originally posted by hydrotoys:
I thought the SC's were the ones with the most failures?

I know of one, bone stock SC that failed and took the engine with it. Considering I really don't know that many folks with them, that's pretty significant to me. Not to mention all the reports of hoses popping off.

The Grey Ghost went down with a blown clutch a month ago. I havent heard what they found yet. To be fair it had a Riva air intake, so it wasnt totally stock.

Whooops! Here's another one.
http://rivaforums.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/6366050614/m/7561003812
And I have heard of a few complaints on the GTX-SC going bad. We all have our fair share.

Just to continue the story. My RXP blew the sc into the engine at 12.2 hours...total engine break down. And now the dealer can't fix it...oil alarms and what do I know. Tomorrow its 14 days since it broke down.
My friends rxt went down with same total failure at 6.6 hours. 3 weeks of repair..and then he got a new engine.

When will seaDoo do a total recall of this crap?

quote:

Originally posted by ArcticDane:
When will seaDoo do a total recall of this crap?

RC, can you check and see if this is Pistonwash getting his pre-hurricane jollies on?

Plenty of 100% stock SC engines have had SC failures. The rest of the engine seems to be a very good piece, just the SC seems the week link. (lots are failing during breakin)
Right now, its hard to say how many are failing because as you say, only .1% post on the internet, but a lot seem to fail, just like the PV's on the prevoius yami's.
I wish everyone luck with thier SC and if its still going, great!

Even on the seadoo site it smells bad.

quote:

Originally posted by tricky finger:
Even on the seadoo site it smells bad.

that thing has been smelling for quite some time and yes the clutch can, will and does fail. Has been since '03. Initially replacing sythentic oil with mineral was supposed to address the matter. Guess not.

Not sure replacing it with something "heavy duty" is all that wise. But if it is selling then what the hey....

tricky finger- you need to leave the sea-doo people alone as well as yami people. Find something else to do, your a waste of everyones time

I have an 03 GTX SC and i bea the pi** out of it(12'-15' seas,not swells, in the ocean, riding 100 miles a day, etc). And i finally lost the SC clutch. I know and understand completely the nature of this failure. The answer? Blow off valve. The clutch is there for one reason, to slip when you let off the throttle. When you let off the throttle the butterfly in the throttlebody snaps shut.Meanwhile the SC is still spinning, compressing air into the closed throttlebody. In order to prevent this huge pressure build up which could potentially destroy the SC(this is a common know fact on all SC and turboed engines)the clutch slips to allow the SC to slow down at a slower rate than the engine. The engine is slowing down from 8,000 rmps and the SC is slowing down from approx. 50,000 so you can understand the forces at work. When you install a blow off valve this all but eliminates the need for a SC clutch. The blow off valve has a vacuum line that runs to a manifold pressure source and under boost(on throttle) keeps the valve closed. When you let go of the throttle and the vlave sees vacuum from the manifold it opens letting the excess pressure from the SC harmlessly vent into the atmosphere. This allows the SC to slow at a much more gradual pace thus all but eliminating the clutch's duty and stress. Could seadoo put these on stock? Yes.Why don't they? Your guess is as good as mine. In the mean time put something like Riva's blow off valve kit on and ride brotha.