I read a couple of posts from 700 owners about irritating vibration noises at certain engine speeds. I'm talking about engine vibrations making some other part of the bike start vibrating and thus making noise. If you own a 700, what vibration/noise problems have you had, if any? Also, does the 500 sportsman have the same issue. or is that engine smooth enough where this is not a problem?

The other thing that I have read that causes me concern, are some reports of the 700 being prone to a leak from the water pump cover.

I'm not trying to throw stones at the 700. In fact, I'm trying to decide whether to stick with my first decision to buy a 500 Sportsman or to answer that nagging desire to get the new 700efi. I just don't want to buy a machine with all of the bugs not quite worked out. Are the reports of vibrations and leaks on the 700 fairly coimmon or just isolated?

 

i've owned a few 700s. only my first one, '02 in Spruce, had a left rear fender that flapped a little too much. a little piece of foam insulation took care of that.

my others have been perfect....no complaints here!

-MT[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

I have heard of the water pump problem and polaris was to be taking care of it. I would think that with the EFI they should have it worked out. I have the 600 and have had no problems...Yet.. I bought the extended warr with mine and have had good luck with having items fixed in a timly manner.. Of course I have a great dealer to work with.. As for the vibration problem I figure that if anything is used the way my quad is then you are going to have a few of them. As long as they are not in wheels or safety items then oh well.. But to debug one some well placed foam should do it.. I don't think you can go wrong with an EFI but the warr would be a good idea. It can help with those unexpeded bills.

 

Only vibration I seem to experience is the winch rollers @ about 2200-2300 rpm. Other than that no problems with my 04 700. Just as a side note mine was set up a bit lean from the factory. I took the advice of another post and ordered the carb upgrade/drivability parts (pilot jet , needle, main, and a new slide spring). Just installed them last night to finish up plowing. I must say absolutely perfect. I used to have a hesitation when it wasn't quite warmed up and it didn't want to idel at all. With the new parts in it's great. Warm up time is decreased to about 5 min max and no more hesitation and very responsive throttle

 

First of all, let me say I love the 600 and 700 Sportsmans. That is all we have in our riding group (except one 425 Magnum). Now, I am not ready to sell mine, but yes, you will notice certain rattles in the plastic on most of them. But, the good news is they are easily fixable. Usually, a piece of foam or a small dab of silicone (RTV) will quiet them down. And most of the rattles on ours come out of the front rack or front plastic touching the rack. The other problem area is the water pump cover area. The 2 problems we have seen is a leaky water pump cover... usually just seen on the '02 700 (which has a fix) and an oil (sometimes coolant) leak from the weep hole. The leak does not seem bad ... it barely even makes a single drop all day. I have still not figured that one out yet. Not sure if the oil seal behind the water pump seal is a weak design or what. I am curious to see if Polaris will redesign that oil seal in the future. The problem with the leak also seems to get more noticeable if the machine has not been started/ridden in a long time. Would I rather have a different ATV now? No way. Still cannot beat its torque and off road ability. To me, these are very small problems with easy fixes. As far as the 500 goes... I would only buy a 500 if you are not going to work it really hard. If you are going to plow, tow, haul, all the time, then you might as well have the biggest motor. If you are just looking for an occasional working machine and mostly a trail riding machine, then it will be great. Just my 2 cents.

 

A buddy of mine has 500 miles on a new EFI...fantastic machine

 

I know the vibration you are talking about its a <<eeeAZZZZZAA>>>ZZZ<<<eeee AAZZZZZAAAA>>> I have that on my machine (700, 02) I think but not sure its the front rack. I did the water pump steel plate and it still leaks, but not that much just keep the overflow bottle full.