The oil/temp light on my DS650 flashes/flickers after riding for 10-15 minutes, once the ATV has completely warmed up. The flickering occurs only when I come to a stop when the engine is idling. If I touch the throttle to increase the RPM, the flickering stops, but returns when I release the throttle. I don't think the ATV is overheating as the ATV runs fine and the fan does cycle on and off from time to time (there was a shorted wire on the fan which originally prevented it from coming on, but I had that fixed). I also noticed that the fan usually hasn't been on during the flickering, so one would think that it is not overheating but that the oil pressure must be low. But the temperature does have an affect - no flickering when cool, short flashes when warm, longer flashes when hotter. I am riding in 65 degree weather in the Dallas, TX area. During the summer the temperature can reach 110. I can almost guarentee that in 110 degree weather, the light would be full on instead of flickering. It could be "normal" or maybe the oil pressure sensor needs replacing or maybe there was motor damage riding the ATV without the fan operating correctly. Turning the idle up to compensate for this doesn't seem right to me unless the idle is set below the 1300 RPM spec. By the way I have changed the oil once already at a dealer, but not the oil filter yet. The dealer messed up an installed semi-synthetic 10W40 Honda HP4 oil. The manual states in bold type not to use synthetic or semi-synthetic oil, although I doubt this is the problem. Has anyone else experienced this flickering?

Also, the neutral sensor is not working all of the time. On several occasions I have started to take off from a stop and the ATV was in neural instead of first gear, but the neutral light was not on. The opposite has never occurred - i.e. if the neutral light is on it is always in neutral.

 

Sounds to me like your oil hissin gheating up and causein a loss of oil pressure. Do you still have the synthetic oilt in the motor? If so, change it5 immedately! If not, Id still change the oil and the filter. One question. Why did the dealer not change the filter? As far as Im concerend you should always change the filter when changing the oil. What good is it to run clean oil through a dirty and wore out filter..
Anyhow, Hope you get your problem fixed.

RoostKing...

 

RoostKing: I haven't changed the oil again yet. I plan on bringing it to the dealer this week. The oil filter wasn't changed because, at the time, Bombardier had not shipped the basic DS650 maintance items to the dealers! This was a month ago. Last week I tried to get an oil filter and no-one had any. They said they were on back order. I went to a BMW dealer and bought the filter there. Hopefully it will work on the DS650.

When are you going to Little Sahara again? I have my dune tires now and I am waiting on my Ron Woods Stage One kit. Once I get it I'll probably head for Little Sahara for a weekend.

 

The DS650 Service Manuals are available!!!

 

Whats the price on a service manual? I have always had them for my other quads and hate to be without one for the DS.

 

desertds: $59.95 for the DS650 Shop Manual.

 

I've had trouble finding SAE 20W50 SH or SJ non-synthetic 4-stroke motor oil for motorcycles. I found some at a Kawasaki dealership. It is made by Kawasaki. I will be changing the oil tonight. I have turned up the idle slightly since it seemed set low. This weekend I'll see if the oil light stops flashing when the DS gets hot. If it still flashes I will have to buy an inductive type digital tachometer to measure the idle RPM and a 1-to-8 bar pressure guage to measure the oil pressure to see if it is out of spec.

 

The dealership here recomended castrol gtx motor oil which you should be able to get about any place. There has got to be a reason bombardiar didn't want synthetic in this engine, if your dealer put it in he should be the one finding out what is wrong. Good luck

 

Update: I changed the oil tonight and now I am more concerned about the engines health than I was before. I found metal filings, maybe about 1/4" long and about 4 to 5 times the thickness of a thin human hair, magnetically adhereing to the oil drain plug on the crankcase. In addition, the oil that was drained out had very, very fine and small metal flakes throughout the oil. I wouldn't expect to see this on the SECOND oil change. I am thinking that the first oil change at the dealer was not done correctly and not all of the oil was drained. Does anyone know what to expect to see on the first oil change? Is it normal to see some metal filings and metal flakes with a new engine? I haven't yet ridden the ATV to see if the oil light no longer comes on when the DS gets hot. I will do this on the weekend IF someone convinces me that these metal filings are normal for the first 1 to 2 oil changes. One other thing that seemed odd was that I installed a thicker oil - 20W50 and expected the DS to run cooler. I haven't ridden it yet, but it was idling in the garage in 60 degree weather and the fan came on in less than 10 minutes of idling. It still seems like it is running hot to me. I have saved the oil so I can bring it to the dealership for them to look at if necessary. I think I need to make some more phone calls to Bombardier ATV Headquarters. If there is engine damage, I want a brand new DS650, free of charge, without delay.

 

ScoobyDFW, I noticed small metal flakes in the pleats of my 400EX's oil filter after the first oil change. I have changed the oil and filter four or five times since then and have not noticed any flakes at all.