02 seadoo gti any good?

[Sernasie905]

Im a newbie to the pwc and this site, just trying to gain some knowledge about a certain machine,
Currently looking at a 2002 seadoo with the 720. Are there any major problems to look at, it apparently have 120 hours. Is that a lot? I appreciate any help in advance
thanks

[nmpeter]

welcome aboard GH!

The 720 seadoo is a pretty reliable motor and great on gas. Good ski to enter the sport with.

Hours..letssseeee..

the math

ski is 13 years old
ski was used on average 10 hours a year

what do you think?..after all you are looking at a 13 year old ski.

more important is overall condition.

To avoid buying a skunk, find the local shop and pay them for an inspection.

if the owner of the ski balks..move on to something else, he's got something to hide
\
there are plenty of "buying a used ski checklists" floating around.

if the ski looks clean, it will likely be a good buy, but $75 or so for a professional inspection could save you some big headaches.

can the owner take you for a short ride? That's another way to smoke out a bad deal.

at the very least, make sure the ENGINE STARTS. Do not accept any excuses

[Sernasie905]

Owner said a water test is available no problem. I never asked asked. About brining in anywhere may be a good idea. They are ok with me compression testing. What should compression be? How fast should this machine get up to speed ? Thanks for your help!

[Myself]

Top speed on that machine is only around 46mph BUT it's a great reliable beginner machine that doesn't cost a fortune to repair.

[3ftDeep]

I wouldn't recommend it. Stay away from those 2-stroke machines. Low hours or not. Get a 4-stroke machine and you'll be much happier, and will have it much longer in the water. We just got rid of the last 2 of our 2-strokes and the trouble-free riding can't be beat!

[RGUN]

We got rid of a 2000 GTX RFI two years ago that was absolutely trouble free (except for a few rectifiers) in the 13 years that we had it. We traded it in with ~350 hours. Unfortunately for the new owners, they owned it for less than a month when we saw it sitting in the dealership service bay. Asked the dealer what happened and they said there was an engine failure. I don't know what caused it or how common that is, but from what they were saying it wasn't uncommon for ski's that age/hours to very suddenly fail, and at least here in Canada they aren't economic to PAY for someone to fix.

[Myself]

Maybe I'm just partial to the older 2-smokes but I've only had 4 different Seadoo 4 strokes in for repair. All of them less than 200 hours and 3 of them needed complete overhauls. They cost WAY more money to maintain than my old faithful 2-smokes. If you have plenty of cash for upkeep than by all means go for newer, neater toys.

[Mr. GP1800]

Maybe I'm just partial to the older 2-smokes but I've only had 4 different Seadoo 4 strokes in for repair. All of them less than 200 hours and 3 of them needed complete overhauls. They cost WAY more money to maintain than my old faithful 2-smokes. If you have plenty of cash for upkeep than by all means go for newer, neater toys.

I actually agree with this. This is the reason I am still on 2 strokes. I can rebuild a whole motor for the cost of a blown up supercharger. I can do a top end for 500 bucks. A good crank is 600 bucks. My skis only run around 60 MPH, but thats good enough for me.

[bluestram]

We got rid of a 2000 GTX RFI two years ago that was absolutely trouble free (except for a few rectifiers) in the 13 years that we had it. We traded it in with ~350 hours. Unfortunately for the new owners, they owned it for less than a month when we saw it sitting in the dealership service bay. Asked the dealer what happened and they said there was an engine failure. I don't know what caused it or how common that is, but from what they were saying it wasn't uncommon for ski's that age/hours to very suddenly fail, and at least here in Canada they aren't economic to PAY for someone to fix.

They Probably forgot to put oil in it

[nmpeter]

I would suspect a piston ring failure, since preventative repairs on two strokes are all but ignored in the consumer section.

most of the high hour rfi's that pass thru my place have leaky crank seals and need line clamping in order to stay on the water

hard to tell if they are all original being 10+ years old, but I've seen some pretty high hours showing on meters considering the nature of two strokes.

I'd attribute that to precision fuel metering, something that carbed skis cannot do without very regular maintenance