Bad Fuel?

[09TigeZ1]

I just bought a 2009 Tige Z1 couple months back. There are times when I'm running 3/4 throttle or more( 4 rmp/ 35-40 mph ) that the boat seems to hesitate. The boat doesn't go dead, the boat just stops going(rmp's and mph drop). We had the boat out twice with about 5 hours on the water and this has only happened 3 or 4 times. When I bought the boat, the fuel gauge was on Empty so I know it was stored over the winter with little fuel in the tank which allows moisture build up. So before my last outing I made sure to fill the tank full and put Stabil in the tank. Boat ran alot better this past outing but the "hesitation" did happen one time. Do you think it's a bad fuel or maybe fuel filter issue? All other guages/readings are good/normal( oil, temp, fuel, etc ). Any suggestions/ideas? Thanks in advance!

[JreisRZR]

happened to me this summer, i got really nervous but a change in the inline fuel filter had it running great again. try that first

[Iwndr]

I would lean towards a fuel issue, Change the Fuel filters and water separator and you should be good to go.

[Dave S]

Did you use regular Stabil (red) or Marine Stabil (black)? Marine Stabil is supposed to treat ethanol better for boats. Maybe you had some ethanol separation of the gas that sat over the winter?

[09TigeZ1]

Yea, I treated with Marine Stabil so I think I'm good on that. I'm gonna do as suggested earlier and change out the fuel filter. Hopefully, that will solve my problem.

[bigskymudflaps]

I had something similar happen to me. My 2007 rz2 wouldn't go past idle speed. It ended up being my fuel pump. My 2007 has two fuel pumps, one a high pressure and a low pressure. I can't remember which one it is. Anyway, there is a cooling coil around one pump that came loose and it knocked off the power wire on the bottom of the pump. Plugged the wire back in and we were in business until after running in some rough water, it started to hesitate. I checked the wire again and it was loose. I have since zip-tied the coil up and crimped the wire better to prevent further problem.

It was the first trip with the boat, I was hours from a mechanic. A couple phone calls later, I found a very knowledgeable mechanic on a saturday who was familiar with this common problem.....Who ever he was, I was very thankful and glad to have fixed it so easily. Good luck.