Dead Genesis

[jetslob]

Hi everyone. I bought a new 2000 Genesis I last year. This past summer was it's first year. It seemed to run rough right from day one. It would thump and have no power until around 4000 rpm, when it would jump to life.

The dealer told me that was normal. At 25 hours, it siezed. They told me it appeared the rear cylinder was running lean, but had no reason why. They fixed it under warranty. It was an ugly mess of mangled parts. They had to replace the middle and rear cylinder along with many other parts.

After fixing this, it ran like a top for 1/2 day, then returned to running rough and having no power until about 4000 rpm.

At 50 hours, an injector came loose. The dealer tightened it and told me no other damage could have happenned. At 75 hours the injector failed and they replaced it. Again, I was told no other damage could have taken place.

At 85 hours it siezed again. This time they are telling me that water got into the cylinder and they won't cover it. I guess the cylinder is scored and the crankshaft arm bent. I asked them how this can happen and was told only by rolling it over. I told them this was not the case, and asked how else it could happen. They told me there is no other way. After much discussion, the dealer agreed to call Polaris (they said I couldn't talk to the Polaris technicians) and ask. They said by rolling it or by tipping it to almost 90 degrees, or by diving into large waves. I once again told them this had not happenned and that since my last 2 rides were in November in Minnesota, that I hope they agree it was unlikely I was doing anything to get wet.

I called another dealer to ask about it. They told me it could also happen from a bad gasket or possibly a bad cylinder.

I'd appreciate any advice on what may have happenned, or on how I may suggest the technicians identify the real problem. I sure hope Polaris will cover it because they gave me an estimate of $2000 to fix it, and I sure don't want to put any money into fixing a lemon - especially if they can't tell me why the engine has blown twice in it;s first year.

I'm 38 years old and use it to pull the kids and cruise, not to be wild and get wet.

[Technical Support]

What is your exact flushing procedure?

[jetslob]

At the advice of the dealer, I have not flushed this machine.

[Technical Support]

I think you need to find a competant dealer. I don't think you will get any useful answers without someone giving you truthful data and answers. Unfortunately I can't do that over the net by 2nd hand unreliable information. I'm sorry you had such an experience with a dealer.

[Kawi-Guy]

part of owning a ski is learning how to care for it.
Your dealer is a fruit, take it to a real dealer

[ January 18, 2003, 11:55 PM: Message edited by: Todd-in-Fla ]

[dAv]

Jetslob
Here's the story on mine (posted last summer)

Last July I purchased a new 2001 Genesis i. The first motor lasted 40 hours, melted #3 piston. The local dealer informed me mine was the third Genesis i to blow an engine. 6 weeks later I had my Polaris back. 5 hrs. later
it blew again (#3 pistion melted again). 4 weeks later I got it back. Took it out, it made it 2 minutes and melted the #2 piston.

When I returned it I told the dealer that I wanted a replacement machine or a refund.
After stalling me for three weeks, claiming he was trying to arrange at return with Polaris, I was told they would not do anything except repair it again. Since the machine was to be ready a week later, I figured I could blow it again, then sue.

25 hrs. later it is still running great. Perhaps they finally fixed it.
Apparantly the problem was in the EFI. At high speeds it would run too lean. The first time the dealer put in a new computer and new injectors. The second time they sent the computer back to Polaris to be specially recalibrated. The last time they put another computer (engine #99999) and 2002 model injectors.

I use the factory Polaris oil, non-synthetic, and regular grade fuel. The dealer suggested higher octane fuel the first time it blew. I did, it blew again anyway. Back to regular fuel.

Now that a full year has passed, my opportunity to return the machine under any kind of lemon law suit has passed. At least I purchased the extented warranty, so the motor is covered for the next three years.
What suprises me is that I have not seen mention of this problem on this or any other forum when there have been three of them blow in Gainesville alone.

I love driving the Genesis, it's very stable and fast as he**. If it stays fixed I'd be happy to keep it.

Dave Mathia
Gainesville Fl

Now after 50 hrs, still running. Lean rear cyl. was the cause of the first two meltdowns, both injection related. By the way, my dealer had a demo 2002 blow after 5 hours! (Same problem)

Running rough and no power is a symptom of loss of compression. (Lean meltdown?!)

Good luck

[Skexies]

I've got a 2001 genesis carb. Has done very well, it did have loose spark plug connections that resulted in horrible performance but that was soon fixed.

1: There are no exhaust gaskets used on the Genesis exhaust manifold, only some ultra-copper. You could have potentially had a leak there or perhaps on the cyl head, that would have introduced water into your piston. The flatness of the cyl & head need to be checked to assure proper sealing of the o-ring. If something is warped or not true, that would suck and potentially be a problem.

2:I've never flipped mine, yet and I really hope I don't have that experience. I have submerged a good half of it diving through waves or jumping them and have walked the ski sideways at a 60+ degree angle while standing in the one footwell, and have done numerous 180 / 360 moves in it. In doing so I have collected a good amount of water in the hull as well. I have never had a problem with water in a piston.

DI is much like fuel injection was for cars... suddenly you have a much more technical problem to look at and often an under-trained workforce. [img]/graemlins/winkanim.gif[/img] There is an entire seperate manual produced by polaris for the DI system. Before you have a dealer work on it, I'd suggest they at least show you that they have that manual there and equipment to diagnose the system. [img]/graemlins/winkanim.gif[/img] It seems to me that the DI injectors for 2002 and 2000 are the same part number. I could understand a new ecu program on the computer that corrected some fuel issues or spark timing.

I just tore my block apart and had the crank welded and trued over the winter. The reason this is done is to help prevent the crank from falling out of index from heavy stress / loading & unloading. If it goes out of index, the rear cyl winds up with advanced timing and can cause failure that people initially call "running lean" In my openion, with the genesis being such a huge craft, the motor experiences some really heavy heavy loads that the riders may not be aware of.

Since you are asking of things to look at:
1: Getting the crank welded & trued. SBT is supposed to be offering the service on these 1200 cranks soon. They'll swap you out a welded crank with new bearings and rods for your old one and some cash. [not a bad deal if you are sporting some hours on the motor anyway]

2: Also, you can order [or have your dealer order, rather] the exhaust gaskets for those cyls. They are the same ones used on the 1200 motors in the Virage TX / pro 1200, etc. That will offer you a little bit of extra protection in that department.

3: The heads are sealed by o-rings that often people say are reusable. Mine were definately compressed and so I replaced them. 12$ an o-ring for the high-temp ones but who wants a worn o-ring to leak water into the piston? 12$ x 3 is cheap prevention.

4: First and fore-most though... seek out the mechanic or dealer that really take pride in doing the RIGHT job ONCE. SBT does that with their operation, I wish the USA had more companies like this.

Hope that helps a bit,
-Steven

[dAv]

Well, here I am again with a blown motor. It now has 140 hrs on it (about 85 hrs since the last rebuild, see my story above)
It got hard to start, so I checked compression, which was down to 70 on the middle piston.
Took it back to my dealer (Gainesville). They tore it down and all 3 cyls have piston and cyl scoring. It looks like it ran hot. I am a certified Master ASE auto mechanic with 37 years of experience, so I have seen overheat damage before. There is more scoring on the intake side, they claim that was caused by water ingestion. The cyl head O-rings are OK.
There is no bottom end damage. Always run on lake water, cooling system works normal. I have not turned over the machine and have never had to even drain the engine compartment. I have extended warranty, but they claim it is caused by owner abuse and refuse to cover it.
Considering it has failed 3 times before by overheating that was assumed to be lean mixture, wouldn't it make sense that was the cause this time, it just didn't get as hot and lock up?
I am thoroughly fed up with this problem, I'll never be able to sell this machine with a clear conscience nor will I ever buy another Polaris product!