Hello!

Just signed up and am happy to be here. Looking forward to giving/receiving good information from folks who enjoy the outdoors and ATV's.

I am encountering my first problem and would like to see if anyone can diagnose it before moving on to the next step.

I have an '07 X2 500. This machine has approx. 40 hours and 70 miles on it. Everything was smooth until I added a winch for plowing up at the cabin.

Here's the scenario:

I will start the machine as usual - no problems here. I'll usually let it warm up while I'm getting things together etc., maybe a few minutes. I'll begin plowing/riding with no problem but, when I get to where I want to lift the plow up with the winch; the engine will die. I know that the winch draws a lot of power from the battery and I'm sure that this is the problem here. I checked the battery and it is drawing about 11.5 v, which I know is low. I can put a charger on the battery, the real problem starts at this point.

Now, I re-start the engine. At this point, if I just start it and let it idle, it will die on it's own. If I give it throttle, the RPM will usually stay high, around 2500-3500, even when I let go of the throttle. When I put it in gear and begin riding, the engine will bog out under throttle. Forward, reverse, 4wd, 2wd, it doesn't matter. I'll be riding along and, boom, the engine bogs. Sometimes the engine will backfire as it deaccelerates from bogging out. I'll let off the throttle and come to a stop. At this point, sometimes the engine will die, sometimes it won't. It will start right back up, but the same thing will continue happening.

Now, mind you, these things will usually only happen after the engine dies the first time. The bogging does not happen when I first start it and begin riding.

The machine has never sat for more than a couple weeks without being run. The gas is fresh 87 octane. I have read the manual from front to back and checked out the "troubleshooting" section. I have done the things that I am able to do within my experience. I would like to get to the point of doing regular maintenance on this machine myself, but I'm not there yet.

Questions:
Would switching to a higher octane fuel help?
My boat charger has a small battery (12v) setting. Can I use this to charge the battery?
Dirty carb?
Replace plugs?

Sorry for the long post - I wanted to be clear about the problems I am having and provide (hopefully) enough information for someone to diagnose my problem (or at least narrow it down).

Any thoughts?

Thanks much!!

 

Questions:
Would switching to a higher octane fuel help? Probably not.

My boat charger has a small battery (12v) setting. Can I use this to charge the battery? Yes

Dirty carb? Possible but not likely if your only problem is when using the winch.

Replace plugs? same answer

Who installed the winch and what brand is it? Sounds like an electrical problem to me that is causing havoc with your ECM. I would check the wiring of the winch first and make sure you have a good ground and the power supply is directly from the battery.

I'm no expert by any means but that's where I'd start...

Good luck,
Jim

 

make sure your batteries 100% charged. if the battery falls below 12.5 volts the manual says it will back , shut down . so try to make sure that the battery is holding a charge and when its running that your getting at least 14 volts. higher octane is a wast of money, and i agree unless you dumped in dirt when you filled it w/ gas i doubt that its dirty. the winch is a big draw on the system when used alot. any 12 volt charger will work as long as its not too many amps(like 50) 2 to 10 amps is plenty.

 

Are your headlight on.....Does the quad stall if you put your headlights on??..Caper.......

 

Thanks for the replies. I'll answer your questions.

1) The winch is a WARN 2500#, Polaris branded (from Polaris catalog). I installed it. Just followed the directions and it worked. I will however re-trace my steps and make sure it is perfect.

2) I seem to recall the engine dying once when I turned the lights on. That one instance is my only recollection however.

BTW - I had the machine out the other day and ran it up and down the road. Did not use the winch at all and the engine bogged. Not so much going forward, but pretty bad in reverse.

I'll put the charger on it this weekend and see if that helps. Thanks again. At least it may be narrowing down the problem.

 

if its still under warranty, take it to the dealer b4 you do to much so they can fix it free if need be. the winch is fairly simple to install if you wen tmy the directions. pretty hard to mess it up unless you hook up the wires wrong, but w/ the good dir. that comes w/ them its basic. just make that the cables/wires cant rub on sharp metal and wear holes in them.

 

Just wanted to provide a follow-up.

I finally took it to the dealer. They ran a diagnostic and found that the machine is not holding a constant voltage charge. This is an ECM issue. This was good to hear as I was beginning to come to that conclusion myself. They assured me that by replacing this part the ATV should be good as new.

Just an FYI to anyone who experiences the same problem.

Thanks to all who replied!

 

just as an added note on your bogging in reverse, are you aware that there is a reverse rev limiter(not sure if you have one) but it could be the answer to that factor, just wanted you to be aware of that in case its happens agian,like you just tryin to help