hello..

I wanted to let you guys know about something that happened to my 99 SP500 due entirely to my not washing it after a poker run.

Quickly, we had gone on the poker run and 3/4 of the way through I got stuck (on purpose probably!) in a huge mud pit. It was that thick runny mud,,,anyway, you guessed it--about 4 minutes down the trail after getting towed out, my overheat light came on. Of course I knew what the problem was so I started looking for a stream or some place to rinse it off. I finally found one and ran it through a few times, etc. then we all stopped and basically I made it back to the truck little by little but I really didn't care all that much that my red light was on.

Now---here comes the dumb part. I got home after a 6 hour drive or so, and just parked the ATV in the garage and didn't feel like washing it. After all, I had gotten it relatively cleaned since I had run it through the stream, etc. So next Saturday we go out riding again locally....you guessed it---about 5 miles into the ride or so, the red overheat light comes on! At that point it hit me that I had forgotten to wash the machine and more importantly, wash out the radiator!

So here I am in the woods with 5 other guys on a hot summer Saturday--again, like an a$$, I keep going on with the light on...sure, I stopped a few times and sure I looked for water, etc. But the damage was done...

Well, without going into a lot of detail, I took it home, washed it, filled the radiator back up (it had gone dry), started it, but now it was leaking rad fluid from down below the engine. I found out it was a bad water pump seal. I took that to get replaced and went out riding. Guess what? It overheated again-light came on--only this time the radiator blew out the top with steam and all. So, my mechanic advised me to try replacing the heat sensor on the radiator as well as the light indicator thermo on the engine block, which I did. Guess what? STILL OVERHEATED! I then had the radiator replaced because at this point it was dripping from the radiator. My mechanic ($200 radiator by the way guys) showed me how the old rad had warped on the sides.

NOW---IT STILL OVERHEATED!! At my wit's end, I called Polaris. Again, bearing in mind that this was my fault for not washing the radiator out in the first place, Polaris advised me that it is a blown head gasket and/or warped head which is shooting HOT compression gases or whatever into the cooling system, in turn overheating my system.

I'm getting it fixed but felt like writing you guys to remind you to NEVER FORGET TO WASH YOUR RADIATOR FRONT AND BACK EVERY TIME YOU GET MUDDY...take it from me. I know!

 

You can also get something so that you can wash it on the trail. I got the High Lifter ATV Shower and we use that on long rides. Wether we find a trail or drop it in the 5 gallon cooler it does the trick and cleans our radiators!