Well i had my first major problem with a polaris that wasn't my fault last week, i'm sure everyoe has heard about the pvc valve freezing, there was a bulliten for them which i had done but that apparantly wasn't the fix or my dealer said they put it in and didn't, either way it froze, and a poof of smoke came out the headlight pod and me being an idiot sometimes thought aww must have been a couple of wires touchin you know quick puff of smoke like that didn't have time to smell it as it was gone as fast as it appeared, well anyway went riding for a couple of hours and got done and started wiping snow off and the whole front end of my wheeler was covered in oil the pod was full just a mess, so brought it to my buddy who is a polaris mech and he enlightned me that the puff of smoke was either my cam bushing popping out or the rear main seal releasing the crankcase pressure, either way pull the motor split it and relace what is leaking my dealer probably would have warrantied it but i would rather pay my buddy a couple hundred bucks to get it done right so make sure you guys are watching those pvc they are a pain when they freeze

 

Wow..........Can you direct and heat from the exhaust or pipes to keep it warm while the engine is running......Caper..........

 

i think the key is to heat the pvc before start up, maybe a nipco or something for a few minutes before i start it one shouldn't have to do that but i would rather do that than blow seals i guess, according to polaris the 850 creates lots of moisture especially when cold, the moisture it creates goes to the pvc and if the motor isn't warmed completley than the water sits where the rubber meets the metal and freezes so it won't breath thus popping the seal supposedly the bulliten was to fix this from happening so i am not sure if my dealer put it in or just said they did won't know till i order the updated one hope for their sake they werent' lying to me don't know why they would but you never know

 

thats a **** poor design. something that builds alot of condensation and used in the winter is not a good together. that sucks for you for sure. good luck.

 

Its called pcv=positive crankcase ventilation, not sure of 850 design, will look into it. maybe the same as the old 700 which I had to replace under recall cause filter would freeze and crack and cause vacume leak which caused them to spit and sputter and not run right, will look at my 850 in the morning ,THanks for the update

 

Does this affect the '10 and '11 model years as well?

 

to my knowledge its only 09 my 11 hasn't had any issues yet and i hope it doesn't when we took the pvc off it was like a rubber boot over a spring that pulses with the comperssion of the motor and whe thawed goes up and down flawless problem is when you start it for short periods of time it builds lots of moisture and then freezes solid and cannot release the pressure for sure a bad setup like it is

 

I just did the new pvc on my 09 850.

The old pvc vent house was angled down slightly and put a low spot in the house and then water would collect and freeze.

The new one points up slightly and makes the hose drain back into the pvc so water wont collect.

This is a free 5 min fix

 

thats what i was told but the dealer told me they did it so i didn't think anymore of it but now i'm not so sure they did have to oreder the updated one and compare

 

Man I have some bad spelling HAHA

hose (house)
PCV (pvc)

I think I need to go back to school. LOL