Can anyone help me, I replaced my SPortsman with a 800 etf because the dealers could never get it to start and run without gas leaking and constant smell of gas. My 800 Polaris is awesome, except it runs so hot it burns our leg, and melts the plastic around the exhaust area. Polaris replaced the plastic once, replaced the plastic again and had dealer put some heat shields, but it is melting the plastic again. They would not pay the labor to fix this the last time. We use this in our ranching business, sometimes we do go slow, but it is hot even when its going fast. The too slow idea seems strange as they sell all kinds of mowers, seeders, plows to use with this. Anyone know why this is happening. My son in law has one just like mine, he does more recreational riding, and his plastic is melting too. I have talked to Polaris more than once, on problems with both machines, they don't seem to interested or supportive? Any ideas on how I can Polaris to listen?

 

Many of us have had the same issues. My bike is getting fixed now. I hate to say this but your only recourse is to Contact the NTSB abd report the problem and state you were burned and it happened multiple times. Take pictures and document everything. Get your receipts and get them copies. I was about to do the same thing and my dealer pressed them to do the right thing. They even steped up to repalce my belt. In the mean time Your best bet is to send you header pipe off to a company that does power Cermaic coatings. Have the main pipe and the heat sheidls done. I used Moore power coating. There in Nebraska and there prices are fair and service is good. Talk to Chuck www.moorepower.com. I don't have anyone local so I was shipping so I wnet for the best price and service.

 

I used DEI Header Wrap : http://advanceauto.shoplocal.com/adv...toreid=2370190


Then moved the right floor board out about one inch, took about one hour and cost abot 60-70 bucks also I sparayed the wrap with DEI HT Silicone Coating. They say just dont presure wash the pipe.

 

I have 2005 Sportsman 800, purchased in March of 2005. It now has a little over 600 miles on it. Soon after buying it I read about what seemed like fairly wide spread problems with the plastic melting, but I was lucky and didnt have that problem with mine. Well about a month or month and a half ago, while using it to drag the baseball diamond at our local Elementary school, I notice the plastic had a big dimple in it from it getting hot and soft,, as time went one it started melting right behind that spot. I contacted my dealer, who basically told me that since it is past the 6 month warranty, he couldnt do anything for me. He said that he would do what Polaris let him do. I called Polaris with this, and talked to one of their customer service people. He told me they wont do anything and the claim was denied because it was out of warranty, and that I could of purchased an extended warranty, then it would of been covered. When I told them it is a well know issue the guy told me that if it was a widespread issue, they would of had to issue a recall, and take care of it, but since it wasnt widespread... they wont do anything for me. Flat out pisses me off that I can spend 8,000 bucks on a ATV and both the dealer and manufacturer wont do a thing to help when a manufacturing problem occurs like this. A person would think the dealer would try and help a customer out, but nope. Seems like a ploy to push extended warranties to me. The plastic isnt melted all the way through, but soon will be. Maybe they can at least get it for me at cost or something.

Rob

 

Exactly!! Why should anyone paying $8000 for an atv have it melt the bodywork? This problem has been going on since Polaris made atv's back in 1987 with the cyclone! All this talk about the new polaris's being better built and engineered than the old ones is a wash. Look on this forum, just about every post is about something wrong with these things. Stick with the Four Japanese companies and have fun and peace of mind with your atv, instead of having it live at the dealers garage.

 

Now that wont ever happen. I like my machine and the Polaris ATVs in general, something like plastic melting, while a pain, is not a major operating problem. It is not the machine, but rather the service after the sale that I dont like.


Rob

 

i never can understand why people that hate polaris so much they would come here and bad mouth and run them in the ground. that been said this person must not go to many dealer and see all the other problems their having. every other brand has their issuesas well im sure.

 

Right on, Stendori. "ganggreen"; Hmmm, Isn't that some sort of disease??? Maybe something you could get by falling off your tricycle!!!LOL

 

This isn't a hate message, I like Polaris. I wanted opinions on how this problem can be addressed in such a way that I can get Polaris customer service to address this problem. Keep in mind that while the exhaust is getting hot enough to melt the plastic, it is also attempting to "melt" my leg, it is so hot that I have to ride with my leg proped up, and this happens only about 10 minutes down the trail....help....please?

 

Canyoncrawler, I see you haven't been on the forum long. Welcome aboard. Some of us enjoy bashing the Polaris bashers when they pop up over here from time to time. Didn't mean to get off track or hi-jack your thread. Go click on the "search" button and type in words like "plastic" or "melting" and see what pops up. This topic has came up in the past and I think some people are getting these issues resolved now, but I can't remember the specifics about what Polaris is doing about it. Do some searches and see what you come up with.