2004 GTI LE runs rough

[dwickham86]

Hey all, have been reading a lot on the site about fuel issues, lots of great info on here! Here's my problem, picked this up a couple weeks ago, had sat since last summer. Ran great on the hose so I took it out and it will hardly start, dies after a few seconds. Once I finally got it going, it ran great until I slowed down to idle and died again. Have to hold the choke to keep it running. Anyways I changed the plugs, got it running a little better but still dies. I tried it on RES and no change, I checked the fuel/water separator filter and it was clean. My next thought was to check the little filter in the pump. and drain the old gas and start fresh. Gonna drag it back home from the lake tomorrow and just wanted to double check and see if there's anything else I should check first? Thanks in advance!

 

[JeremyD615]

Definitely get rid of the old fuel. A year is way too long for ethanol mixed fuel to sit... That may be your problem entirely, but I’d still go through and double check the whole fuel system. The fuel selector is a common place for air leaks, but you normally see those show their face at higher throttle settings rather than idle... I’m thinking you probably need to rebuild the carbs with GENUINE Mikuni parts and new needles and seats. There is a sticky at the top of the forum with detailed instructions...

 

[dwickham86]

Thanks for the reply, got it home today, decided to check that little filter in the fuel pump and it was plugged with what looks like plastic shavings. Cleaned it up, gonna put new gas in tomorrow and take it back out, hoping it fixes it atleast for the year. Definitely gonna rebuild the carb when the seasons over. Just hoping to get a few rides in this year. Atleast the filter did it’s job, cant imagine where that crap came from? Anyways thanks for the help! I’ll attach some pics of the filter to see if you guys have any ideas. And I’ll post back after riding this weekend.

 

[dwickham86]

Almost forgot, would running an in-line filter hurt anything?

 

[JeremyD615]

Yes, avoid inline filters. They are prone to leak and create fuel flow restrictions...

The plastic shavings look to me like they may have come from the fuel water separator. Could it have been cross threaded and taken some shavings out of the threads?

 

[dwickham86]

Ok I’ll skip the inline filter and I checked the fuel water separator and the threads look good to me. Thanks again

 

[dwickham86]

Ok so I got it back together, Drained as much old gas as I could and topped it off with premium. Will start when the choke is pulled and has pretty good throttle response but will not idle at all. Where is the idle adjustment screw? I can’t locate it at all

 

[JeremyD615]

If you follow the throttle cable down to the carbs, you’ll see where it attaches to a bracket. There is a square hole in that bracket, and the idle screw is just behind that hole.

 

[dwickham86]

Ok cool I’ll check it out, I looked at the manual and saw it was down there somewhere but I couldn’t physically see it.

 

[JeremyD615]

It’s just about impossible to see with the carbs in place. Unfortunately you’ve pretty much got to do that one by feel...

 

[LikeabossTM]

It’s just about impossible to see with the carbs in place. Unfortunately you’ve pretty much got to do that one by feel...

Jeremy is quite right. I find that a little mirror helps locate things down there until I'm familiar enough with them to manipulate by feeling alone, if you have one available.

 

[dwickham86]

Thanks guys but I still can’t see the screw lol I took a couple pics, throttle closed and open, this thing is a pain to work on lol

 

[JeremyD615]

It’s the T handled screw right in the middle of both of those pictures.

 

[dwickham86]

Ok I thought there was a different adjustment screw, that’s easy enough to get to, thanks

 

[JeremyD615]

You should have three screws on that carb. One is the high speed screw which is smaller and may or may not have a plastic cap on it, one is the idle adjustment screw, and one is the low speed adjuster, which also has a T handle and looks similar to the idle screw...

 

[dwickham86]

Pulled the carb back off to clean everything out, put all back together, fired up and still will not idle. It fires for about 3 seconds then chokes out. I feel like it just needs ran but then again its a pain when it dies out on the lake. I don't know where else to go at this point so I guess it's going in the shop. I've never had this much trouble with a 2 stroke but I'm new to jet skis. Thanks for all the help!

 

[dwickham86]

So I was about to throw in the towel give up on jetskis period but I gave it one more chance....Checked spark, plug gap, all good and still wouldn't stay running, straving for fuel. Then I remembered I had put a new fuel/water seperator in along with a new o-ring...there was nothing wrong with the old one but I was throwing guesses at this thing. Anyway, put the old filter and o-ring back on and BAM, she idles perfect and runs great! I'm taking it out to the lake tomorrow morning to see what it does. I just wanted to post this as a reminder to never under-estimate the little things, still gonna go through the carb and rebuild it this winter but it's running better than ever right now. I'll post back after the weekend at the lake.