I live in the Northwest Territories. It was -20 celcius yesterday and I tried to start my 2003 500i. It did not like it at all! I have synthetic throughout. I thought I would burn the starter out. Finally got it going but it is not a cold weather machine. Interestingly, My friends Honda starts no problem. It is almost embarrassing the difference. But I guess the embarrassing goes the other way when we are out slogging through the tough stuff and he can't keep up.

You could try different jetting.

 

i own a suzuki and it has the same engine as the AC and mine will star with no problem until about -20 then it doesnt want to idle very well but it doesnt get much colder then -20 where im from

 

It was zero or thereabouts several times last winter, and my Cat 500i started and ran without any great difficulty. It did require full choke, and took some time to warm up, but cold weather starting really was not a problem.

As I was using it to get firewood during a power failure, I particularly appreciated this. Nice kitty.

 

starting cold engines can be hard on them. i started mine down close to -40 but that is not a good idea. if you need to get it going, cover it over with a canvas,or blankets, not a plastic tarp. put a drop light or heater under there with it. a drop light will get a machine warmed up in less then two hours. We used to have to take the son to the bus stop two klicks away from home. i would put the droplight under the quad a 6.00 am and the wife would drive him out at 8.00 am to catch the bus. quad allways started good even at the coldest days.

 

They will start in cold weather but choke and idle have to be right. If your idle is set to high unit will not choke properly. Anybody who would use starter fluid on a gas engine does not like his ATV very much and is asking for trouble.

 

NWTHunting you know theres a primer on the carb right? usually a few shots with the choke full open gets my cat started no problem in super cold weather[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

i was just thinking about the primer today, and was going to post this info on hear myself, guess you beat me to it

 

No I didnt know about the primer. Thanks, That will certainly help out in the cold. Actually, It has been starting much better anyways now since I tried full choke and no gas, but I'm sure the primer will fix all of that.

 

yeah, ive never touched the throttle when starting mine, full choke then hit the button, then usually i can open the choke up right away, except for the day it got down to 5 degrees, had to leave it at half choke for about 15 seconds.