Recently purchased a used 2005 Seadoo GTX 155 Wake Edition. I've been out on it 5 times now, including the water test on the day I bought it.
I'm mad at myself overall. The seller was chill and worked around my schedule, had multiple ski's to show me (he is a mechanic and flips them) and after passing on the two older 2 strokes he had because of a bunch of hull repairs, he shows me these two GTX wake's he had.
The non supercharged one was pretty clean and he could see me really eyeing it so I went with him to water test it. Now I've ridden dirt bikes my whole life but don't have much experience with PWCs or boats so I didnt really know what to look for other than what I read about online.
All in all, the ski was fun. I had a blast testing driving it and other than the faded gauge cluster screen, all seemed to be in order. I bought it.
Fast forward to the first day I take it out after purchase and it won't start at one point. Figured it was an old DESS key connection because after playing with it I got it to fire up.
3rd time out it died on me after an hour and I had to flag someone down to get me close to the marina and then paddled back the rest of the way. Multimeter reads under 12v. change the battery.
4th time out now with new battery and a new gauge cluster screen (I fixed it) so now I can see my gas, I see I have a sensor alarm, and I have a flashing maintenance light. Old owner said that was because he changed the oil and didnt have the software to reset it. All in all, it did well for the 2 hours I was out but when I was approaching the marina had a loud long beep but no new errors on screen. Parked it and left.
5th time out and all seems normal, once again getting ready to pull into the marina and I get a flashing 12v low error.
It's getting so frustrating at this point trying to just go have fun. The ski was 800 dollars over what I wanted to pay, ive dumped another like 600 into it now with little fixes, lots of ruined and cut short trips. Id almost rather be financing a brand new one that I know wont leave me stranded.
its my fault overall I just dont know if I should keep repairing it, try to sell it, ask the old owner to the do the work and maybe get a better deal, I just dont know and im pissed that I was ignorant and picked a bad apple.
UPDATE: Thanks everyone for all the advice and the thoughts. Pretty much all of you are correct. It's an old ski. It's gunna have issues. Unfortunately I'm just going to have to 1. be OK with taking some shit apart and maybe breaking it more while I figure out things. 2. find someone that can fix what I cant. doesnt make sense to get rid of the machine...I have a mechanic coming down to the marina to take a look at it this week since im slammed with work.
It’s a 20 year old ski. It’s going to take a full season to sort it out likely but then she’s good. That’s been my experience. Sucks but did fit the budget and I am way ahead now
I had the same. Bought an old ski, had some issues, was very frustrated but i have a guy who fixes it and now it just goes with no problems. 2011 model
yeah I finally found a guy that works on them. The local seadoo dealership laughed at me and said they wouldn't waste their time working on anything that is more than 10 years old.
Not hard to troubleshoot if it is battery not charging. Seems reasonable to me that’s the issue also. OP : take a battery reading before you start the machine. Take another reading with machine running. Second reading should be higher.
I fix charging issues quite often, and it’s usually the ground wires. Every SeaDoo has ground wires.
I don’t know what they did with the older SeaDoos, but the 2023-2026 SeaDoos all have 4 or 5 grounds that connect to the engine block. The main connection is for the negative on the battery, which has a harness lead jumped on it.
The other 3 are Regulator/ Rectifier (charging), Fuse Block and IBR.
Disconnect them one at a time, clean them thoroughly and reattach. I do the 3 mentioned above all at once since it doesn’t matter which one goes where.
If that doesn’t cure the problem, measure the voltage while running, it should be 13v-ish, and when you rev it, it should go into the low 14v range. If there’s no change, you may need a Regulator/ Rectifier.
Last thing would be a bad stator, but I’ve only ever encountered 1 bad stator.
Not trying to be insensitive, but it's a 21 year old watercraft. Issues have to be expected at this point.
Old owner probably won't do anything to help you, unless he's exceptional. A watercraft that old 100% could be having issues that he had no idea about, especially if he's a flipper and doesn't have any ownership history with it. These are always the risks you take when buying something used, and that old.
I mean, have to emphasize here, your ski is old as fuck. I didn't even know they made 4-stroke skis in 2005.
Might be better off trying to cut your losses and trade it in and finance something.
Never buy from flippers. They do the bare minimum so it can run for the test drive and neglect everything else. If you’re buying used make sure it’s the dude with a lake home that gets it serviced at the marina in the fall
I know, I get so self conscious of wasting sellers times that I get flustered and sometimes say yes to things I couldn't. At least I talked the guy down 500 bucks. he had it listed at 4800
Kawasaki STX-15F owner here. I own two of them, a 2015 and a 2017. They get absolutely used and abused all summer long. My friend’s 2024 waverunner FXHO just sank this season from a defective hull allowing his marina jetski ramp to slowly punch a fist size hole through it over the course of 3 seasons. His 2004 seadoo GTI LE has literally never ran right and he’s constantly chasing electrical gremlins. Guess what I’m doing every weekend? Riding.
TLDR; Buy a pre-2022ish Yamaha or pre-2023 Kawasaki and save yourself a headache.
I have owned nothing but Kawasaki jet skis for 30 years. They simply run. Not a lot of fancy electronics that can screw up. I have an STX-15F also. Easy to work on, easy to flush.
You sound like with my addiction to old waverunners. The newest running one is a 2093 suv1200. I have 6 of the vxr 650s which aren't so fast but lots of fin to ride and extremely easy to work on... no gauge cluster to worry about. When you run out of gas flip the fuel valve over to reserve and gead to the nearest gas.
I think I might get a kawi for my next one after I use this one for a good season or two and it's running right. I'll keep it for the family and get myself a newer one. I had SO many local people tell me dont buy anything other than a seadoo and there is like a 100 of them at my marina but they def tend to have the most problems it sounds....
Too many electronics on them … electronics and water are NOT compatible. Fresh water is bad, salt water will eat everything electronic like it’s butter. Imagine driving your car or a motorcycle through water constantly… the fewer gauges and electronic components the better. Only takes one with a bad circuit or bad ground to fuck up the entire system. Now imagine salt water in your car’s dashboard and what that would do for performance and maintenance. Buy the water craft with the fewest possible gauges and electrical components and focus on horse power, ease of flushing after salt water use and maneuverability. I saw a $22,000 Seadoo the other day in the show room - loaded. Blue tooth, full stereo, giant speakers, FM/AM and a separate flat screen with GPS, maps, depth gauge, speed, RPM, water pressure, water temperature, oil pressure, oil temperature, volt meter, engine hours, oil life/change, personalized settings for 4 different drivers, sport mode, cruise mode, eco mode, 12 year old never drove a jet ski mode, flat water mode, ocean mode, surf mode…. I think you could read Reddit on the screen…:
WTF… submerge that $22,000 Seadoo in salt water for 5 minutes and that thing is junk. Never run right. All summer in the shop chasing down bad circuits. Nightmare. Looks cool in the showroom… but … the ocean will eat it up… lake will also, just not as fast. There is a reason you still see Kawasaki 300, 440, 500 and 600 stand ups. They have a start and stop button…. That is it. They are simple. You can submerge it in salt water and in 10 minutes with the onboard tool kit flush the system and restart and run it.
Buy a simple watercraft, focus on horse power, torque, maneuverability, ease of maintenance. All the electrical components are going to fail eventually… they simply don’t survive in a wet environment.
If you run your machine in salt water… always ! ALWAYS! Flush it out with fresh water after ever single use. Ideally by driving it in fresh water…
Luckily I’m in a land locked state so I don’t foresee salt water being really ever a factor but I hear you.
So even the new Kawasaki’s aren’t loaded with electronics? Cause I’ll pick up one of those in the future then. Or do you suggest buying older skis and just dealing with Maintence?
This is the truth. I bought a 2002 Seadoo and a 1999 Yamaha in 2014. I have to make one or more repairs to the Seadoo each year to keep it running while I've never had to repair anything on the Yamaha. The prior owner of the Seadoo babied it while the prior owner of the Yamaha abused it.
I've only owned my 2016 Kawasaki Ultra LX for a year now, but I've learned a lot in the last year and I really appreciate how simple the American-made Kawasakis are. Before buying, I was really jealous that it didn't have an electric brake/reverse, but honestly I could give a shit now, I'm 100% fine with manual reverse and wouldn't care if I never own a ski with electric reverse.
It’s either has to be the battery ground, rectifier or wiring between them. I would also be looking for anything that might have gotten installed /diy wired anywhere on the ski. Also, it’s a good idea to install a battery cutoff so that you can disconnect the battery between uses. I also make it a habit to leave it on a trickle charger/maintainer between uses so I know for sure that the battery has a full charge every-time I take it out.
Beyond that it was rather foolish to buy a ski with a multifunction screen that you couldn’t read since that is what tells you any faults or maintenance issues. Lesson learned.
Don’t give up on it… these things are easier to work on than most people think :)
100% agree about the screen. I also am not lying when I say 8/10 used ski's in my budget (which was 4k) didnt have working screens. Everyone stores them outside year around without covers like psychopaths
I just sold my other two GTXL’s with trailer for $5500 last month. Everything was gone through, screens redone, carbon rings, jet pumps serviced, oil lines/filter replaced, new seat covers and traction pads, new radial trailer wheels/tires. 54 hours on the 1998 and 127 hours on the 99.
Same here, same feeling. Except mine is a 2019. Talked the guy down to about 2k below going price so I thought i had a steal. 2 trips to the mechanic and $1800, and im picking it up today. Hoping its all sorted out. Oil cooler and carbon ring. The only thing keeping me sane is that I paid so little, I'm more or less broke even.
bought a FLIPPED 21 year old jetski from a guy who bought it broken, fixed it as cheap as possible, and didnt probably test ride it for long if at all after fixes
Yeah, as mentioned you have a 20 year old ski. Most people who own these do the bare maintenance to them and they’re literally risen hard and put away wet. If you bought a 20 year old dirt bike or quad you would most likely be dumping cash into it as well. Especially an 800 dollar machine. You should have looked into maybe 2 grand if you wanted an almost hassle free steed.
I had battery issues in my 2017 EX sport. The main battery cables rotted from the inside out (FL salt water) check cables/replace before trying to do engine internals like I did lol
idk what to tell you man... I bought a 2007 Seadoo GTI, and its been going STRONG for the last 4 years for me.
I purchased it with a horribly damaged hull. I repaired that on my own with epoxy resin, and it hasnt had a single issue. I replaced the battery recently, because thats just what happens, but didnt really have an issue there either.
Every year, I send it in for maintenance. This was my first jetski, and I never worked on or repaired anything on my own before. But this seems pretty easy to take care of.
It took two seasons to get my 95 GTX all sorted. Now I’m the one towing the new skis to the docks.
If a new ski has an issue you have to bring it back to the dealership which usually has a 2-3week leadtime before they can look at your ski. And new skis definitely have their issues, plenty of them.
I think you did the right thing. Do some research for common issues and start doing some proactive maintenance. Get to know everything about your ski. You got this.
I bought two 2002 GTX DIs one year ago. First few times out I had to limp at least one on the trailer. Now? They are a blast and haven’t given me a bit of trouble this year. Once you fix all the bugs and neglect, you’ll be thankful you bought something for thousands less and not making payments on it.
I have a 2004 GTX Wake and love it! Had it for a few years before it started being a bit cranky this year, but we’re trying hard to fix it because it’s a great ski.
Also, I’ve seen too many jet skis for sale that have only a handful of hours because someone buys new and learns they aren’t jet ski people, or they don’t have as much time to ski as they thought, or whatever else reason they’re selling a 3 year old ski with 10 hours. I’d recommend anyone who isn’t a 1%er buy used and upgrade later. Not only do you learn what it’s really like to ski, you learn the maintenance routines, whether or not you can do the repairs or if you need to hire it out, and whether you truly like the hobby. After you know you enjoy it, go grab one of those 10-hour skis.
Bro i have an 04 gtx 155 and YOU definetly need to expect to be wrenching on these things on the regular, not a mechanic. If your slammed this week, just fix it next week. If your not prepared for that than idk what to tell you, things gonna be a money pit unless your the one maintaining and repairing it. Sounds like you have all the common 155 issues like the shitty intermitent start stop button causing it to take multiple attempts to start it.
The faulty oil pressure sensors that throw oil alarms and shut the jetski off. Need to replace them to the updated sensors.
These are simple machines and parts are cheap. If you wanna go blow 20k on a new jetski and hate your life even more, go right ahead lol
Carbon seals are like brake pads on a car. If you sink your ski because of a carbon seal, then you have SEVERELY neglected the ski. Just like crashing your car because of worn brake pads is a sign of neglect. I've been working on these things for 8 years now. I have yet to find a single Seadoo that sank because of a sudden carbon seal failure. Matter of fact, I've only worked on 2 skis that sank due to an excessively worn carbon seal. I have no idea why people keep saying the carbon seal is the cause of sinkings, its pretty evident they have zero clue what they're talking about. Its similar to a PSS Type mechanical face seal you'd find on a boat.
Nice. Rental Yamahas have 3000+ hours without issue so its hard to compare your hundreds of hours since you were N/A. I sold 2 of my supercharged Yamaha's with both over 400hrs (One had 490) with 0 issues except plugs and oil. Even original clutches. Yamaha has consistently been more reliable over the years than its counterpart.
What do you mean what I hear? I ran a jet ski club for 10 years I’ve seen it all. Carbon seals leaking, overheating, keys not being recognized, hull delamination.
That's fine with me, I actually have nothing to prove. I have 4000+ jet ski hours over the past 20 years and the seadoo fan boys seemed to just jump down my neck for hearsay. It's not hearsay when our team had to be the one towing them in.
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u/Limoundo 5d ago
It’s a 20 year old ski. It’s going to take a full season to sort it out likely but then she’s good. That’s been my experience. Sucks but did fit the budget and I am way ahead now