I have a 2008 sportsman 800 EFI Touring. After riding for about 20 minutes or so the engine light flashes hot and the fan does not turn on. The fan cycles fine for the first little while and then does not seem to work. I have had it at the dealer but they could not duplicate the problem. It has happened to me several times. I have checked all the connections and wiring. Ensured there is no air in the coolant ( burped it ). The fan will come on after the machine is turned off for a bit too cool down. Any suggestions on what the problem might be?

 

Faulty ECM maybe?

 

Thats what I was thinking. Dealer is going to phone the manufacturer and see if they have heard of the problem. I just want to get it fixed so I can burry it in mud again!

 

Welcome to the forum GAS. It sounds to me like a defective blower motor. Its as if there is an internal reset safety feature that won't let the motor work again until it cools down. Either that or there is some type of restriction on the fan itself causing the overheating.

 

Does the fan have a thermal overload that self resets?

 

If the dealer was like most of them they did not take and put machine under a "running load" to stimulate same engine conditions and just let it idle in the yard/shop to check it. Has it done this since you picked it up or did it start later on?

 

The first day the dealer just let it idle in the shop and they said the fan cycled normally. They called me and told me the fan was fine. I told them to run the machine. The next day they ran it in the field and could not duplicate it. When I picked it up I went riding that day and it happened again after 15 to 20 minutes. Happened again the next day too.

 

Is coolant boiling out the overflow tube when the light comes on? My machine is a older 500 single and I my HOT light will flick on about 15mins after I start out and then my fan will kick on and then go off and I was sweating it and come to find out what was happening was just before the thermostat opened it got hot enough for the light to come on,fan kick on then cool fairly quick and the fan kick off. This "problem" I thought I had has nothing to do with the fact that later on while riding slow and in the rough the light then fan alternate coming on and off-almost all the time-which at least though aggravating lets me know all is working, this is ONLY when I am going slow and in the rough though. The dealer is aware of it and if the when the light flashes the fan comes on I'd say run it, its under warranty and from what I been reading here the 800's are even worse then my 500

 

ive had 2 800's and have had my 06' over heat a couple of times but the fan always was running. but if the rad. is plugged say more then 15% its possiable when its hot that the fan will be on but it will still flash hot becasuse it cant cool completely. its a fact of life that the 800's runner hotter for sure. now if the bike is flashing hot and the fan is not on try unhooking the plug in to the sensor and the fan should automaticly come on and if it doesnt tyhen theres an issue w/ the fan i beleave and if it does and its actually overheating then the sensor might be the issue. imo.

 

Sounds exactly like my problem. I swapped out my ECM and the problem went away. Search my posts and you'll see.