I'm with you toby,
I'm one of the only polaris riders here,
and I try to keep it that way buy telling everyone that I ALWAYS have problems[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]
It gets tough when they see me in the mud holes.
Last week one of the guys(15 of us) got a great pic of me in the hole water at rack level,ruts that get you standing on one floorboard or the other so it dont flip
It's a GREAT pic,but they dont understand what I see when I look at that picture.............
I see 12 honda's sitting on the the side's of a mudhole with one polaris eating that hole up[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

I've had nothing but good luck with my 96, but giving a hard look at the new 700 if they prove out.

 

VG,
About the bad needle/seat that was supposedly harmed bu dirt. Doesn't your dealer know that at the factory, Polaris installs in-line fuel filters on ALL machines. IF dirt was what ruined it, why on earth didn't the filter catch it? IF the filter didn't catch it, why on earth would Polaris put a filter in, knowing it was useless??? Follow your fuel line from the tank, through the shut-off, and on to the carb. Mine has an in-line filter between the shut-off valve and the carb. If yours doesn't, why not? I bet it does. My owners manual even has replacing the fuel filter listed on the maintanence schedule.
Sounds to me like the dealer either wasn't sure what they were doing, or else didn't want to fill out the paperwork involved in turning it in for warranty. I am one of the truly lucky ones, in that I have a wonderful dealer, who goes out of their way to do things right. Also, my experiences have been that the Polaris company is pretty good to deal with, as well, provided the dealer will stand behind you. I know someone who the company offered to split the bill for a factory reman 400 engine due to failure. The reason of failure was a bolt or bolts somewhere in the oil injection system worked loose, causing a leak under pressure, allowing the oil to leak onto the ground instead of being injected into the intake, like it was supposed to. Anyway, the bolt was supposed to have threadlocker on it, and when the mechanic took it apart, it didn't. They called Polaris, explained the situation, and was offered a factory reman engine at a substantial discount. I don't remember the specifics, but normally a reman engine runs about $1500, and his was fixed for $900, and that included a 6 month warranty on the new engine. This on a machine 2 years old, and with 5000 miles on it. Like I said, I REALLY feel lucky having a dealer like that.

 

Farmr123,

Your comment about the in-line filter is exactly what I was thinking. In fact I have replaced my in-line filter twice since I've had the 2001 H.O. The only thing I could think of in Polaris Industries defense about the needle & seat not being defective when it left the factory was if micro-scopic dirt could destroy a needle & seat that fast. Again, I suppose anything is possible, but I would tend to think that mircro-scopic dirt could not destroy a needle & seat that fast.

Then I have to wonder if maybe it only needed to be adjusted and perhaps it did not have to be replaced. BTW, I didn't have it replaced where I bought the machine simply because I thought that maybe it was a minor issue that a closer dealer could take care of. Perhaps if I returned it to the dealer from where I bought it, they might have done something else. The warranty was already over by the time I had the problem.

VG