Hi, fellas...and gals. New guy here-----a DIYer but certainly not a mechanic. Plenty of tools, but no diagnostic equipment.

My 2006 X2 is 500 H.O. EFI. One owner. I bought new in 07 and broke in properly. Has been used about 20 hours per year. Never been in mud. Never pulled anything except itself. Never had a tire off the ground. Never been in AWD mode except in the yard to see if it worked. Never even had a raindrop on it. So, imagine my shiny 8-ft-long, well-maintained $7500 tool that doesn't work and never really has in any reliable manner.

ECM died at 55 hours. Replaced. Coil died at 80 hours. Replaced. ECM died again at 97 hours. Put bike into storage out of frustration. Pulled it out 18 months and replaced ECM again, only to learn that Stabil in your tank is not a miracle worker. Gas was rotten. No start after draining, filling with fresh gas, replacing battery and changing spark plug. So, I removed tank and found pump/regulator sending unit assembly gunked up BADLY. Replaced pump, cleaned everything else up, filled with fresh gas and injector cleaner. Fired right up. Ran the whole tank of gas with no problems. Refilled. Halfway through next tank, bike sputtered and died on a trail, leaving me stranded 7 miles in the woods. Cranked good; no start. Never hit once or even tried. It was like cranking with the plug boot off.

Checked for fire at plug. Yes. Checked for fuel at disconnect above injector. Yes. Checked throttle free-play and ETC contacts. Good. Let sit for three hours. No change. Hiked out and went back in with tow vehicle. While towing it out in neutral, I hit the starter just to see what would happen IT FIRED UP! However, it sputtered, fell on its face and wouldn't rev up. Shut it off and continued the tow. Once out of the woods, same thing-----all crank and no start.

Got it home and in the garage now but don't know where to start. Tired of throwing parts at this machine. Sad because it's like a brand new bike but it's useless in the garage. Would like to use it more but can't trust it.

So, I'm considering a fuel filter. Could it possibly be the pressure regulator, which I cleaned but did not replace after the tank of rotten gas? Could the injector cleaner added to the tank clean and loosen some more gunk in there, which is caught on the pick-up screen? Since it fired up that last time but wouldn't rev up, I'm leaning toward strickly fuel flow/pressure issues. It just sounded starved for gas when I'd move the throttle. I'm still open to electrical issues.

Any suggestions? Thank in advance.

 

If you have access to a fuel pressure gauge check that the pump is holding 39psi without any drop in pressure.This would eliminate a fuel filter problem also. Regular Stabil will not preserve gas because of the ethanol content no matter what the bottle says.I found that out the hard way myself. It takes either marine stabil,Star Tron,or any preservative especially for ethanol fuel to help stop the rust and corrosion. Plus I'd always double dose what they recommend for storage.

 

Thx, OPT. Trying to hunt down a gauge. If not, may have to run it into a local shop. No one near me has the software or interface to plug in for diagnostics, which probably wouldn't be a bad idea.. Do you think I should continue chasing a fuel matter or do you know of any electrical issue that could cause it to start and run but bog and die with the slightest throttle movement? Also, is it possible to accurately get a fuel pressure reading if the bike won't run? Thanks again.

 

Fuel pressure is tested with the engine off,key just in on position. The major problem electrically on the efi machines were normally the thin wiring harness connections to the sensors. Wiring is too small and brittle to take the vibration.They could rub a bare spot or break internally. Look at the "sticky" post in the expert section on efi problems. We had more problems on map sensor and tbap wiring short problems than anything else.It applies to all efi machine especially the 700,800 and 500 efi. Unless you had a positive wiring break,a lot of times codes weren't thrown or you could have bogus codes. Aftermarket harness kits are offered from OTB that were better quality than the Polaris repair kits,if that is if you track the problem down to that.Only The Best Another way is to have it hooked up to Digital Wrench at a dealer to track the problem down.

 

Thank you. Will probably drive the 140 miles to a dealer who has Digital Wrench. I'm fed up. I DID notice that all wires and connectors seemed a little puny on this machine. It's one of the reasons I've babied this one. Doesn't seem to matter. Between faulty parts and expendables, it still costs over $500/year to maintain. Will update when I have a verdict on my trouble. The time and knowledge you volunteer to this forum is commendable. Thank you.

 

Update: Fuel pressure tested 20 psi at rail. Needs 39 psi. Replaced filter. No change. Problem must be in tank. Pump replaced two weeks ago after it quit. Ran a whole tank of gas perfectly on new pump. Did not do anything with pressure regulator. It must be faulty now, too. Either that or new fuel pump is going bad. I used Airtex 8189, made by Carter and successfully installed by others, per many Polaris forums. The pump operates at 70 to 80 psi. Although I've heard of no issues with this replacement pump, I suppose it's possible that this is too much and the pressure regulator knocks it down to 39 psi +/- 3 psi, thereby creating to much back-pressure for relief back into tank and burned out new pump. Either way, I went ahead and ordered the $600 tank/pump/regulator/sending unit from Polaris, which I think is assinine. That's about like being unable to buy just a throttle cable and ETC, forcing you to purchase an entire handlebar assembly. Stupid!

 

Probably the regulator as you said. Polaris did finally start to give dealers a replacement after market list of fuel pumps from Napa,Airtex,etc for certain models right before I retired.I had one list taped on the wall,but just had the pump motors listed not the regulator. Now on all newer models complete fuel pumps are replaceable without having to buy a whole tank assy,but it doesn't help you or the customers that I had to replace whole tank assemblies for either.

 

Thanks OPT. Could not find those individual parts in catalog (only ***' y). No matter. Already ordered and on its way. Should eliminate any future in-tank issues. Any chance my low fuel pressure at the rail could be one of the sensor or harness troubles you've mentioned and not in the tank after all??? Id really hate for $600 not to fix it. It throws no codes at the speedo.

 

Really didn't have any injector or fuel rail problems,just the pumps themselves. We rebuilt a few from the list we had and had one come back under similar circumstances,pump didn't hold up. Ended up ordering tank assembly. It's tough owning an early model efi as Polaris still doesn't offer a complete fuel pump without buying the whole tank,but now you can find newer fuel pump assemblies even on Amazon. Low pressure (20 psi) wouldn't normally be from any harness problem either, but I'd still check out the thin sensor harness wiring and keep OTB repair kits in mind if you still have any erratic running problems after you replace the tank assy.

 

Has Polaris brought the troubled replacement parts for these early EFI machines up to par with the later model years oe am I looking at a lifetime of swapping the same parts? Machine has only 100 hrs on it.