My dealer's mechanic is killing me! Help!

[Crazy1ear]

Hello guys,

First time poster, although I've been on here a lot in the last month trying to figure out problem after problem.

I will apologize up front as this will be a long post, but I feel I need to give some history as it might help with a diagnosis.

A friend of a friend had a 2005 Sportster (4-tech SCIC 215 hp). After 120 hours he never had a single issue with the boat.

Earlier this summer he sucked up a rock and beat up the impeller. He took it to the local Sea Doo dealer and they changed it. His next ride out he noticed it running rough and not able to get to maximum RPM. He took it back and they told him his impeller shaft was gone. He had that replaced.

At this point I buy the boat. I put it in the water and it immediately begins to take on water. I pull it back out and discover water coming in where the impeller goes through the hull.

I call the dealer and arrange to bring it in. They forgot to install a c-clip that holds the carbon ring in place.

I take the boat back and put it in the pond again. It doesn't leak. I go for a ride and after less than 20 minutes the engine light (oil pressure) comes on. I check the oil and it's empty (I had checked 15 minutes before and it was just above half in the operating range). I look in the bilge and all of my engine oil is in there.

I take it back and it turns out they had broken the seal between the impeller shaft and engine block when they were fixing the c-clip.

At this point I don't know if I have engine damage or not, but the engine turns over freely, so I'm hopeful.

They fix it again and I take it home. I get it in the water and it's running fine for about 15 minutes. All of a sudden I am leaving a trail of blue smoke all the way down the pond. I check the engine oil and it's milky. I check the coolant and it is exactly where it was since I got the boat, so it doesn't appear to be antifreeze in the base. I also got a really good smell of the smoke and I couldn't detect any smell of burnt antifreeze - just oil.

I will have to ask the dealer when I call again, but I suspect they ran it on the hose shut the engine off before turning off the water (they don't have anywhere to put the boats in the water to test them). If I understand it correctly, this could cause water to go into the base.

I did check the oil before riding (I did let it idle out for a few minutes to warm up, then shut it off and checked). I was having trouble getting a good reading because the oil keep streaking up the sides of the dipstick. In hindsight, I wonder was that due to water being in the oil (but not churned up yet, so it wasn't milky).

I also wonder, if because there was water in the base, the oil pressure was raised to a point where it was causing blow by and oil was getting into the combustion chamber.

Does this sound reasonable? The boat never burned oil before that point.

I haven't changed the oil yet - I want the dealer to do that. And I don't want to try draining it several times and trying it again, as I don't want the dealer to be able to say I did anything wrong.

I also noticed some water dripping from the hoses that cool the exhaust. This didn't happen before the trips to the local dealer either, so I don't know if there's a way water could get into the base from that system.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm getting really tired of having to tow my boat back and forth to the dealier (90+ kms away), and losing all this boating time (going into my fourth week and I've put less than an hour on the boat).

Thoughts/suggestions?

(P.S. - I am at the point where I'm going to ask the dealer to give me what I paid for the boat on a trade for a new one... and if he decides they are not at fault, I will be calling my lawyer to see what my options are).

 

[Crazy1ear]

Update

Even though nobody has replied, I see there have been some views, and I thought I'd give an update.

I got the boat back to the dealer today. They can't look at it until Monday or so because one of their two mechanics is going to Montreal to do the ski doo certification (no plans to get the seadoo one as of yet). I asked if the other mechanic - the one working on my boat - was certified, and nope... "he's more of an outboard guy."

So two mechanics, SeaDoo dealer, and nobody certified to work on seadoo.

I also asked the service manager if he spoke with the mechanic about my latest problem. He had, and it turns out he did have it running on the hose. I didn't get into whether or not he turned off the engine before the water, but that is my guess.

They are going to change the oil and filter and test it again (hopefully the right way this time). With any luck I'll have the boat back in a week and won't have any more trouble.

I know the BRP rep for my province and didn't want to get him involved, but I will be dropping him an email to let him know of my experience. Maybe he will put some added pressure on the dealership to get this fixed right.

While I was at the dealer I spoke to a sales rep to see if they would give me what I paid for the boat on a trade toward a new one (I paid $11,500). They told me they probably wouldn't even look at my boat on a trade and if they did they would only offer about $7,000. Of course, I told them that if there is anything wrong with my boat, it is their fault and if they are not willing to up their offer I will have to pursue other (legal) options.

I still believe in the BRP product (not necessarily in terms of reliability, but in terms of what they build is best suited for the purpose I want), but I have lost faith in this particular dealer's service... if I end up having to go to court over this though, I may be switching brands even with my sleds.

When I get the boat again, I'll post another update.

Wish me luck.

 

[despower]

I was going to place a post earlier on this, but held back thinking it was just going to be a rant. I also had a bad recent experience at my dealership toobut more to the point that we only have two 'certified BRP' service centres in the province (the nearest other one to me is an 8 hour drive away). So that means the service centre in our city is overloaded with work and it is 2-3 weeks before you can get a service appointment. And the season here is DARN SHORT to day the least.

Given that I knew I wouldn't get a service appointment any time soon, I did some tests over a 3 day period and came to the conclusion it was a bad MPEM. Since I couldn't fix that problem, I brought it in to the dealership and told them I thought it was the bad MPEM. Even with their more sophisticated test equipment (I only had a $10 multimetre), they misdiagnosed the problem as a TPS failure. To make a long story short, the mechanic messed around with it over 2 week period, trying to fix it and until he gave up and indicated to me that it wasn't the TPS, but the MPEM instead. Duh... I told him that weeks before.

So now I am still waiting for an MPEM. Waited two weeks more for the dealership to order it - they couldn't get one in, so I had to mail order it from the US (go figure... it is a made in Canada part and I can't get it in Canada).

So, a rather long story to say simply that one cannot always trust the dealership to be as dilligent and thorough as you would be. And they don't always have the right training. Thankfully, there are forums to fall back on.

:rant:

 

[despower]

I am such a dummass. It was only after I posted the rant that I noticed that we are probably talking about the SAME DEALERSHIP.

 

[Crazy1ear]

Dealership

This dealer is on the west coast.

 

[despower]

And mine on the East Coast.

After my experience, I had serious thoughts of towing mine out west for service. Based on your feedback, it looks like I'll be hitting the mainland instead. :ack:

 

[seadoodude1]

This is why I still have my old 2 stroke skis. At least I can do all the work on them myself. I sure would like new 4 stroke Tech4 skis but them I'm at the mercy of dealership service.

 

[despower]

Now if only I could find a recent version of B.U.D.S. and a VCK, I would be in business. Any dealerships going out of business that would sell this cheap?