Hello All,

I am new here and am looking for some help. Last night when out riding my 06 Sportsman 500 HO in the woods, after a while the check engine light would flash on and then go off. During this time, the bike would want to die. It died on me a few times, but would start right back up, but spit and sputter and backfire. I have a temp gauge on the bike and it showed to be running about 190-195*F. The fan would be on and working fine. I would get out of the woods and run it in the open air and it would run normal. I had plenty of coolant in the reservoir and oil was recently changed. Air filter is clean and fuel was about 3/4 full. I thought maybe my gauge needed re-calibrated, but I checked it with a digital heat gun today and it is with in 5* of what the gun was reading. I am not sure what else to check. I rode it today and it ran fine. The weather last night was about 75-80* but in the timber there was little to no air moving and we were riding pretty slow. Today the temps is 90+. I am looking for any advice with this. Oh and the bike is 100% stock except heat wrap on the exhaust and a K&N filter with outerwears cover.

 

I guess you're talking about the carb model and not efi. What a lot of people over look is the radiator itself.It may appear clean,but dirt can accumulate under the fan itself. This can cause problems especially in areas where air flow isn't very good. Plus not a bad idea to open the radiator cap,run it awhile to remove any possibility of trapped air. If it runs ok in the open,fan cycles on and off,back side of the radiator could be the problem.

 

Sorry, that's the one thing I forgot to mention. It is the EFI model. I sprayed water through the rad about 4 weeks ago to clean it out. Water was coming through just fine. I even sprayed from the back through the front just to make sure I didn't miss anything. I will check the air in the rad to make sure there isn't a bubble there. But if that's not it, what else could it be?

 

Whole different ball of wax now.. You can do a fuel pressure test to check if the fuel pump is starting to fail. Must hold 39 psi with out any drop. But just from all the problems I had,the tbap(map) sensor wiring could be the cause of your problems. Had to repair plenty of the sensor wiring harnesses,but the Polaris kits were junk.The same thin wiring and cheap connectors leading to the sensors. Sometimes no codes or check engine lights will happen,sometime they will throw codes. Even the shop manuals say 80% of efi problems are wiring related. Check out the "sticky" on efi problems in the expert section above along with checking out this place. Only The Best Wish I had these for all the Polaris kits I replaced over and over on efi machines.

 

Okay sorry for the long response time. I finally found my owners manual and figured out how to read the trouble codes. Low and behold nothing showed up. Are these like cars that when the check engine light comes on, it will store the code? If so, for how long. It hasn't acted up since the last time riding. I have rode it a number of times since then and the fan has kicked on like it was that day, but the check engine light never came back on and it never acted like it was going to die. As far as the fuel pressure test, is there a port I can connect to or where would I test that at?

 

In the corners of the radiator where the fan shroud covers the fins it can cake up with mud. Because the fan shroud is solid in the corners spraying water through doesn't really clean the whole radiator. When my 06 Sportsman X2 500 was a few years old I had the same problem. When they took it off and gave it a good full cleaning it never overheated again.

 

The problem is, I don't think it is over heating. The dash doesn't say engine hot like it would if it is overheating. It just says check engine and then goes off right away and wants to die. Then it would fire right back up and run like normal. I am thinking OPT is right when he says it is likely something electrical.

 

Doesn't have to throw codes such as 45,46 for a tbap (map) sensor wiring short or for any other sensor wiring short for that matter. You can have a check engine light or no check engine display on shorts.This is what makes it kinda frustrating at times. Main problem areas on this was the tbap wiring or connector,sometimes the tps sensor wiring or can even be a crank sensor bare wire occasionally touching the engine block and dies. You can inspect the harness for any obvious bare wire shorts or soft feeling wires at these areas. Plus sometimes even jiggling wires on the tbap or tps can show up in the way it runs and help trace down the problem.90% of the harness kits I replaced were from the map sensor as its symptoms are at times hard starting,rough idling,dying, back firing,etc.Can be all the symptoms shown or just one or so. Once you get off an idle it will usually accelerate ok. If the tps sensor wiring harness/connector is the problem, they usually will die or wont rev up. Again these shorts can be erratic,sometimes run ok,other times crappy.My best guess would be the map sensor wiring from your description. Again read the "sticky" post on efi problems in the expert section if you haven't done so and check out Only The Best on their harness kits.

 

Thanks for the reply again OPT. I have read the sticky and it looks like it mostly pertains to the 700 and 800 machines. I guess this is the same issue with the smaller bikes like my 500. With that being said, I will inspect all the wiring on this unit today hopefully and will post my findings. I looked at the OTB site you posted, thanks for that. I will be ordering a new kit based on my findings. I just was hesitant on spending $40 if it wan't needed.

Thanks!

 

The sticky post started out mainly about the 700/800 machines,but I had just as many or even more problems on the 500 efi machines.Same thin wiring,same cheap factory connectors that couldn't hold up to the heat,water and vibration of off road use.