We have 2 sportsman 400s (2011) models which were new 1 year ago.
1. What is the difference between the ATV Angle Drive Fluid and the Demand Drive Plus?
2. Where do you use each fluid?
3. How often do you need to change each fluid?
4. How much do the reservoirs hold so we know how much to order?
5. What are the specifications of the fluids if we can use substitutes? Our dealer is terrible at stocking Polaris fluids and we are in Africa.

We have found the fluids listed on page 7 of 36 in Chapter 2 of the service manual for Sportsman 400 but ATV Angle Drive fluid is listed and seems never to be mentioned again in the manual!

Thank you so much in advance.

 

Angle Drive fluid is the same as plain old 75/90 80/90 GL5 rated gear oil. Designed for ring and pinion rear ends and front diffs that don't have "centralized" awd systems. Your 400s have the centralized awd in the front diff and need to use the Demand Drive Plus hub fluid,a much thinner fluid. A lot of manuals still list fluids that aren't needed in newer machines and Angle Drive fluid is one of them.As far as changing fluids,the owners manuals have the recommended change intervals such as 1000 miles/100 hrs but all this is dependent on how the machine is used. If a daily use machine or in hard service imo I would cut service intervals in half. The two main Polaris oils you need are Demand Drive Plus for the front diff,AGL for the transmission. The engine oil is really up to you as any good synthetic 0w40,5w40,5w50 or even 10w40 for extreme temperatures can be used. You don't have to use Polaris engine oil.Mobil1,Amsoil,Rotella T6 to name three popular ones used over here among other brands. Same for the filter. You can use any of these in place of the one Polaris(3094963) recommends.http://www.oilfilter-crossreference....OLARIS/3084963

 

Thank you Old Polaris Tech for sorting this out for us. Would never have figured out that the Angle Drive fluid was obsolete in the newer models!

 

The newer system At about 2004 onwards have a single locking Hillary in the front diff while the older system had twin locking Hillarie's ,one in each front hub.

The new Demand Drive Plus fluid can be used in either system.
If its the locking hubs system the front Diff is just conventional and uses standard gear oil like every other ATV since the Hillary fluid goes into the hubs..

 

Hello, i have just bought a 2008 Polaris X2 800 EFI with 86 hours and took it to a dealer to change all oils. My question is regarding the front diff oil quatity, the service manual downloaded from Polaris website specifies 9.3 oz 275 ml of oil and the dealer used only 6oz 180 ml of Demand Drive fluid. Does anyone have a correct fill capacity for my model? All i could find online specifies 9.3 z so my diff is underfilled.

 

I change my front diff fluid 2 - 3 times a year. I do it Spring and fall and did it once inbetween when i used AWD a lot.

I do the trans/rear diff once a year, also in tbe Spring.

Oil gets changed every 50 hours, which is twice a year minimum.

Engine oil of choice is Shell Rotella T6 5W40. I usually use either Polaris fluid or Amsoil for the trans/rear diff, and same for my front diff.
I use one grease for everything, Shell Gadus S2.

 

I always filled to bottom of the fill threads whether fill plug was on top like the old front diffs had or the newer side plug fill plugs. Capacities quoted in manuals almost never equal what amount machines really take. Older model front diffs showed 5 ounces 80/90 capacity,could barely get in 4 ounces after draining. Plus in reality capacities quoted in manuals are amount of fluid it took at factory to fill a new dry machine.Plus manuals don't always "keep up" with current model true capacities. This is what get people confused at times. If you fill to the fill thread bottom you'll be fine. Even if you filled until fluid is pouring out,then installed the plug,any excess fluid that could possibly foam up would exit through the vent tube.

 

Thank you for your fast reply. I have joined this forum just to get you opinion. The guy who made the change is an old polaris tech too but i thought that maybe he made a mistake. I understand now why he told me not to worry because he knows better than the manual

 

I push manuals on people all the time for good,solid reasons,but on some things you learn that they're not always the gospel..

 

Thanks OPT. This explains why my front diff wont hold 265 ml like the manual says.