Hi this is my first post here. After doing some searching I think I've figured out what the problem is.

I bought this atv about a month ago and it only had 560 miles, I've put about 400 on it and have noticed that my coolant level was going down but I could not find where it was leaking. So I began searching. I've come to the conclusion that it is probably the water pump gasket. But I do have a couple questions.

1st is this something that Polaris will take the tab on or will I have to pay for it?

2nd I have the plastic cover for the water pump, will Polaris give me the updated one?

Thanks for your time and answers.

VB

 

Polaris is not going to pay for anything. I have never heard that there is a plastic water pump cover before. You might just have an air lock and is just now getting rid of it. How much antifreeze have you been adding. Check to make sure it is not leaking from the weep hole just under the engine. It can be hard to tell if it leaks. Other than that it might be internal. Check the oil for signs of antifreeze.

 

It does have a composite cover, if you search the forums here you will learn that. It is a common problem with the early 700 models. Anybody else?

 

Yes, the 02's and some 03's did have problems with leaking plastic water pump covers. The Polaris fix at the time was to bolt on a metal flange on top of the plastic flange on the water pump cover. The metal flange puts pressure evenly around the plastic cover to seals leaks.

The leak could also be bad a waterpump seal, keep an eye on it and you'll know. A leak at the edge of the cover is a warped pump cover and a leak at the weap hole is a bad seal. Is your coolent reservoir snorkled?

I hope Polaris works with you on this one.

 

I have the 02 700 as well, after I bought it the dealer repalced the water pump cover as a warranty issue for free. That cover was plastic, It started leaking again this year. The replacement cover was aluminum. Since the quad was so far out of warranty the dealer said there was nothing they could do. The replacement cover and new anti-freeze cost around $50.00. It took less than a half hour to replace.

 

I had my water pump/oil seal done last year as a I brought it in for what sounded like the water pump squealing. They replaced all the seals/o-rings as they said I had a small leak....news to me. Mine was also seeping at a point on the system where the mechanic said he has never seen one leak. He ended up replacing a large O ring on one of the flanges. Mine also has the plastic cover and the dealer never said anything about it needing to be changed, and I have never had a problem with the cover leaking. Squeal noise is still there though when at low idle....they told me it was intake noise?

 

I had an '02 and it had the problem also. There were 2 issues 1) metal cover that bolts over the plastic water pump cover AND 2) a newly redesigned mechanical seal (ceramic seal) inside the waterpump.

If you have a nice / sympathetic dealer he may do it for you for free, but seeing how it's going on 5 years old they may not. If you are mechanically inclined it is very easy to do. If it were me, I would do both fixes at the same time because chances are you will have both problems. Once I did both upgrades (dealer gave me the parts for free and I did the labor) I never had another problem.

 

Thanks for the replys guys. I'm fairly mechanically inclined, but I've read some horror stories about what can happen if you do it yourself. Something about the shaft that runs the pump. I haven't opened the machine up yet so I'm not sure what to expect. I will prob look at it this weekend sometime.

 

The seals on the shaft also turned me away from doing the job. There is a special Polaris tool they use to pull the seals off the shaft. I'm glad I left mine to the tech as he said he had a brute of a time trying to get it off with the special tool. The seal was mangled by the time it was off. Doing it myself though, I would have given the crankcase and cooling system a good flush. Oil got into my coolant during the job and they never flushed it. I was checking my coolant the next day and found oil bubbles in it. Gave me a scare as I thought it was the head. Flushed the system and no oil returned....just a sloppy shop job.