New Owner- 2024 252SE

[Paul in Ohio]

Hello All,
My wife and I just took delivery today of our new 252SE. We bought it from J&J's in Huron, OH a month ago, but waited patiently for them to run it through their paint shop to apply a custom paint job that I designed. It's got 4th of July colors! My wife just couldn't stand an all white boat, and this model only comes in two colors- white and black. We store the boat in the backyard on a 30' long Airlift Jet Dock, which I picked up used a month ago here on Sandusky Bay.
I have a few questions:

1) The fitted cover that I bought with the boat was really difficult to put on. I couldn't get the starboard rear corner of the cover around the transom. I checked all of the internal perimeter straps, and they are let out as far as they will go. Is there a trick to getting the cover all the way on?

2) The stern stereo remote control was still lit up even after I turned the ignition off. Are they always on? Maybe battery operated remote control?

3) Is the true fuel level reading the one you read when under way? I noticed (after filling up) that my boat reads 85% full when sitting still in the water, but 100% full when under way, planing.

4) Do you guys change the spark plugs every year or every two years? My Waverunner starts to miss after a couple of years and maybe 30 hours on the spark plugs, so I do it every two years.

I am looking forward to becoming more familiar with this boat. Getting it onto the Jet Dock for the first time was a real trip. It was hard to tell whether I had the bow lined up straight down the middle, before I goosed the throttle.
I am planning on switching to full synthetic oil (Mobil 1 or equal) after the 10-hour break-in, probably 10W30 or 10W40. Do you guys have a favorite oil? I run full synthetic religiously in my vehicles, tractor, lawnmower, snowblower, and power washer.

 

[Thermobrett]

Hello All,
My wife and I just took delivery today of our new 252SE. We bought it from J&J's in Huron, OH a month ago, but waited patiently for them to run it through their paint shop to apply a custom paint job that I designed. It's got 4th of July colors! My wife just couldn't stand an all white boat, and this model only comes in two colors- white and black. We store the boat in the backyard on a 30' long Airlift Jet Dock, which I picked up used a month ago here on Sandusky Bay.
I have a few questions:

1) The fitted cover that I bought with the boat was really difficult to put on. I couldn't get the starboard rear corner of the cover around the transom. I checked all of the internal perimeter straps, and they are let out as far as they will go. Is there a trick to getting the cover all the way on?

2) The stern stereo remote control was still lit up even after I turned the ignition off. Are they always on? Maybe battery operated remote control?

3) Is the true fuel level reading the one you read when under way? I noticed (after filling up) that my boat reads 85% full when sitting still in the water, but 100% full when under way, planing.

4) Do you guys change the spark plugs every year or every two years? My Waverunner starts to miss after a couple of years and maybe 30 hours on the spark plugs, so I do it every two years.

I am looking forward to becoming more familiar with this boat. Getting it onto the Jet Dock for the first time was a real trip. It was hard to tell whether I had the bow lined up straight down the middle, before I goosed the throttle.
I am planning on switching to full synthetic oil (Mobil 1 or equal) after the 10-hour break-in, probably 10W30 or 10W40. Do you guys have a favorite oil? I run full synthetic religiously in my vehicles, tractor, lawnmower, snowblower, and power washer.

View attachment 222972View attachment 222973

Welcome and great paint scheme, really makes the boat a head turner. We used to take our Bertram charter boat from Port Clinton to Huron and Vermillion for the fall perch and walleye before the boat got pulled for the year. Maybe I can help with some of your questions.

1. There are several threads on the forum with people having issues with their Yamaha covers not fitting. This seems to be a common issue. Will J&J swap it out if you purchase it through them? The covers are made by a 3rd party vendor so each one is slightly different. I found when I would leave mine out in the sun, it would stretch a little and become easier over time.

2. Stern radio, I am not sure about. Didn’t have one.

3. I had the same issue with mine. I was able to get it a little closer by running the tank down pretty low (watch your mpg) and then doing a full refill. Seemed to almost “re calibrate” the computer. Info given to me by another member.

4. Spark plugs I changed at the 10hr service and then every year. Pretty inexpensive and good peace of mind in my opinion.

5. Oil is a sensitive subject lol. I always used Yamalube, I figure Yamaha did their R&D on what the best oils are for their engines. I believe Yamalube also has a good additive package that some car/truck oils do not have. In my opinion again, it’s personal preference.

 

[Dave burke]

Welcome. Love the paint scheme!

I change my plugs every 2 years. Nothing wrong with every year though.

Re the oil, I stick with Yamalube as well. I understand it's a blend of synthetic and regular oil. I've always used marine oil products in my boats. Never used car engine oil.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Hello All,
My wife and I just took delivery today of our new 252SE. We bought it from J&J's in Huron, OH a month ago, but waited patiently for them to run it through their paint shop to apply a custom paint job that I designed. It's got 4th of July colors! My wife just couldn't stand an all white boat, and this model only comes in two colors- white and black. We store the boat in the backyard on a 30' long Airlift Jet Dock, which I picked up used a month ago here on Sandusky Bay.
I have a few questions:

1) The fitted cover that I bought with the boat was really difficult to put on. I couldn't get the starboard rear corner of the cover around the transom. I checked all of the internal perimeter straps, and they are let out as far as they will go. Is there a trick to getting the cover all the way on?

2) The stern stereo remote control was still lit up even after I turned the ignition off. Are they always on? Maybe battery operated remote control?

3) Is the true fuel level reading the one you read when under way? I noticed (after filling up) that my boat reads 85% full when sitting still in the water, but 100% full when under way, planing.

4) Do you guys change the spark plugs every year or every two years? My Waverunner starts to miss after a couple of years and maybe 30 hours on the spark plugs, so I do it every two years.

I am looking forward to becoming more familiar with this boat. Getting it onto the Jet Dock for the first time was a real trip. It was hard to tell whether I had the bow lined up straight down the middle, before I goosed the throttle.
I am planning on switching to full synthetic oil (Mobil 1 or equal) after the 10-hour break-in, probably 10W30 or 10W40. Do you guys have a favorite oil? I run full synthetic religiously in my vehicles, tractor, lawnmower, snowblower, and power washer.

View attachment 222972View attachment 222973

The paint scheme is great! Nothing like having a one off design!

3). There has been several threads about the % fuel gauge on the main display being wonky and as @Thermobrett says some of those folks got them to work properly by running the tank down low then refilling, in one case it took a few of these cycles to get it “calibrated”. Having said that, there is a digital fuel used on one of the pages of the connext screen that I and others have found to be more accurate than the percent gauge, I found it to be accurate down to 1/10 of a gallon. You will need to reset it of course after each fill up for this to be used.

Here’s my suggestion, using the slowest setting on the pump handle fill your boat with fuel, and allow the tank to fill, after the pump clicks off wait 10-15 seconds and activate the pump again on slow and listen for the fuel to come up in the fill port and let the pump click off, it should click off again quickly if not maybe do this once more just to make sure the tank is full but don’t top off again as this can lead to fuel filling problems if the charcoal canister breather gets full of fuel, we’re just trying to make sure the tank is full this time.

Get in the boat and reset the fuel used meter and you are good to go. Now while you are out on your boat you can monitor how much fuel the engines have used of your boats 75 gallon capacity and compare that to the % gauge, and you will be able to run the fuel tank down with confidence. When you refuel you will know how much fuel to expect to put in the tank this is where I’ve found my fuel used meter to be accurate to 1/10th of a gallon. There is a gallons per hour meter in the connext as well, while underway you can use the speedometer reading and divide that by the gph to determine your instantaneous mpg, 30 mph / 10 gph =‘s 3 mpg.

4). If your boat is like mine it has a 100 hour service interval on the oil change, and I think my service manual calls out a 100 hour plug change, so I change the plugs right around the 100 hour mark when I change the oil.

5). As @Thermobrett eluded to, the oil subject can take on a religious fervor lol!, lots of threads on that here. I ran the Yamalube oil (Yamalube products are good products) for the first two oil changes to allow everything in the engine to seat properly, if it was me I’d wait until you have 100 hours on the engines before switching to full synthetic oil. Then I switched to Amsoil 10W-40 marine oil, (I run Amsoil in everything I have, diesel truck, dirt bikes, generators) and over the past two oil changes I’ve been running Amsoil oil filters as well, there was a very noticeable difference in used oil color between the stock oil filters and the Amsoil filters with Amsoil filtered oil coming out a dark amber instead of black with the oem oil filters.

6). As far as getting to know your boat, get a service manual as soon as you can get one, lots of helpful information in there. Depending on where you boat you may want to familiarize yourself with how to pull the jet pumps if you get a stick or other object stuck between the impeller and wear ring.

Welcome aboard ! We will all be looking forward to your posts in the “show us what you see” and “one picture of your last outing“ threads. I hope you can get in a lot of hours this summer!

 

[Paul in Ohio]

Wow, thanks for all the great answers! I really appreciate it! I guess I will stick with the Yamalube for awhile.
I will see if the cover stretches out today under the hot sun, and if not, I'll contact J&J for a replacement cover. They have been very easy to work with, and have gone out of their way to make us happy customers. The owner personally delivered my boat to Dempsey's Ramp and launched it yesterday, because I don't own a suitable tow vehicle capable of towing a 6000# boat & trailer.

 

[Paul in Ohio]

Does anyone know how to get my 2024 252SE to play music from a USB flash drive? I tried switching the source to all available options, but no luck. I am using an 8GB flash drive with small folders.

Oh, I solved my problem of the factory cover that would not fit over the transom. I shortened the aft telescopic rod support by 4" by drilling a new 1/4" dia. hole in the rod. That did the trick, so now the cover fits nicely.

 

[Thermobrett]

Not sure if the radio will support an external drive source to pick files from. I downloaded the YouTube Music app and streamed my music via Bluetooth that way.

 

[Paul in Ohio]

Thanks, Thermobrett.

I scoured the entire owner's manual for the model # of yamaha oil filter to fit my 1.9L engines on the 2024 252SE, and came up with a big blank.
I can't believe that they would leave that out of the owner's manual?

 

[Thermobrett]

Thanks, Thermobrett.

I scoured the entire owner's manual for the model # of yamaha oil filter to fit my 1.9L engines on the 2024 252SE, and came up with a big blank.
I can't believe that they would leave that out of the owner's manual?

View attachment 223019

Looks to be the same as the 1.8l is. I'm guessing the displacement increased, but they used the same components on the external. @JetBoatPilot can you confirm your oil change kit does in fact fit both the 1.8l and the new 1.9l engines?

Yamaha 1.8L And 1.9L Oil Change Kit

Yamaha Boat/PWC Oil Change Kit For 1.8L and 1.9L Engines Kit Includes 4 Quarts Yamalube Oil 10W40 WV, 1 Genuine Yamaha Oil Filter w/O-Ring - Works for both naturally aspirated and supercharged. - Quantity One required per motor. For twin engine Yamaha boats select quantity 2. Compatible...

jetboatpilot.com

 

[HawaiiBreeze]

Congrats on the new ride. I'm eyeballing all the new boats for when I come back to the mainland and this size would be a nice upgrade from my little 19. Ditto on ThermoBretts oil comment - Yamalube for a new boat.

 

[steelhorse454]

Suggestion on the cover...I added more strapping to each side of the ratcheting straps at the rear of the cover.
From the factory, I could not loosen the straps far enough without them coming off the ratchet.
First few times the cover was tight, but now it goes on real easy.

 

[Paul in Ohio]

Thank you, steelhorse454. My cover has the straps permanently attached to the ratchet with a stitched loop, and is still tight when the ratchet is loosened all the way. I found that if I slide the rear seats forward, it helps the cover fit on more easily.
I have a new question:
My 252SE will not sit still in neutral. It is always creeping backwards or rotating to port or doing other unexpected things. Is this just the nature of the twin jet drive beast?

 

[Thermobrett]

Sounds about normal. These boats aren’t technically in neutral like a stern drive, outboard or inboard would be. When the bucket is over the pump(s) the engine is still producing thrust in the forward direction. When that little bit of thrust hits the bucket, it’s pushing the water in the opposite direction now. In theory, max speed reverse would be max speed forward but the water deflecting off the bucket in the opposite direction. Seems confusing through my thumbs but in my head the explanation works ?.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Thank you, steelhorse454. My cover has the straps permanently attached to the ratchet with a stitched loop, and is still tight when the ratchet is loosened all the way. I found that if I slide the rear seats forward, it helps the cover fit on more easily.
I have a new question:
My 252SE will not sit still in neutral. It is always creeping backwards or rotating to port or doing other unexpected things. Is this just the nature of the twin jet drive beast?

It sounds you need to adjust the port thrust gate open a smidge.

With the boat on the trailer, and the throttles in neutral, look at the jet nozzles and note how far open each gate is, especially the port one.

Now look at the port nozzle control arm, you will see that the attachment point is threaded and there is a jam nut holding it secure.

The attachment point is held on by a spring loaded sleeve, slide the sleeve back and the arm will drop off of the ball and the arm will be free. Edit; Just rewatched the Capt Leon video in the linked thread below, you may want to loosen the jam nut before disconnecting the arm to make that simpler, watch the video in its entirety before beginning this process .

Note where the opening is for the ball, loosen the jam nut and turn the spring loaded sleeve thingie in two turns, this will open the gate slightly when in neutral, then tighten the jam nut making sure the attachment point is straight up and has some play and is not jammed to one side-again take note of where everything was when you started, and reinstall the arm to the gate and go test it. Make a note of what you’ve done so you can get back to where you started if this either needs more adjustment or you have to start over.

There is a bit of trial and error here when adjusting the gates to find “absolute“ neutral. The reason I suggested adjusting the port nozzle open a bit is that the boat is creeping backwards and rotating to port which indicates the port gate is too far closed at idle creating a bit too much reverse thrust on that nozzle.

Here’s a great video about finding absolute neutral on a single engine boat by member @Leojay that will give you some good visuals on the hardware and concept.

Must See "How To" Video on Obtaining Absolute Neutral

Hope you enjoy this video which will give you the know how on adjusting your boat to keep it still while in Neutral:

jetboaters.net

 

[Paul in Ohio]

Excellent explanation, thank you FSH 210 Sport. I am a tinkerer and engineer by trade, and do have a full set of tools.
First, I'll find a dead calm day and make sure what the boat does in calm water.
My understanding from my last jet boat (Sugar Sands) is that the bucket is supposed to deflect the thrust straight down in neutral, with no forward or reverse component, so that is the goal.
Fun fact: The Sport jet drive on the Sugar Sands was rated to throw into reverse at a reasonable forward speed without tearing the bucket off. Kind of like speed brakes.
I tried it once and practically submarined the boat! The nose dug in, and my son rolled right out of the front seat into the water!

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Excellent explanation, thank you FSH 210 Sport. I am a tinkerer and engineer by trade, and do have a full set of tools.
First, I'll find a dead calm day and make sure what the boat does in calm water.
My understanding from my last jet boat (Sugar Sands) is that the bucket is supposed to deflect the thrust straight down in neutral, with no forward or reverse component, so that is the goal.
Fun fact: The Sport jet drive on the Sugar Sands was rated to throw into reverse at a reasonable forward speed without tearing the bucket off. Kind of like speed brakes.
I tried it once and practically submarined the boat! The nose dug in, and my son rolled right out of the front seat into the water!

Same with the Yamahas on the brakes. If you go to boat test and look at the 195 FSH sport test Capt Steve demonstrates it and also says “not to be taken lightly”. It is pretty amazing how fast you can stop, without submarining the bow.

On the late model Yamahas the reverse thrust goes down and back and also to the sides.

 

[Paul in Ohio]

I got my boat "neutral" adjusted pretty well by following your instructions, Thanks.
None of the USB ports on my new boat are operational. I checked the fuse box, and the fuse was good.
Then I pulled off the electrical connectors and removed the USB pod from the dashboard to look more closely at it.
The stupid factory had the positive and negative leads reversed on it! I switched them and reinstalled the pod, and now it works.
I did try a FAT32 formatted thumb drive, but the 2024 Yamaha model cannot read a thumb drive anymore. The USB is just for power.
I added one of these adapters and velcroed it to the dash:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0915WSDDH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For $10, it added flash drive music capability to my boat. No more FM radio with all of the commercials!

I took my boat back to the dealer for help with fitting the mooring cover that was pooling water. It took three guys awhile to figure out how to get it to fit correctly, but they succeeded and now I'm happy. I had the rear straps all screwed up, not understanding why they wouldn't reach and why they kept slipping.

The factory screwed up the wiring on the passenger side USB port also. I am going to have the dealer fix that under warranty when the boat goes back for storage at the end of the season, because that one is much harder to access and not worth my time. I am not all that happy with the build quality of my new boat. The screw was stripped that fastens the rubber bumper to the windshield. Several other screws were loose around the boat. And I noticed that the bilge seems to be designed to stay wet. It is a sub-bilge beneath the engine compartment, that you only get a glimpse of by looking in the hole where the bilge pump is located. Every time I dry dock the boat after use, I turn on the bilge pump and exhaust a gallon or two of water. On a new boat!

I did my break-in oil change at 10 hours on the new 1.9L engines. Each engine took about 3.5 qts of new oil, using the larger Purolator PL10241 filter. I had a hell of a time finding the proper filter for the 1.9L engine. It is not listed in any of the Yamaha specs or manuals! The proper filter is the Purolator PL10241 or Motorcraft FL-910S. Or of course, a Yamaha oil filter, whose part number is also conveniently missing from all of the manuals...

I discovered something that most of you likely already know. That when maneuvering in tight spaces at slow speed, it is best to crank the steering hard over while using differential thrust on the twin jets (one in fwd and one in reverse.) That makes it very responsive to spin the boat.
With my old big boat that had direct drive twin inboards, I was instructed to leave the steering centered while maneuvering in tight spaces with differential thrust, otherwise the rudders caused unexpected results.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

So are you saying the 1.9L engine takes a different oil filter than the 1.8L?

Are you pulling the hull drain plug after each use as well as running the bilge pump? If not there is more water in the hull that the bilge pump is not removing. There are some dry bilge systems that will remove all but the smallest amounts of water from your bilge. There will also be some manufacturing detritus that will come out as well, donr be surprised to find metal shavings, screws etc….

As far as where that water is coming from, there are two likely culprits, the biggest contributor would be the clean out tray not being sealed from the factory, this is the large plastic plate that is screwed down in the clean out area. You can just lay a bead of silicone in the right angle of where this tray meets the deck, don’t pull it and put the sealer underneath, that would glue it down and you don’t want to do that. Some folks report good success with seal and peel as it is much easy to get off than silicone. You probably should pull the tray anyway and get into that area and check all the clamps for tightness. You might look at getting a mechanical hatch riser to help keep more water out. The second area would be the anchor locker drain, in the past these drains were just plastic fittings shoved into a hole with silicone on it. The problem area is where that fitting enters the anchor locker itself, on my boat it appeared to have fired in there and the fiberglass was spalled and this area was not sealed, so as water entered and exited the anchor locker via this drain water was getting around the fitting on the inside and flowing in between the anchor locker tub and the hull. See my post #118 in this thread Replaced my anchor locker drain fitting due to leaks Many thanks to @drewkaree for that thread. Other areas where water will get in is around the cup holders as they are not sealed from the factory, also pull the cup holders and make sure there are drains attached to them and see where those drains go, they should go onto the deck or over board. I had two cup holders on my boat in the bow that just drained into the bilge, as well as the stern cup holders and six of the eight cap rail mounted rod holders, those rod holders just drained into storage compartments. Nice Also check that your deck drain fitting was sealed properly and make sure all the hose clamps are tight.

I’ve found that I have to keep the steering wheel centered when using differential thrust to get good results. Speaking of maneuvering, are you using the TDE position on your throttle (first detent) and no wake mode? Running the no wake mode at level three with the throttles in the TDE position makes for brisk directional control at slow speed. I’ve also found that using the no wake mode at different levels while using differential thrust works well too.

Sorry to hear about the usb reverse polarity thing and some loose screws but overall it sounds like your boat has been working well for you, how many hours do you have on it now?

 

[jthackman]

haven't used the purolator, but that motorcraft fl-910s is the same filter i was using for my 1.8's....until the price nearly tripled...now using fram tg-3614.
so i'd guess the new 1.9's use the same filters as the 1.8's

 

[Paul in Ohio]

Yes, 1.9 uses same filter as 1.8's.
Thank you for all the good advice, FSH210Sport, I will check all those things. I actually am quite happy with the boat, and tickled pink on how smoothly it rides and how good it is on gas. We have 15 hours on it now. The low speed handling I am talking about is when you're practically standing still and trying to spin the boat in a tight space. That is when I have discovered that I need to apply throttle briskly, as well as spin the steering hard over. It is a little tight space behind my dock, where I have to arrest my rearward movement quickly and spin around 180 degrees to avoid my neighbor's docks.