Okay, I am new to the forum and really need opinions from people that know. Here's a little history: For Christmas 2005, my husband and I purschased 3 ATV's from Cycle World of Houma, La. My uncle and my father had Honda Recons forever, and I knew that was what I wanted. Believe me, my uncle rode those bikes through hell and back! My husband, being a pretty big guy decided to go with the Rancher 350 with the electric shift and my son wanted a Yamaha Bruin 250.

Now - after riding them for about 3 months, my husband's Rancher had shifting problems where the gear indicator would just flash and nothing. He would have to get the manual shifter out to work it. We brought it in twice. The first time we picked it up, the service guy loaded it and told us that moisture had gotten into the shifter on the handlebar. The very next day, after a rain storm (the bike is kept covered) we rode it behind the house to load on a trailer and it started blinking again. On the next available day, we took it back and explained that the problem was still occurring. When we went to pick it up the second time, the service guy proceeded to tell us that there was water in the angle sensor? and that we shouldn't be driving in water over the foot pegs. We told him that we just rode on wet grass!! More recently, it just got rained on and blinked again!!!!!

The next problem is with the Recon. Around New Year's of this year, we were deer hunting and I noticed that there was a clacking noise and my husband said he didn't really notice any difference in the sound (typical of men!!!!) Anyway, needless to say after that trip the bikes sat for a couple of months. We went to our lease about a month ago, and WE noticed white smoke would come out of the exhaust and it smelled like it was burning oil. When we got home, we bought a service manual and tried to figure out the problem.

We have been very careful about maintenance on all of these bikes and they only have about 530 miles on them. Seeing that we were close to the 600 mile maintance schedule, we decided to go ahead and change oil/clean filter and check valve clearance. We got all the way to taking off the valve adjusting hole caps and my husband decided that we needed to take it in because the bike was only 14 months old.

Okay this is what we were told: There is nothing wrong with the bike, it is just wore out. WHAT??????? After further questioning he said that it was from poor maintence. My husband spoke to the owner of Cycle World and was told that we could bring in the maintence records. I have found the credit card records of the oil purchases and we have the maintence record for all that we did which included cleaning the air filter when riding in dusty or wet conditions as indicated in the manual. Also, the service guy said the the oil was dirty and the air filter was dry. The reason for the dirty oil was maintance was due and we didn't want to change the oil until we got the bike from the service dept. and the air filter was dry because we put the bike back together and loaded it to bring it in the next day. An oversight- I actually forgot to put the air cleaner housing cover back on and had to drive back to the shop to bring it to them. I guess this doesn't sound too good for my case, but usually we all work on our own bikes and I guess both of us got side tracked.

Anyway, to make a very long story short, any suggestions, feed-back, etc? I am really disappointed because I have been a Honda fan for several years. I talked my husband into it and it seems to be biting me in the ---. Several years ago I had a 1987 Suzuki QuadRunner that I bought used from my brother-in-law and that got me hooked on four wheeling. 15,000 dollars later I'm wondering. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img]

 

ok, about the ES shifting problems....it's been a known issue for a while and it's buyer-beware on this one. the foot shifter model is much more reliable, but you have to sacrifice the speedo cluster. there have also been issues with the angle sensor's, there is a recall out on some of them right now, check with your dealer to find out if your machines are covered. I ride my rancher almost up to the fenders in water and have had zero problems with my ES.

as far as the recon with the smoking, mine will blow WHITE smoke a little on start up, but it doesnt smell like oil, mine is just moisture burning in the exahust from cold startup. it goes away after running for a bit. BLUE smoke is oil, might be interpreted as white by some people. How many times before the 600 mile mark did you change oil? Letting a machine sit with old oil in it is NEVER a good idea, is promotes rust and hard seals.

 

I see this is your fist post! Funny, folks show up here in the forum for the first time....only after they have a problem.....

If you had gotten on the forum when you first got your quads, we could have told you things like how to break it in so your rings seal properly, do an oil change after the first hour of break in riding, what kind of oil to use, etc., etc.......

As far as the ES, I have been on a "buyer beware" campaign for many years. I think it's ok if someone wants ES, but they just need to know about its track record before their purchase, and know they are taking a risk.

As for the Recon, what brand and weight of oil were you using??? Was it API SG/JASO MA...probably never heard of that...huh???

The air filter is really suspect here as well! A little dirt in your engine will toast your rings and valves in a very short time! Fits real well with the white smoke symptoms.....

 

Thanks for the info. I understand the suggestion about joining the forum before problems, but I have read them previously. We found this info about the Recon yesterday and it woke me up aroung 3 am. As far as the ES on the Rancher - my husband asked the salesman at the dealership SPECIFICALLY about any problems with electric shift before we bought the bike. We were told that they had problems on past models but were all taken care of. Also, we sat down with the service guy and asked questions concerning break in and maintance- this was done. As far as the oil - we purchased GN10W40 SJ from the Honda shop. Is this oil not good enough for a honda product?

 

not to beat a dead horse but ES has had problems ever since it hit the market. they supposedly fixed it but they will prob never be as error free as a shifter. of course the sales guy is going to tell you everything is fine - you are spending $$$ at their shop and he gets a slice of it.

as far as the oil goes, use a quality oil that the manual specifies. dont just buy one since it has honda on it - it may not be designed for your type of engine. and it does not HAVE to be the OEM branded oil (they dont make it anyway). EVERY OEM from cars to atv, etc tells you that you MUST use their oil - or they make it seem like that from their wording. It is actually illegal for them to FORCE you to use their oil- unless they pay for it.

However I have had nothing but great results in all my machines running the OEM branded but CORRECT specified oils. i have one of the most oil intensive type machines out today a high revving 450 that demands pretty frequent oil changes and after 3yrs of using the honda oil i have yet to have ANY problems or suspicious looking oil.

the air filter is just as important as the oil. you can clean it with a special solvent then use a air filter oil to coat it properly so that it traps dust, debris better that just cleanning it (dont wring it either!) and sticking it back in the bike.

i dont think its honda's fault here as in the other 2 cases on this forum this week against honda being a crappy company or making unreliable products.

all in all i think prob most of the oems are reliable as long as you treat them right and maintain them correctly.

 

GN4 is descent oil....not the best but it is good enough. It use to be API SG, but Honda went SJ with it recently, probably to keep the price down. But if you must run a Honda oil, I would use HP4! (But not HP4M).

 

Sorry to hear about your problems Whattodo.
There is only one thing that will wear an engine out as fast as that. It's not the oil and never will be with the type of failure you experienced.

It's the air cleaner. I can't say if you did not service it properly or you had a leak somewhere. Could be one or the other or both. Only you or a good tech can answer this question. Could be as simple as a loose boot clamp. Like I said, it's going to be an air cleaner problem. I know how bad dirty air can be to an engine so I go to the extreem of greasing my boots just in case.

I don't have a solution for you other than a complete rebuild and watch the intake system like a hawk from now on. Sorry.

 

Check the compression on the Recon to see if the engine is actually worn out. The spec is 185psi @ 800rpm. If it close to that, clean and oil the air cleaner, change the oil with the Honda GN4, and see how it performs. This will be inexpensive and you may find you might not need the rebuild.

 

Ok lets try and settle this ES problem stuff

#1 there is a recall on the angle sensors, you can fill out a claim if your machine was part of this recall and you hade yours fixed before it came out. (if it was included in the recall of course)

#2 Honda sends out news letters every month on what's new. They found that water can get into the harness on the shift buttons causing them to fail.

#3 I bet no one thinks about the clutch adjustment on one of these models, if you plow snow or have large tires you will need to adjust your clutch, this simple thing will cause ES shifting problems

#4 leaving it in gear while hauling or just shutting it off in gear also makes problems.


Sorry about yout luck with your purchase, I cann't see why you should have a problem with your recon, did you buy the HPP Honda extended warrenty plan?

 

thanks for the info. We are still trying to talk with the dealership, and someone else suggested finding out the compression. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

About the ES problem with the Rancher - I didn't realize keeping it in gear when hauling etc can cause problems. Thanks.