Changed oil on my used 4x4 Arctic Cat 400 manual and the oil was a light gray. Last year changed it with filter and castrol 10-40. It seems ok on antifreeze and runs fine so what gives? A guy told me it might be from not getting it hot enough as i just use it for short periods.

 

If your machine has a wet clutch some car oils especially a lot of synthetics have friction modifiers than can cause clutch slipping.Make sure any oil you use has a Jaso Ma or Md rating.Most specific motor cycle/atv oils have this rating. No friction modifiers than can hurt clutch plates. If any oil says "energy or resource" conserving, it has friction modifiers and stay away from it.

 

I had no idea and the shop guy I talked to didn't either thanks for the info. Will change oil again and hope it didn't ruin anything like the clutches.

 

Usually grey color means the oil ment water. Did you do any deep or fast water crossing?

 

No water crossing but another guy says maybe wrong oil and a shop guy says it is from too much running for short times which i do a lot of, no trail riding. The fan for the radiator is on all the time, looks like the guy ownd it before me put a toggle switch on to shut it off but cut the wires so it aint hooked up. Thanx for tge suggestion this the first one i have owned.

 

Sounds like the po was too lazy or cheap to replace a fan sensor. Find that and replace it or leave the toggle if you wish. Running the fan longer than necessary just wears them out quicker though.

 

Slows down warm-up time too. Not sure where the sensor is located on it.