I went to load my Ruby after about an hour of plowing snow Thursday but when I put it in reverse it started spitting and sputtering and back-firing. I put in in forward and it ran just fine but everytime I tried reverse it would backfire so bad it would barely move. I loaded it up and took it home and after restarting it worked just fine in reverse. I did notice that the reverse light stayed on even in forward gear. I took it to the shop for service and they cleaned all my connections (they said many of them were corroded and dirty)and put grease on them. They said that because of the dirt and corrosion the computer was getting more than one message sent to it and that is why it was not working. I had it out this weekend and every thing seems fine even after spending the day driving in 14 inches of snow. Has anybody else had this problem?

 

No. but thanx for the warning!!!

 

When I got my Rubicon this summer every thing seemed to be working great so I headed for the mountains. I got there and unloaded the machines, I only made it two miles before mine shut down and started doing the back firing thing like you were talking about. Only thing was mine showed that it was in every gear at the same time.
After the dealer got it apart they found that the wiring harness from the shifter to the computer had been pinched by the starter cover when it had been put together at the factory.This was causing the wires to short out between each other and like you stated the computer can't handle more than one signal at a time so it drops in to a default mode and it only fires every fourth rev. The dealer took a harness off of another machine and I was back riding again. No problems sense then, hope this help's.

 

I too had some electrical problems due to the poor electrical connectors. It seems that the connectors were not made to release water and grime after they have taken in water. My sons machine went into the limp mode after water had shorted out the speed senor connection.Remedy was a new speedsenor and to seal the connector.But i did find water in over 50% of the connectors that i opened to trouble shoot the problem. Also take note that the choke cable that runs to your carb will leak water in also. After we had been in deep water riding we were experincing poor engine idle as a matter of fact it would not idle at all. After reading the service manual and backtracking i found that the slid inside the carb was contaminated with water and rust. The rust came from the spring that pulls back the slide it was a mess to clean.Because you have to be very carefull not to let any contaminants get into the small venturi's.So if you do have this apart use a shop vac and some Qtips and a good solvent to reach into the slide chamber to clean out and contaminates.Then i used some W-D 40 on the spring and a good water repellent grease on the outer surface of that rubber protective boot, on the top where the cable runs through. Hope this helps someone else out there in the future. P.S. if there was any fault that i can contribute to this machine so far after putting 700 miles on it, it would be the cheap electrical connectors. To me there is no excuse for the honda engineers to have overlooked the obvious. The Rubicon has two styles of connectors the style with the rubber o-ring is leak proof to my findings. I personaly feel that this style should have been used through out the electrical harness, due to the complexity of the electrical system. Thanks,,

 

Wow! Sounds like the Rubicon is not as impervious to water as the 450-S. I know that our 450 ES was a little tempermental around water and cold weather.

Now the Rubicon comes out and is electrically challenged. It seems to be an engineering marvel but each connetor, sensor, wire, and computer module reduce the total overall reliability that much more. Time will tell if it is less reliable than a Polaris Sportsman.

 

This is the first negative I have heard. I will certainly be on the lookout for these problems. I just rode in the snow today and through some puddles that weren't completely frozen over. When I got home I heard the starter relay clicking as I was restarting the machine. Maybe it does this all the time, but this was the first time I heard it. I hope it doesn't develop into a problem.