Yea, its back in the shop again. This time, according to service its a defective ignition switch on a 2000 Sportsman 500. It seems just when I get it back running and everything seems okay, another breakdown. I am suffering the curse of the doomed to sit idle quad. Without power to the front end, no starter, no AWD, and no cooling fan. Good thing I noticed that the speedo died on a long run, and decided to shut her down. This is service time number 4 and problem number 10. For whom do I thank for this misery?

 

Sounds like you got a lemon. I have had no bad experiences with my Polaris. But I don't have all the gadgets your Sportsman has either.

 

Gadgets, what gadgets? I think the only gadget this quad needs is a 1 3/4 inch ball for attaching the lemonade stand. Which of course will have to push the quad to the street.

 

Sw.... Maybe you should try a different dealership... I learned the hard way with a particular Yamaha of mine that some "Certified Yamaha Mechanics" just plain SUCK!!... These guys had the big nice shop, matching uniforms.. the most tricked out showroom..(even the bathroom was nice.. REAL TOILET PAPER AND HAND TOWELS)
ANYWAY... I thought for sure with this kinda spread.. surely the owner hand't skimmped out when it came to hiring the technicans.. MAN WAS I WRONG!!.. These retards had no clue what could be causing the brand new Snap-On compression guage not to move when they cranked my Yamaha over... DUH... can we all say it together.. NO COMPRESSION!!.. I was standing there when they did it, so I spoke up and asked if any of them had a "leak down" tester for checking rings, valves..etc... All I got was dumb looks!!!!...
So I took the sparkplug from my Yamaha and a quick connect air fitting and brazed the two together and made an "air up tool" for the cylinder. I put it in, (STILL getting the dumb looks) brought the engine up to TDC... and connected the air hose... It sounded like a freakin tornado out the exhaust.. I asked one of the mechaincs to back off the valve adjusters just to make sure... and STILL a tornado.. DUH.. bent exhaust valve..
They kept the little tool I made, kept the machine for another 3 weeks, and YES.. THEY EVEN CHARGED ME FOR THE FREAKIN SPARKPLUG..(Yamaha warranty doesnt cover sparkplugs)
The engine ran like crap till Karnack mudrun LAST year, then it scattered again.. I took it to a different dealership.. and THEY (H&W Yamaha/Honda) fixed it perfectly the first shot!!...
Dealerships make the difference..

 

Im totally with Mud Machine on this one.Differant dealerships DO make a differance.I had a ton of problems with my 99 Sportsman and the repairs at the purchasing dealership.Took it to another dealership and my problems were gone.Swac,nobody feels for you like I do.Its a real bitch making payments for something that is tied up in the shop for sometimes months.I hope you take our advice and use another dealer.Take time to explain to the new dealership mananager of your bitter disappointment with your purchasing dealer and all the repairs that are neccesary on your NEW quad.Hopefully he will understand and you can get this thing straighten out,Good Luck,===BILL

00 Xplorer 400cc 4x4
If you wat to come in second ''FOLLOW ME''

 

swac I am with mud and bill on this one sorry to hear the troubles that is the reason when i bought my polaris I checked to see what mechanic they had. The guy has worked on dirt bikes for twenty years and knows all the ins and outs of a 2 and 4 cycle engine and the way people ride them. Also dealer and other customers assured me 2 days in this shops dealership is a long time. Think you should try a different dealership they would probably help you out hoping they would get your repeat business when you get a new one...best of luck keep us updated...

 

All right guys, You really have me scared now. Just bought my Sportsman 500 about a month and half ago. Figured I would get four-wheeler since I was separating from the military and might have some spare time while waiting for a job opening. Had my first problem last weekend while riding out on the Pawnee Grasslands. Had a hard time shifting till it wouldn't change over to High or reverse. Simple fix, pull out the 10 mm wrench adjust the linkage and gone. Well yesterday while playing around on the machine it stuck in high. Could not get the damn thing out of gear. Disconnected the shift linkage and tried to manually shift back to neutral. Still no go. Loaded her up and down to the dealership we go. Mechanic jumps on and she shifts with a little hesitation. Says it needs linkage adjustments. Then he notices the bottom of the shift box is leaking oil with some metal shavings. Says the shift box might need replacing and would like to take a further look into the problem. No problem still covered under warranty. Still pondering the idea of getting the extended warranty.

I figure if these things have this many problems I should look at becoming a Polaris ATV mechanic. Hopefully this will be my only problem since I will be having quite an extended vacation this summer while between Jobs. Maybe eve

Mark Scheuerman
2000 Polaris Sportsman 500

 

Mark,extended warrenties are only as good as the dealership allows them to be.First,with ANY 4x4 quad,an extended warrenty is a good idea.Dont just single out your Sportsman on this idea.If you have a dealership who sides with the customer on 99 % of his problems,and does'nt try to allways put the quads problems on their customers,a extended warrenty is a great investment.However,if your mechanic is allways blaming you for the part failures,the extended warrenty is of little value.The key to a good x-warrenty is getting the mechanic on the customers side.Good Luck=====BILL

00 Xplorer 400cc 4x4
If you want to come in second ''FOLLOW ME''

 

My dealer from is from out of town and I have never talked to them since I bought the bike in Sept 98,I did not even know they were to do the first oil change for warranty reasons.The warranty is long gone now so I know a guy who works on bikes for $20/hour campared to the dealerships $40/hour.I would only need a dealership to get the parts for the bike not fix it when the time comes.He works on any bike it makes no differance to him they are all just nuts and bolts.

 

I had pleaded with Polaris Industries to send me an owners manual, meaning shop manual to cut down on the frequency of trips to service that they end up paying for anyways. As of yet I have heard nothing. What is so secretive about the service manual anyways? I think it would only be fair to the owner of a Polaris to know how to fix it should a problem develop. Hey, up here I'm being charged $60.00 /hr canadian, thats 41. bucks an hour for someone to fix something that I could do for a lot less. Don't forget I've still got til June to find out what else will fail on the new Polaris. It will be new when I sell it, they've replaced just about everything.