How can you tell if oil pump in going bad?

[micheal32000]

Is there a simply way to tell when a pump is going out or is it once the motor locks up, then you know? I have a 717 96 gti which runs good overall, but im a freak on preventative maintanance. Id rather spend money when its on land rather then when im floating down stream in a uncontrollable manner!! :>

Lets be safe out there also and maybe invest in PFD's that turn us face up in the water so we dont drown in the event we are unconscious in the water after being tossed from our machines accidentally!

[swiftman]

Youll hear it whine then shortly after that youll know it went bad....Just be sure to change the pump oil every season and pressure test it when you put it back together....Also be sure to get the midshaft (think its called that...) bearing behind the motor w/ a grease gun....

[djdean]

swiftman is correct but about the wrong pump. The oil pump can be tested. It must be removed from the ski and spun with a drill. The pump is a positive displacement pump and must have oil going to it to work. Best thing to do is a search on oil pump testing at the search forums place on this site. The insturctions are there many times.

[swiftman]

lol, thought it was the jet pump, funny stuff

[Bill O'Neal]

It usually is not the oil pump that fails, it is the plastic lines going from the oil pump to the intake rotary valve cover that crack or break off, pumping the oil into the hull instead of the motor. Check those lines to see if they look brittle or damaged. Those pumps last a very long time unless they get alot of saltwater abuse and no cleaning and lubricating after the boat has been cleaned up after salt use.

[woollums]

about how much oil should be used after you run a tank of gas? sounds like if we knew that we could monitor the oil pump somewhat. any idea?

[djdean]

All depends on how you ride but should be around 2 tanks of fuel to 1 tank of oil.

[Bill O'Neal]

Two to four tanks of fuel to one full tank of oil, would be my guess.......

If the oil injector is correctly set, it will deliever enough oil. Most oil injection problems are from frayed to broken cables and broken oil lines.

Most mechanics that do not know their trade very well will tell you your engine failed because of the oil injector going south. Most pwc mechanics cannot tell you the proper way to test an oil injector. Most pwc mechanics have never tested an oil injection pump in their life. Most DYI'ers know less than those PWC mechanics know.

I wish I had $5 for each motor that failed and the blame was put on the oil injector instead of finding the real reason and fixing it. I will bet SBT would sell and need to warrant a whole lot less motors if more people found the air leaks or clogged up fuel systems insead of giving the old standby answer of "the oil injection failed"........."You need to premix".......

[shortedout96]

Like Bill said the Oil Pumps are rarely the failure, I took the Pump apart on my 2002 RX DI, there are very few moving parts in them, there was a spring, a shft with holes through it, and a rotory type valve for the variable oil flow, if anything oiling problems will be associated with clogged or broken oil lines... If you are all about preventative maintenance I would recommend testing the oil pump when winterizing, pull the lines off the pump and blow the out, and test the pump by chucking it up in a drill and running it in reverse...Be sure to keep track of what line goes where on the pump, the oil line for mixing the fuel puts out more oil than the ones going to the lower block...

[the WaTeRhAwK]

a simple fix to stress and early gray hairs concerning the oil pump is to just run premix and forget about it. those lines that crack and get air bubbles and break off only cost about 2 or 3 dollars to replace, why in the world would you trust the safety and health of a thousand dollar engine to a 2 or 3 dollar part? because sea-doo said so!?!? screw that, you paid for the thing, it's yours, save yourself a crapload of stress, headaches and money and just run premix, it's not that much more difficult to do and it's well worth the little bit of extra money you will be spending to run it for the safety of your engine.