I have an 03 sportsman 700 and it is heating up all of a sudden, left key on after the idiot light came on and fan was blowing but light still on. The fluid seems to be fine, do they have a thermostat? could it be a waterpump?

thanks MAXDAD

 

Yes they have a thermostat, but I would look closely at the radiator, the grill in the front just pops off and if you will take the side shields off you can clean it well, dont use the high pressure car wash cause it will bend the fins, just use a garden hose and soak it then wash awhile it may take awhile but make sure its clean on the bottom and sides by the fan,you haven't drained and refilled the radiator have you? are you sure it's full? You have to take the front rack off to get to the cap.

 

i will try that tonight and check rad fluid. It just seem to act like a car when the thermostat wasn't working

 

Working on a customers 04 700 with same symptoms (customer replaced thermostat,hot light sensor,and radiator cap!) I tried to purge all air from radiator,and rechecked his work,plus checked impeller vanes.His problem was internal radiator blockage, fan would come on before hot light,but radiator not freeflowing enough to keep from over heating. Not very common but can happen. Hope this is not your problem.

 

fluid was low. rode for about 45 min then parked on cardboard no drips

 

Make 100% sure you don't have leaks. It shouldn't be low at all unless someone never filled it up all the way.

I never added coolant to my '96 400 for 10 years until I finally changed it last year. It was still topped off.

 

well mine 2003 700 ran hot last weekend to was a long ride back to the campsite i had to stop every 5 to 10 min. to cool down im going to try a new thermostat and see
what that does my rad is claer and clean

 

99% of the time the thermostat is fine and its more of a rad. blockage issue. if you cant see thru the rad fins than chances are if its more then 25% blocked then thats the issue. if its not enought to overflow the coolant bottle then its overheating for sure. imo.

 

My o4 700 was overheating over a month ago.I completely removed the radiator and just about the entire back side of it was covered with a layer of hardened mud
I cleaned it real well and changed fluid and it is fine now, the fan runs the least I believe than it ever has.

 

We had a 700 over heat on us on a fishing trip. The ATV was super clean but the hard to see top half of rad had cement hard mud baked in the fins,once cleaned out the problem was gone.