I was wondering if anyone has heard of any quality issues with their 500 autocat's?
I've had mine for 6 months and it's been in the shop 3 times! The first time, a bearing blew. The second time I brought it in because it would stick in reverse unless I rocked the machine to get it into forward. The last (and current) time a metal tab that holds the shift line broke off while I was plowing snow, leaving it stuck in forward. The dealer told me that mine was the 7th one that week with the same problem!
Overall it's been a decent machine. I plow 4 different driveways in my neighborhood and it performs great, moving ALOT of snow. It does extremely well in the deep muck. Lastly it's a comfortable, well handling atv.
One last thing, when I brought mine home the first day I checked out all the maintainence areas when I found out that there wasn't a single drop of gear oil in the rear-end...YIKES!!

Thanks, from a newbie.

 

i did the SAME thing as u did...only after about 300 miles....i checked both diff oil to see if they have leaked or let water in...the front diff was perfect....it was full of oil and was green. the rear on the other hand was BAD...i had to add about 6 oz of diff fluid to it to get it up to the top....thats alot!! think goodness i checked it cause i would have been up the creek w/o a paddle if i didnt.

 

I feel for you man. Sorry about all of your troubles. For the most part AC seems to be pretty bullet proof. But there is always one person that has bad luck. I was like that once with a car i had. I bought Grand prix it had all the bells and whistles, I thought it woul be good reliable car because a bunch of people I knew had nothing but good luck with them. But me it was just the opposite. the car wa a living nightmare. I stuck more money in that piece Of $*920. I guess its just luck of the draw. Just sometimes you get the short straw. Sorry. But the fluid in the rear diff being low sounds like dealer problem not an AC problem. A proper dealer should check that before sending the quad out.
matty

 

otis500,

i usually have to rock my cat back and forth to get it to change gears of course i had to do the same for my bayou 300. as far as the rear end goes, mine was leaking oil because it was over full from the factory. my salesperson said to keep an eye on it but in the meantime ride it like hell and if something goes awry he would replace it free.

texascat

 

mine has had no problems,except every once in a while my drive belt will moan for a second or two,but thats from the way i ride,and my shifting probably getting belt to hot.other than that it's problem free.every make can't be 100% all the time,but i think ac has much better quality than some bigger name atv's.i won't mention the others.

 

The forward reverse cable broke on my 500 man too.
I plow a lot of snow as well. That's the only real problem I've had so far. I've only got 150 miles on it yet. Maybe the forward reverse lever is a bad design. If that many are going. When plowing you are shifting from forward to reverse so often that it's showing up the problem faster.
Maybe AC will come out with a better design in areplacement cable. I'd hate to have to change it every year.

GuitPicker

 

otis500, If your dealer sold you that machine with no oil in the rear-end, then I agree with girthguy---the dealer should be responsible. That is very poor pre-delivery maintenance. I hope you let him know right away, and hopefully he would cover it off warranty if you have trouble. He should be told so at least he can find out who isn't doing their job. You may save someone else a lot of grief.