Hi all,

I writing this on behalf of a buddy, he bought a 2005 Polaris 500 HO. He is having a really hard time gettung his bike worked on and was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how to deal with his dealer. Let me set up the scenario.

1) At approx 225 miles his belt burned off, it was due to throttling with the brakes locked - long story but had someone tied on to him and when it started pulling his bike back he panicked.

2) We are wondering if there was something not right with his belt or clutches before that situation though, since his bike seemed to be EXTREMELY hard on fuel - he would burn through a tank before we would use 1/4 to 1/2 of our tanks - (all different bikes, polaris, bombardier and arctic cat)

3) His bike has been afftected by the recall on the ECM - is there any truth to the story that these parts are in a back order state?

His bike has been at the shop since midway through the week of June 6-10th, his dealer has not even taken the cover off to look at his belt and just keeps telling him the ECM is backordered. I would think it would be in his dealers best interest to tear the other things apart in case he needs any other parts etc. The dealer made it sound good, saying he wanted to tear the carb apart, get into the belt housing and see what was going on, and of course do the recall. He has not started ANY of the work yet.

My buddy loves his bike, but is extremely angry with his dealer right now, but has no idea what to do next. Any suggestions? The bike has been in the shop longer than he has had it in his own garage.

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

p.s. you can see him in a mudhole on my photo page

 

the Sportsman 500 has to be one of the very BEST ATVs on fuel economy.

i think your cat has a larger fuel tank. (5.25gal VS the Sportsman at only 4.35Gal)

if you hold the brake and give it the gas, duh! of course you are going to burn the belt![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

the 500 is a proven ATV.

~MT

 

Once I received word of the recall I contacted my dealer. They had a lot of the ECM's in stock, and had more coming. It may be on backorder by now, but I'd go to a different dealer!

 

My Dealer has plenty of ECM's but he is waiting for the Tester to come from Polaris. Not all ECM's need to be replaced according to him.

 

Thanks for the quick replies everyone. I guess I didn't stress enough that I was by no means knocking the bike. Our main concern is his dealer.
I also know that my bike has a larger tank, I guess I didn't explain enough that this is comparing to a variety of bikes we ride with including, Polaris twin 600, Bombardier 400 HO, 2-Arctic Cat 400's and my Arctic Cat 500. His bike is and has been harder on fuel than any of these bikes since the day he got it.
I guess the main thing I was looking for was maybe a contact email for someone at Polaris directly to see if they can snap his dealer into action. Like I said his bike has now been at the shop longer then it has been in his garage - not very much fun, and he is loosing his patience. It's his first bike and it's kind of putting a sour taste in his mouth. Anyone had any similar bad experiences with their dealer - how did you get it resolved??
Thanks again for your time and the input.

 

Pull it from the dealer and take it somewhere else. If its warranty work any polaris dealer can and will have to do it. Check to see if the dealer has the parts in first before you take it there. I would rather drive an hour more and have my quad back in a week than go somewhere close and have it sit all summer.

 

Just a thought but maybe he is waiting to get the parts so he can do it all at once. Labor costs are high and he has to take alot of it apart at that time so maybe he is trying to save a little money for you and combine the two so it costs less and most the labor will go under the warranty work. Not saying this is his plan, but it would make sense. Is anyone else waiting for the ecm too? check with them and see how long they have been waiting and what they think of the dealer. A new belt takes about 5 min. to change, but is useless if the quad is still unfixable. The parts that make up the clutches and the belt are stock items so there should be no wait on that. So why not just do it all at once. Again I don't know your dealer but it could be the reason.

 

Thanks for the response jimk72

I never looked at it that way. Hopefully you're right. Although I did talk to another guy 2 days ago that has dealt with the same dealer personally and had the same problem (not same machine problems - same wait problems), he got the feeling the dealer was trying to ride out his 7 mos warranty and make him pay out of pocket. One call to head office in Canada got things rolling. My buddy I'm talking about emailed Polaris the other day - they said they don't handle this stuff that way (even though one of their topics for customer feedback is "Dealer Satisfaction Issue") - they said he would have to phone them - well then why put that on your website?????

We'll wait and see. It's not my bike, it's not my concern, I'd just like to see my buddy back out on the trails with me a.s.a.p.

Thanks again for the feedback.
Barnzilla

 

I got the recall notice and called my local dealer immediately. They ordered the ECM and it took 5 weeks to get in. I didn't bother bringing in the bike, I took the ECM off, drove it to them and they gave me the new one. (It takes about 5 minutes to change out). They are still supposed to send me a recall sticker to put on the ECM. The dealer told me that Polaris didn't have all the parts in their system when the recall notices were sent out.

 

Hi All,

I have been on holidays and haven't seen my buddy at work. I just got an email from him saying he his bike was ready last Tuesday (July 12). Just wanted to let you all know - thanks for the responses. His dealer is going to give him another month on his warranty - so it seems like it will all work out good in the end. Just a month or so of lost ride time.

Thanks again,
Barnzilla