Today I ran into a plethora of problems with my seldom used, 00' SP500. It only has something like 500 miles on it, and most of that was in a 1 week period last spring. I have way too many problems for the amount of time I spend riding this thing........

The most interesting and disturbing problem is that I had the "engine overheat" light come on for the first time ever. It's freaking 2 below zero, and this thing thinks it's overheating!!?!??? This was after only 15 minutes of light plowing, just cleaning up the stuff that blew back overnight. Yesterday I spent a good 3 hours of solid plowing, but it didn't get overheated. I thought that light was for low oil, and I checked the dipstick, which didn't register any oil. so I immediately trailered the machine and took it home to get some oil in it. After sitting in front of the heater for awhile to melt the snow off, I checked the oil again, only to find way more than enough. Somebody please explain this to me.....BTW, the engine fan IS working, I noticed it come on about the same time the light came on. What happens if I continue to drive it with the overheat light on? I don't want to destroy the machine, but I've got snow to plow!

At the same time as this overheating light came on, the machine died. When I pressed the button to restart it, the battery died after about 3 or 4 seconds of trying. This was after the machine was warmed up, so I would expect the alternator to have fully charged the battery even if it was low to begin with. (When I started it this morning, after sitting in 10 below weather all night, it cranked the engine for more than 3 or 4 seconds, and still had enough juice to start it up.) I took the pull starter off its seal, and there was quite a vacuum on it. (You could hear the air rushing in. Is that normal? I tried the pull starter once when I first got the machine, and I know there wasn't any huge vacuum on the thing.) The machine started right up after one pull. The winch that I use to raise and lower my blade was barely working. I thought the engine constantly recharged the battery?!? Today I used the winch only a fraction of the times that I usually do when I plow, and I've never run into a problem of it wearing down the battery. I was afraid to let the machine run for very long to recharge, because I was under the mistaken impression that there wasn't any oil in the machine. Now that it is in my nice warm garage, it starts right up, and the winch raises and lowers at full strength.
Does this thing just not like the REALLY cold weather? (As a side note, if the battery dies, and I can't start it with the recoil, can I hook up some starter cables to my truck, or would that blow that little battery to bits?)

I hesitate to even waste my time trying to get help on this next one, but I'll give it a shot.......
As always, even after 3 or 4 visits to the dealer at a minimum of $100 each, my stupid front hubs aren't working properly. Usually they won't disengage from 4x4. (Or while I am backing up my ramps going into my truck, one will decide to engage, causing 800 pounds of Polaris to roll off the ramps, onto me......I'm still pissed about that one.....)Now that I need them to engage, they won't. Not good when there is 10 inches of snow to plow, with 3 more to come tonight....
The AWD light isn't coming on, the front drive shafts spin, but hubs won't engage. I'm sure the dealer put in the polaris hub oil the last time he worked on it, so tomorrow I will switch it out for that Mobil 1 stuff. I doubt it will work, and I don't expect any solutions from the group, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

All of these things happened within about 10 minutes of each other, so I was pretty pissed when I loaded the thing up on the trailer and headed home, leaving behind alot of snow to plow. It makes me wonder if the really cold weather isn't the cause of most of it?

All I know is there is snow on the ground for me to be plowing and playing in, and I'm sitting here at my keyboard trying to figure out why my machine won't work. And that ticks me right off. Any help you can give me would be appreciated if you actually read this entire book that I've written. Thanks.

Scott

 

Let’s take a look at problem one “Over heating”.
First off the SP500 is fan ASSIST, this means that no matter how cold it is outside the fan has to run to keep things cool. The most probable cause is your ignition key. If you have anything dangling off the ignition key there is a very high probability that it catches on the gas cap when you turn the steering and turns it off. It only takes about 1/8” turn and it turns off all the accessories including the cooling fan and leaves the engine running. You can try this in your garage by starting the engine and carefully turn the ignition switch CCW slowly until you see the speedo light turn off, the engine will still be running. This is what I think happened to you and when you saw the high temp light come on at the same time as the fan the ignition switch must have caught again (or you switched it on yourself as a check) and turned it back on. The bottom line is to not to have anything at all hanging off the ignition key.
Problem number 2 is caused by problem number 1. When the ignition switch is turned as described above the battery is no longer being charged, so it dies.
I cannot help you with the front engaging so I’ll pass on this one.

 

I agree with the key theory, it would explain all the symptons. Has happend to me a few times have nothing hanging on my key ring anymore. As far as the vacuum on the recoil, I would think that last time you used it it was warm out , lets say 80 degrees. Now its 10 below and you have an ice cold motor the air contracts thus creating a vacuum. I wouldnt worry about that at all just means that everything is tight.
As far as the wheels engaging when you back up the ramps, there is no 4 wheel drive when you back up unless you are holding the override switch which you were probably doing trying to get enough rpms to back up steep ramps. The hubs wont engage unless the real wheels are turning faster than the front wheels. I guess the rear wheels spun on your pickup truck bed and the front wheel spit out one or both of the ramps? Does this make any sense to you? Just a guess from the info given. Sounds like everything is working right if this is correct. Also you can jump your quad off your truck with out blowing up the battery. 12volts and 12volts is fine. Just one more thought a winch draws hugh amounts of current way more than an alternater can keep up with. If you are constantly lifting and lowering the plow with the engine at low rpms I would expect it to go dead after a while. Batteries loose 50 percent of their efficency in cold weather.I Dont mean to sound like a know it all. Just a possible explanation.

 

I believe everybody that has owned a Polaris genIV with a pod light, has at one point, learned that a key fob will cause the problems you described. By the way, The 2001 models have a repositiond ignition to alleviate this quirk.

 

Thanks for the help guys. Even though I don't have anything hanging off my key, your theory seems to make sense. I'll pay attention today when I'm on it.
As far as the hubs go, I need all 4 wheels cranking to back that big hummer into my F250. It's higher up there than most. So I keep it in 4, and use the override button to engage the front hubs while in reverse. Now that I've rolled it off once completely, and a few times partially, I no longer just give it a good run and use the momentum to push me up the ramps. I want to have enough time to abort ship if that thing tries to roll on top of me again! It drives up the ramps in forward just fine, but then I have my winch just inches from my rear window, waiting to break it.
I've heard enough complaints about the front hubs, and experienced enough problems myself, that I am pretty sure that Polaris has a bad design in them.
I've never had the problem of the front wheels not engaging at all, it has always been them not DISengaging. I was just wondering if maybe the severe cold had caused the fluid in the hubs to thicken, causing them to not work properly. I read another recent post about the hubs, and by the description of how they work by some guys, it seems like a pretty complicated system.
Thanks again for your help, I'll let you know tonight if it works!

Scott

 

I know if your battery is low it also effects your hubs.doesnt send enough voltage to them. hope this helps.

 

Very good point
I have, from experience, seen that if the battery is low and you switch on the awd, the light will not come on and your front wheels will not engage. This happened to me on my Xplorer when a wiring harness plug came undone and the charging system would no longer work. As I was driving, I noticed that the lights were getting dimmer but everything else worked fine, including awd. As I drove longer the lights got dimmer and the awd light went out and I lost the awd, even though the engine was running fine. The awd indicator light must be wired to read after the hubs have engaged.

 

i'm still real new to polaris machines but i did have a key ring on my key and it shut me off twice during my first ride. the key ring is still in the woods. this is a '01 h.o. so there little fix didn't quite work either. also my polaris mechanic told me that these quads dont recharge their battery at idle speeds ( like plowing) along with using your winch this could be a problem. right?

 

Be careful when jumping from a auto or truck.Always shut the vevicle off as auto/truck alternators put out way more amps than your 4-wheeler system does and you risk damaging your ignition system.BTW , I built jumper cables using alligator clips from Radio Shack that work great for jumping small batteries.

 

There is also another possiblity for your low oil when cold. Condensation can build up in your oil resevoir with repeated cooling (Out in the snow) and warm ups (back in the garage). This condesation can get in the oil feed line from the res to the engine and freeze blocking the oil feed to the engine (NOT GOOD!) Can you say Oil Starvation?

SP500 in NS