Why Would A Jet Ski Take On Water?

Jet skis often take on water due to various reasons, including missing or damaged drain plugs, damaged parts, improper towing on land and in the water, inappropriate use and collisions, and improper maintenance. The most common cause of a jet ski sinking is due to the jet pump intake, which is responsible for propelling the jet ski through the water. If a jet ski starts on land but not in water, there are four potential causes: an off-set reverse gate, impeller intake or exit nozzle debris, insufficient cylinder compression, or improper carburetor pop-off.

To detect if your jet ski is filling up with water, first discover if it is filling up when running or stationary sitting on the water. There are different solutions to this, such as examining every piece of machinery involved, such as the midshaft and water lines. If the seal is bad where it seals to the hull, it will let water in while sitting in water. Also, look at all water lines, especially those that are low in the hull.

Jet skis send water out the back due to their propulsion system, which pulls water into the jet ski through an intake grate located at the bottom of the hull. Water may occasionally get inside the engine compartment of your craft, such as rainwater seeping in through a seat left ajar during storage, aggressive riding where the bow is frequently buried below the waves, or a saddle that wasn’t properly latched and sealed after removal. You may have a leak on the mid pipe, but copious amounts of water should flow out of the rear of the ski.

Some reasons for jet ski bogging down include defective or worn spark plugs, water inside the sparkplug well or ignition leads, fuel level being too low or water contaminated, a defective ignition coil, or clogged injectors. These problems all have an easy fix.

The jet propulsion engine in a personal watercraft does a similar thing to how a car’s wheels pull on the ground beneath them to move forward. Jet ski engines pull in water and push it out the back end, moving the jet ski. Given the same power, pump, and outlet size, would the jet ski go faster if the outlet pipe was above the water or below? The motor works hard to suck water into the vent at the bottom of the machine, and propel it from the back. Some of the water is used to cool down the motor so the watercraft does not overheat.