I parked my 450 on a mountainside in gear ,motoroff.When I turned the key on it would'nt shift electronically.All fuses good. I manually down-shifted into neutral and rode 27 miles shift manually with a problem. Loaded it up parked in 1st, returned to the dealer, unloaded(manually shifting into R). Dealer jumps on it and the ES starts to work.
A week prior ,riding in snow a fuse blew and the motor died. After the fuse was replaced, the ES malfunctioned staying in a gear.It worked well after it dried. . I feel that the defect is electrical. I sold my Polaris 400L because of high $ maintaince bills. I was hoping the Honda was" bulletproof".

 

Cortez what year is your 450? Seems to me the 98 and 99 models had more problems than the 00 models.

 

My Y2K 450 ES stopped shifting electronically AGAIN!
After riding thru some 18 inch deep creeks I parked my quad in 2nd.After turning the power back on It would not down-shirt into 1st-neutral.I tried rocking it but no luck. I'm getting good at shifting it manaully with my foot . Only 130 miles on it,60 of them by manaully shifting. I'll try again after it dries. Bummer this Honda is not trail-proof. Would be a bitch if I stalled in gear in mud or climbing a hill.

 

Cortez try parking it in neutral and using your park brake. Do i understand correct that it seems to keep failing when you shut it off and turn it back on after driving it for a while? Does it ever fail when riding through water? If it does fail in water it must be getting a short somewhere. If not maybe its cause you keep parking it in gear. It's not very often I park mine in gear so maybe I'll try this to maybe it"s the problem. If it's really !!!!!!! you off I would take it back to the dealer and call Honda and raise some !!!! When it fails have you tried puting it in nuetral manually then shut your machine off and turn it on again this should work. You only have low miles so i take it you probably didn't know this. Try it if it doesn't work then there is something mechanical wrong. Mine works the very best other than need to get the recall fixed. 6500km and no problem. Please let me know if this works. Thanx and good luck.

Proud Owner: 98 Honda Foreman 450 ES
99 Honda 400 EX

 

I have a 99 450es. It has 1247 miles on it, and the manual shifter has never been used. When the weather was cold it seemed like it didn't want to shift as well, but once warmed up it has always shifted without a problem. Also, I never bothered to carry mine back to the dealer for the recall of the battery going dead after it sitting for a couple weeks. I have had no problems, and am very satisfied with every aspect of the 450ES.
Kirk

 

Well kirk if yours needs the recall which it is a 99 you may not need it! I would recomend getting it done. mine has 6500kms and my battery is dead. But There going to give me a new battery and fix my drain problem. Thats pretty good since my bike will be 2 yrs old as of this month. Hows your dealer treat you guys when you bought it and after you bought it? Have fun!

Proud Owner: 98 Honda 450ES
99 Honda 400EX

 

Rancher Owners,

The current issue of ATV magazine includes a review of the 2000 Rancher. Acoording to the article, Honda has resolved the battery drain problem on the newer models.

Still, with so many problems being reported, you have to wonder if the ES design was a good one. It will be interesting to see if Honda continues to offer both ES models and their new fully automatic ATV's.

 

Beast I usually leave it in gear when I park(a habit i have from stopping on steep hills. Only after ridding thru water/snow it won't start. I manually shift to neutral to start but then the ES won't work until it dries out. It only stalled 1X when riding in deep snow ; that time a fuse blew. i having the dealer re-grease all the electrical connections. I've been riding dirtbikes for 26 years ,Polaris for 6 years, 250R for 2 years, 450 ES for 2 weeks.

 

I really don't think Honda made a mistake and am quite sure they will make the es for many years. I talk to a lot of people that don't like the thought of the es but everyone that has used it love it. Considereing the amount of these units out there the problems are minimal and the main thing is you can still get out of the woods without being on the end a towing device. :>)

 

Greetings,

My '98 450ES sits for three weeks at a time so the battery drain became a chronic problem. It would pull start OK but that became much tougher in the winter. Finally the parts arrived at the dealer and we got it fixed.

But it is still slow or reluctant to shift when I first start out. Even with a decent warm-up, it still bulks at shifting for the first 100 yards or so. I've suspected that, after sitting so long, it takes a moment to get the fluids back to where they should be, but I have no real data on this.

I've also been told to use a lighter oil in winter -- I had it out in 9 degree weather and it didn't like it. Of course, at that time, the battery was so drained from the pod thing, and so weak from the cold, that it could barely keep the instrument readings alive let alone push the gears.

And finally, when I first got it, I shut it off in gear a few times and, yes, it couldn't find its way back to neutral. But I learned to use the manual shift wrench, rock it, rest it, whatever until it found its way back. After the initial panic of the thing, I've learned to just fiddle with it or wait a moment and somehow it rights itself. I've also learned not to shut it off in gear -- that's the most effective thing.

There have a been a few posts in the past describing how to wire it to start in any gear. A diligent search might unearth the info.

Thanks,

Rod '98 450ES [ ... and its yellow]