The battery just all of a sudden went totally dead. I could start it w/ the pull rope and it would run for about 3-4 minutes and shut down. It would immediately restart w/ the pull rope and repeat the 3-4 minute run before dying again. This went on for about 30 minutes until I put it back on the trailer. I trickle charged the battery when I got home and have not used it since and it seems to be holding the charge. I think it is probably a bad battery but I'm not very well educated on the stator/rectifier relationship and don't know what to look for if those items were to be the root of the problem. Any advice would be appreciated. I'm not a mechanic but usually manage to do a pretty good job of fixing stuff if I can get some diagnostic help. Thanks for any input you can post.

azoutty[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img]

 

Pull starts means you have a 400 and I'm not really sure a fully charged battery is necessary for it to run. What year is it? Voltage regulators were a problem in 03-04.

 

Yup........it's a 400, an '05 400HO. The big mystery to me (an electrical moron) is why would it run/quit, run/quit, etc.?

 

My 04 400 outy had the same problem, would not run with a dead battery. Had to replace voltage regulator to the new two pole type. Regulator was $129.00 Wire gismo to hook it up $92.00 + labor! A lot of outy owners have had this problem. Fortunately didn't fry the battery which can happen. Good luck maybe it's not the VR but I wouldn't bet on it. No problem after change. I feel that BRP should have replaced the VR for nothing as they know the original ones are flawed.

 

Does anyone know if BRP changed VR's for '05 or maybe somebody can tell me what to look for to check out the vr. I've got all the stuff to check it out if I knew what to look for. Thanks for all the help so far--- things are beginning to make sense.
azoutty

 

It's my understanding the VR for the 05's and up were upgraded. I know a lot of people were running their 03-04's with the lights always on to prevent the VR from overheating, guess the Outlander puts out quite a current and was causing the VR's to burn out and to fry batteries, running the lights helped use the extra current. I knwo I never had any problems with my 04, 330 and I kept my lights on most of the time. Have you put the charged up battery under any kind of load to see if it will still hold a charge? IF you get it running try turning on your headlights, who knows, maybe this will help but it clearly seems electrical and not fuel related.

I'd still start with making sure your battery will hold a charge but really don't see why it wouldn't run with a poorly charged battery. I had an old ford currier<?> pickup that would run with dead battery, I always had to park it somewhere I could push it to get started, damn thing was an electrical nightmare.

 

What a dealer !!!! Called the service mgr @ my dealer and he said bring the old VR's off both of my outty's and he will replace them free. The only thing he needed was the old ones and the VIN's of both units. He would even change them out for me but I don't want to haul them 150 miles each way 'cuz I want to get out of here to go deer hunting tomorrow. Four Seasons Motorsports in Rye, Az. is what dealers ought to be !!