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Two Sea-Doo owners say the manufacturers of Sea-Doo personal watercraft have failed to properly deal with a defect in the vehicles’ exhaust system.
Plaintiffs Brian Feldman and Daniel Dickerson are taking on defendants BRP US Inc., Bombardier Recreational Products Inc., and BRP Inc., all of whom are involved in the manufacture of Sea-Doo jet skis and similar watercraft.
According to the Sea-Doo class action lawsuit, Sea-Doo products from model years 2010 to 2016 have a defect in their exhaust resonators that causes the craft ultimately to take on water. The exhaust resonator is a component of the exhaust system used to cancel out certain sound frequencies.
According to the plaintiffs, the exhaust resonators in these Sea-Doo craft are prone to melting.
“When the exhaust resonator melts, water flows into the hull of the Class PWCs [or personal watercraft] that results in the partial and/or complete sinking of the Class PWCs,” the plaintiffs say.
“Obviously, such a situation results in the Class PWC passengers to be stranded in whatever body of water they were operating in, and could even result in personal injury or death.”
The plaintiffs quote online reviews from several dissatisfied Sea-Doo owners describing holes that melted through their crafts’ exhaust system. Some say the craft sank almost completely, forcing them to swim to safety.
Feldman and Dickerson say this Sea-Doo exhaust defect should be covered under the defendant’s warranties. The vehicles come with a 12-month limited warranty and an emission-specific warranty that lasts the shorter of 30 months or 175 hours.
But the plaintiffs claim the defendant Sea-Doo manufacturers have been refusing to repair or replace Class Members’ affected craft free of charge under these warranties.
Despite their knowledge of the alleged Sea-Doo exhaust defect, the defendants have neither notified existing owners about the defect nor disclosed the defect to prospective purchasers, the plaintiffs claim. Instead, the defendants allegedly continue to advertise affected Sea-Doo watercrafts as safe.
The plaintiffs propose to represent a nationwide plaintiff Class that would cover all current and former owners of a 2010 to 2016 Sea-Doo personal watercraft. They also propose two subclasses of persons who purchased their Sea-Doo craft in the named plaintiffs’ respective home states of Florida and New York.
They are asking the court to order the Sea-Doo manufacturers to cease any deceptive marketing and warranting related to the Sea-Doo craft at issue, and to replace the exhaust systems on Class Members’ Sea-Doo craft with a suitable replacement system.
They also seek an award of damages, including statutory remedies available under Florida and New York consumer protection laws; restitution and disgorgement of profits related to the defendant’s conduct; and reimbursement of court costs and attorneys’ fees.
Feldman and Dickerson are represented by attorneys Steven R. Jaffe and Mark S. Fistos of Farmer Jaffe Weissing Edwards Fistos & Lehrman PL, Matthew R. Mendelsohn of Mazie Slater Katz & Freeman LLC, Richard E. Norman and R. Martin Weber Jr. of Crowley Norman LLP, and Britton D. Monts of The Monts Firm.
The Sea-Doo Exhaust Defect Class Action Lawsuit is Brian Feldman and Daniel Dickerson v. BRP US Inc., et al., Case No. 0:17-cv-61150, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
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11 thoughts onSea-Doo Class Action Says Jet Skis Contain Exhaust Defect
I have a 2013 GTI 130. I had this issue and sunk my seadoo because of it. I also had to replace water box, exhaust hoses, exhaust clamps, spark plugs, and several quarts of oil to flush all the water out of the motor. Also it took me several hrs to fix.
I had my 2015 Seadoo GTX 260 recently almost sink completely. I do have an extended warranty. If it doesn’t cover or if it does cover how can I join the class action law suit??
I agree with whomever said that every situation is different. But my son’s friend was riding our 2016 SeaDoo and the box melted and the SeaDoo steamed and took on water within 5 minutes of getting it on the lake. Nothing was wrong with the SeaDoo prior. So, my assessment is that it was not user-error. Luckily, he was still close to the dock and swam to shore with the SeaDoo in tow. It did not sink. My local dealer knew about the class-action suit and fixed the SeaDoo and lobbied SeaDoo on our behalf.
I think every situation is different, but I would agree that in 95% of the cases the user is at fault. When the overheat alarm goes off, shut down the ski or boat immediately. If the alarm doesn’t go off, the engine should be running rough or the intake jammed so there are plenty of warning signs.
If you replace the plastic resonator with a stainless steel pipe, you do eliminate the chance of melting the resonator. However, be ready for a loud droning engine if you do that.
What we need is a suit for their air boxes… my wife’s 2015 rxpx is on it’s third… one replacement lasted 5 hours… still say it was the shops fault but they are obviously not going to admit to it. My old rxtx was purchased used and had a bad one.
They had advertising saying “Florida Friendly” clamming you can ride them in saltwater.
Problem is they’ll fight you about the warranty… saying they are ridden in a corrosive environment!!!
BRP also made us pay for the wiring harness on my wife’s because wiring was corroded. The wires and sensors in question are unaccessible!!
They need to fix the air box without charging the customer and it’s a friggin watercraft… make the wiring waterproof!!!
My ski is a 2017 rxpx… just turned 10hrs… Selling it and my wife’s before they crap out!
Before some dipshit harps in about cleaning!!! Wash them down completely inside and out… flush inside, mine has 2 hose ports… then flush with “salt terminator”… followed by blasting out the ports with a backpack blower… also hit engine compartment with blower… they get parked in the garage, seats to the side and a box fan over the engine for a day!
But brp insisted all the corrosive damage came from lack of cleaning!
BRP is happy to take 15k for a ski but won’t stand behind it once it hits the water!
You can’t win a lawsuit due to user error!! Once the ski gets too hot it goes into limp mode… from there on common sense tell sense tells you to turn it off and see what was sucked up that’s causing it to get clogged and overheat… and yes if you keep goin beyond repair avoiding the warnings the ski gives you then you shouldn’t own anything and that would NOT be covered under warranty… ENJOY trying to sue a multimillion dollar company due to lack of knowledge and plain stupidity
I nearly drowned when my 2016 rxtx 300 started sinking with me and my wife on it . we had purchased a $20000 machine after taxes and the shit sunk. After reading this I’m contacting a lawyer.
My grandson almost drowned in extremely cold water this morning. We will be contacting an attorney ASAP.
The only time it melts is when the exhaust is drastically over heated and ignoring the exhaust over heat alarm. Stop sucking sand and mud up in the pump and you will be fine.
Exactly… people will suck up mud sand rocks seaweed and keep going without pulling it out the grate and ignoring the over heating light and beeping of which also puts the ski in limp mode so what’s to sue? Due to user error? Idiots
I just bought our 2016 GTI 155SE in December of 16. Boat seems to be fine. I have 9 hrs on it currently. Should I be part of this class action, or will BRP issue a recall?