Sea-Doo Supercharger Rebuild Interval

The real story behind Sea-Doo Supercharger and how many hours between rebuild.

First off,

The Sea-Doo Supercharger from 2003 – 2019 Needs rebuilt every 100 hours or every other year. Why?
Seadoo used to have a 100-hour rebuild interval on their superchargers. They found they were discouraging buyers from buying new skis when they found out the supercharger needed to be rebuilt every 100 hours. So they then stated the superchargers had a 200-hour interval, but they did NOTHING to improve the bearings. After 2007/2008 Sea-Doo had enough failures with ceramic washers they upgraded to a steel friction washer. After the steel-washer upgraded Superchargers started going into effect more and more supercharger bearing failures were reported and not ceramic clutch failures.

The Weak Link in the Sea-Doo Supercharger system is the bearings without any doubt. The majority of Sea-Doo 4 stroke watercraft have either failed or have had the supercharger upgraded to steel washers so that leaves the bearings. The Sea-Doo Bearings are basically the same size as a fidgit spinner bearing or just slightly larger than the diameter of a quarter. Sea-Doo used a roller bearing with plastic retainers for many years and the retainers can fail or the bearings wear out.

The supercharger at full speed is spinning in access of 50,000 RPMs. This is regulated by engines RPMs via a gear attached to the superchargers shaft. The gear has a set of needle bearings that allow free movement of the shaft independent of the gear attached to the flywheel. Sea-Doo used a washer on the front and back side of the supercharger gear that creates friction against the gear but also allows the shaft or gear independent movement when needed. Sea-Doo used a ceramic washer for several years. Ceramic is an awesome insulator for withstanding the heat associated with friction. Most major, high-end engine components on things like the space shuttle, fighter aircraft, and nuclear-powered submarines use ceramic for just such a reason but with different oils being used and high rpms, the ceramic washers failed and destroyed the engine.

After superchargers were upgraded with steel washers 3 common failures started appearing more. #1 the steel spring washer wore out and the supercharger basically quit spinning “The ski would run around 45-55 mph at full throttle”. #2  The friction washers exploding.”yes the steel washers come apart also but do not fragment like the ceramic version” #3 Bearing Failure.