I just bought a 2005 350 Honda Rancher ES 2wd. I was wondering about the ES. Should i start looking forward on having to get it fixed or are they good? My brother bought a 2002 rancher 4 wd and the day he got it he had to take it back and get it fixed. The ES went out on him. I'm hoping they got the kinks worked out and im not gonna have any problems. does anybody know anyhting about ES? Good? Bad? problems with?

 

Welcome to the forums.

Maybe you should have been asking before handing over any money.

Anyway, there were issues with the angle sensors, on earier models, i would think honda has them pretty well figured out now. If not, the dealerships are getting better at dianosing them.
I wouldnt worry about it too much, do the clutch adjustment every oil change, and itll probably last a long time. If you think youre gonna work on it yourself, once the warentee is up,...buy the clymers book, it has the procedures for troubleshooting the es if theres an issue, if you only use the book one time, its 20 bucks well spent.

 

I have a 2001 4x4 rancher ES and it has 4,000 trouble free miles on it.

 

I have a 2004 Rancher 4x4 ES with 100 hours and 800 miles on it and the angle sensor just went. On top of that the dealer told me the wire harness and ECM all are "cooked" and will need to be repaired at a cost of $900. When I called Honda they gave me the "Oh well, your sh*t outta luck" company line.

The machine was working fine until last weekend, Honda was saying the issues are not related! Yeah right!!! Be leary of the ES feature on these machines, they're designed to fail!.

 

they have worked most of the kinks out of the system, but some still have failing parts.

Joe smith could go trail riding all the time and not touch any water and have everything go out, the next guy could do contstant deep mudding and put 10,000 miles on without a problem. It's just luck of the draw i guess.

The best thing to do is buy a manual shift model, but then you give up the speedo, tach, hourmeter and all that unless you opt for the foreman, which is heaver and stuff, so it's a trade-off.

Some things you can do to prevent any problems is take the electrical connections apart and put dielectric grease in the terminals, this will keep water from corroding the terminals, but other than that just change your oil regularly and adjust the clutch every ride. Oh yeah, give everything a good power wash when done, dont let it sit in the garage full of mud. The mud holds moisture and it gets caked on the shift motor and angle sensor, and could corrode terminals and stuff.

 

Dipper Dale, keep in touch, since you also have 350 4/2 i will be interested on how it works for you. I have a 2003 4/2 350 and while I don'ty try and get it stuck I have never been not able to go where I want to. If interested I can tell you how to get some additional performance from your Rancher.

 

Hey guys, thanks for the advice and help! Thundercat i would appreciate it if you could tell how to get some additional performance out of my rancher

 

what are you talking about adjusting the clutch, how often, and how?

 

got a rancher es05, there the sh*t for a cheaper atv.ive had mine everywere and i mean everywere. the only problems i ever have is in thick caked-up mud.most of the time i get out by myself by leaning on the rear rack and getting the front tires out of it since they dont spin, or hit it fast and dont let off. as far as hills i can get up any that any other four-wheeler could, or would go up, never at a loss for POWER. has better low breaking than most hondas.

 

My dealer replaced the angle sensor on my 2006 Rancher ES when I had it in for the 200 mile service. It had gotten stuck in 5th gear on one occasion which was easily remidied by turning off and on again. Since then on the new angle sensor, it started blinking in 3rd gear one time but has been fine since.