I decided after purchasing my 8 yr old son his second Atv before I've ever owned one for myself, that I was going to get one for myself. We just bought our first home, and my wife has a tight grip of the finances so I wasn't about to go buy the new 850 xp that I want. Through a lot of reading on this site, I was able to fix and flip a couple of sportsmans, and stumbled on this 2008 500 EFI with only 500 miles on it. It just had the roller cage and armature plate replaced on it, but the 4x4 still was not working and I think the original owner was done paying the dealership to fix it. I got a good deal on it, and again started reading and figured it to be the gear indicator switch so I ordered one and it fixed the problem. Now, it seems to be good as new. My question is: in your opinion, should I keep on my trek for the big bore, or should I keep this 500 which I really like and is more than enough power for me? I know it is my own decision and preference, but I just think that maybe this one has had quite a few problems in a short time and I don't know if it's normal or a bad seed. I guess I just need to know if there are other things with the 500 EFI that I should look for or expect, and if there is any more reliability with a big bore. It came with a glacier II State plow with the mount broken in 2 places and a Polaris (Chinese I assume) winch. Is it worth it for me to buy a new mount fOr this setup? I haven't read too many good things about it. I'm sorry for the long post, and I thank you for your help and insight!

 

the 500 is probably the most reliable and best bike polaris ever built, sounds like this one has had a hard life in a short time, fix it up and ride it awhile, then decide what you want to do

 

Pretty happy with my 07 500 EFI. Haven't had any problems other than 1 air temp sensor went bad and a bad stator caused by the original owner, from water getting into the recoil housing. Other than that it's been solid. The 500 is the most reliable IMO.

 

I've also had great reliability with my X2 that has the 500 EFI. The only thing I don't like is that it could use a little more power. If they had the 700 X2 when I bought it I might have gone for that. Otherwise, love the machine. Sounds like the previous owner was abusive.

 

Ok, yeah I'm just a little worried about it since it only has 500 miles on it and it already needed these repairs. But for the money, I'm probably not going to find a nicer Atv, at least around here in Michigan. I will just hope that the problems that it's had were operator error and keep up on the maintenance. There doesnt seem to be any more problems right now, but are there any other things I should check? It seems from the condition of the plow mount that he was pretty rough on it while plowing. It is broken through on both sides where it goes back to the frame. It still pushes snow just fine, but are there any other consequences from this to the Atv? Thanks guys

 

I would check the belt and clutch pulleys for wear. My guess is he was plowing in high gear to do that much damage to the plow. High gear is fine for trail riding when it isn't rough but you want to use low gear for snow, mud, steep hills, rock crawling, etc. In high gear you will wear the belt and clutch assembly quickly in those situations where low is a better way to go. Don't know if that would be the cause of the hillyard damage though. I think the hillyard gets damaged from putting it in AWD when your rear wheels are spinning (out of traction) or jumping in AWD. From what I've read it's fine to put it in AWD when all 4 wheels are going at the same speed, but when you shift it in while your rear tires are spinning and the front tires aren't moving it "slams" the system. I haven't had issues with the belt or AWD in 2700 miles of hard riding.

 

I would keep the 500, they are very reliable. I have a 99 500, and my father in law has a 07 500 efi and we put them through hell. We have had them for 4 years now and they take a beating and keep on going. We run them through deep mud, water, and plow snow with them. The only thing I have had to do is replace cv joints and my father in law has had no issues with his it seems to be bullet proof.

 

Good to know about the reliability of all of your quads. I have been a fan of the sportsmans for quite a while, and my father in law has a mid-90's explorer 400 that I think has only needed brakes and a battery or 2 up in northern Michigan. That quad has held up great and has done a ton of work. It's hard to rely on the Internet to find unbiased reviews since most people don't report the positives, just the problems. I knew I could find a little peice of mind here.
Moose-thanks for the tip. Yeah, I'm sure he used the awd incorrectly, and I'm also sure that he plowed at high speeds according to the condition of the plow mount. The wing on the end was all jacked up and had been welded on so I had to cut it off. I think I'm going to take the mount off and weld it up and reinforce it to try to get a couple years out of it. I like the way the state plow throws snow, but obviously the glacier II isn't built for heavy plowing. The previous owner thought his first symptoms were from the belt, so he bought a new one. The belt was still like new, so I have a new spare in the storage box. I really like the efi also. Why did they stop making the 500's with efi?

 

Why did they stop making the 500's with efi?[/QUOTE]

Just a wild guess here, but I would guess that since the xp models came out in 09 and EFI was the standard on xp's so maybe they did away with the EFI not to mention other things on the older style and market them as an economy/work model with no frills. Just my 2 cents

 

Good point. I was looking into a new sportsman and I did notice that I liked more of the features on my '08 that weren't there on the '11, ESP the fuel injection. The paperwork on my '08 shows a price of almost $7000 otd and I could get a brand new '11 for around $5000 here. If I were to buy a new one, I would definately have to go to an xp I think or I'd almost feel like I was downgrading, not that a new 500 wouldn't look great in my garage!