2003 Sportster 4-tec oil light and alarm

[kurtjn]

Hi all,

New to the forum.
I have a 2003 Seadoo Sportster with the 4-Tec motor in it.
It was running perfect when put away last year. we took the boat out a few weeks ago for the first time this year and after a few minutes the oil light and alarm came on. the boat was also out into limp mode.

We sat there a for a few minutes to try and figure out the problem, and couldn't find anything obvious. then firing up the boat again, we headed back towards the launch......it ran perfect, but again after a few minutes the alarm went off and oil light came on...... in limp mode we were able to get the boat back to the launch. the entire time the only light that came on was the oil light..... temp, engine and battery lights never came on.

after doing a little research on line I found that the oil tank pressure switch usually would cause this.... I replaced it with part number 420256886 and headed back out to the water...... again after a few (Maybe 5 minutes) the alarm and light came on, and again boat went into limp mode.

a little more research and i found another problem is the Oil pressure switch would be the next thing to replace and i replaced it with part number 420856538. again same result.

after a some more research I've seen that oil filters have collapsed and caused this, so i pulled the oil filter and it is fine. a little dirty but in my opinion not too bad.

I then found a 1" diameter hose that connects to the plastic pump was disconnected, and re-connected it..... again same results.

I called my local SEADOO dealer, and I can not get it in for 2 to 3 weeks for them to hook up to the computer and read the codes ( and a $150 diagnostic charge) I did ask if they had and advise and lets just say he knows he is the only Seadoo boat dealer in the area and was a real cockey jerk. actually laughed at me for trying to fix it myself.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.


Thank you,

 

[kurtjn]

I took a photo of the hose that i found disconnected, and traced it back to the coolant bottle that is on the wall.....with this hose being disconnected and the bottle empty, what other issues should i be looking for?


Thank you,

 

[ski-d00]

Did you refill the coolant system and try again?

You are overheating your engine which is not good. It won't throw an overheat light because your coolant is mostly gone.

 

[kurtjn]

The engine is also cooled by water from the lake if the engine reached an overheat point then the temp light would gave been on too....this part is an Oil cooler as explained to me by one of the local dealers....that being said yes I did refill it AND bleed the system. The boat is back up and running 100%

 

[ski-d00]

It sounds like your local dealer doesn't really understand the system very well. The oil cooler has nothing to do with the lake water at all. The oil cooler cools oil only using a heat exchanger with the engine coolant which your coolant went away hence very hot oil.
The exhaust is cooled by lake water, not any part of the engine except the exhaust manifold and an intercooler but your engine doesn't have that. Both the exhaust and engine have temp sensors on them. The engine is cooled by a closed loop coolant system where you lost all your coolant which in turn won't allow the engine temp sensor to get hot enough to trigger because it's sitting in air. In turn, you overheated the engine to a point where it overheated the oil system and sent it into limp mode. The exhaust temp sensor won't ever trigger unless the cooling system gets obstructed or doesn't have any flow as in out of water. The 4tec engines are pretty good at protecting themselves which is what yours did despite the efforts to cook it.