I went through the bike thorouhly and have found the following to be the cause of the overheat. Improperly bled coolant in the cooling system. I was told by a Polaris Tech that the Bike has to be elevated in the rear 12 inches or so then the front then rock the bike. This gets rid of the air in the system. There is no Air bleed screw!
The second problem was a radiator that was not fully free of mud. I thank you all for helping me with my problem.

 

I went through the bike thorouhly and have found the following to be the cause of the overheat. Improperly bled coolant in the cooling system. I was told by a Polaris Tech that the Bike has to be elevated in the rear 12 inches or so then the front then rock the bike. This gets rid of the air in the system. There is no Air bleed screw!
The second problem was a radiator that was not fully free of mud. I thank you all for helping me with my problem.

 

Aargh! Mine is overheating again too. Had it in to the shop twice already. They hooked up the fan that was disconnected from the factory, then replaced the sensor. Now its -20 celsius and overheating again. I don't hear the fan turning and am lost. No snow blocking the rad, built a snow guard to prevent that. Help!

 

At -20 it should not boil over fan or no fan.Try bleeding the system with the rear lifted like the other guy says.Try it yourself so your not a old man by the time the dealer gets it back to you.

 

Okay, so I raised the rear of the bike up 2 feet off the floor with an overhead hoist, rocked it back and forth about 100 times, and I'm going to let it sit elevated at the rear overnight. Hope this works 'cause I'm heading out ice fishing sunday afternoon.

 

Tim1,

In general I would agree with your statement, but not here. The fan on the SP500 runs more in the winter than the summer. With the snow we are running in, the rolling resistance is much higher and the engine is working much harder. My experience has been the fan runs much more often under these conditions.

SWAC,

If your snow deflector is in front of the rad and is much more than chicken wire, I would get it the hell out of there! The rad in these machines relies on clear air flow. See the other post on mud packup etc. I wouldn't restrict it in any way or you risk toasting the engine!

I understand your powder snow issue. Remember this is not a snowmobile! We had one new lad run with us today with a 99 SP500. He kept blasting off into the really deep powder (14"). He plugged the rad with powder and it boiled. Luckily he shut it off quick, we cleaned the rad, topped it up and he was OK. He ran the rest of the day on the packed trails and had no further problems.

Test the fan before you go out. I wouldn't run it, cold weather or not, if the fan isn't running. Take the front rack off, open the hood, unplug the sensor, short the sensor harness and the fan should run. If not, dig further.

I agree with the other poster on the wheel resistance issue when in neutral. This is normal in my experience.

DJ

 

Howd the ice fishing go did the big guy boil over?

 

Yep, went ice fishing, didn't catch a darn thing. I think the biggest catch in a 3 hour tournament was a 3 1/2 lb. northern pike. After hanging the quad and rocking it, didn't overheat till I was driving slowly on a narrow trail. I am going to try to get the fan to turn on, after taking off the front rack, tonights mission. If that fan spins, then the problem is the thermal sender, again. Jeez I really with I didn't have these problems. When all is fixed and running properly, and I've got the speed up to what you other fellows have reached ( 55 or so) I will become a Polaris raving fan again.

 

running in temp that cold richer jetting may help