I was researching a 400 class arctic cat and found this. If anyone is having any trouble with these atv in snow or water let me knwo i live in snow 5 months out of the year i will have to reliy on this atv and dont want to be stuck out somewhere in winter or get ate my whatever might be looking for a snack. So please let me know if you haveany problems or would you let me know the most reliable 4x4 atv under 6,000 that will work perfect in winter. Anywaya heres the post from another atv forum.


Hey There- Anyone thinking of purchasing an 06 cat should be aware of a potentially serious design flaw. I bought a 400 FIS 2 months ago and sometimes use it for plowing snow. After plowing for a few minutes the engine runs poorly and stalls out completely. After several unsuccessful attempts by the dealer to remedy the problem techies at Arctic Cat said it may be due to snow entering the air intake cowelling at the front of the bike. At this point I began investigating the problem myself and was astonished by what I found. The air intake for the carburater is located above the oil cooling rad at the front of the bike. When plowing , snow flies over the blade and enters the air intake. Also, snow hitting the hot oil cooler, causes it to steam and that is sucked into the intake which is located right above. -Hot steam will rise-DUH!!! You can just imagine what affect this has when it passes thru the air filter and ultimately into the carb. -the engine stalls. As an experiment , I put a piece of cloth where the cowelling enters the air filter. I plowed for about 5 minutes - and when the engine began stalling I removed the air filter and the cloth was soaking wet and covered with snow. Steam was also coming from inside the cowelling. It is very difficult to contact Arctic Cat as I am fed up with the *beep* I'm hearing from the dealer. I'm ready to shove this bike up someone's ***. I'm sure this problem will be fixed for '07 but I'm stuck with this expensive piece of *beep*. I could gerry -rig a solution by re-routing the intake. Anyone have any suggestions in contacting A.C.about a proper fix? I'm sure this problem would exist on other models as well. -Cheers Chris

 

i havent come across this problem yet i havent plowed but will be his coming winter but i bought my 400 fis in the winter and rode through the deepest of snow and no problems yet but i do have a problem of water getting into the air box even when its not deep water and i dont go flying through it either i havent looked into if something is loose causing it to get in there but i have had a huge problem with my front axle and diff seal i had the quad in 5 times for this problem but my front diff seal would leak every couple of rides and my diff lock and 4 wd would break every few rides so i went back 5 times and finally they replaced the whole front diff and axles and it seems ok so far but only 1 ride on it since the repair evidentally there was to much play in the pinion causing everything to move around which would cause the seal to leak

 

Arctic Cat makes a cover for that.

 

I honestly don't know what you're talking about, the air intake for both my 03 and 04 are at the front of the seat. Never had a problem with either bike. I think you'll be surprised at the locations of air intakes on a lot of bikes, not just Cat. BF's are infamous for sucking water in. Anyway, if the intake is in fact in the location you say it is, it's a matter of putting a piece of ABS pipe facing the rear of the bike, problem solved. I really don't think it constitutes a "serious design flaw"

 

I dont think water should be getting sucked in anything unless you bury the bike beyond your knees. If your should have to put anything on the motor like a abs pipe so you can go through small creeks and streams sucks they should think about this. I think that its a problem. Wonder if the suzuki eigers have the same problem ?

 

http://www.brownsleisureworld.com/fr...NavFrame.shtml

Go here, this is the air intake for an '06 400 VP model, the air intake is nowhere near the front of the bike, I think you're misinformed.

 

The VP uses the old style of air intake (under the seat) whereas the regular models use the under the front plastic system (designed for the V-2s), which I thought was looking for trouble to start with. But you would think they would have tested for this. I wonder is someone didn't screw around with his intake system to free up the air flow and cause a problem. But I agree, it ain't a damn design flaw, a design flaw is wheels falling off or steering breaking, etc.