When I first put my driving lights on the lights, hotgrips/thumb, heated helmut visor would drain my battery at idle. Throw in a little winching and if you weren't paying attention(ie: forget to turn off driving lights) my machine wouldn't start. I've used the rope start a few times. Also, if your starter or the wiring to it fail, you're SOL. I'm going out this weekend. It's supposed to be about -21C (-6F). I sure hope my old carburated machine will start lol. But seriously, I don't mean to be an a$$. I'm sure these issues will be worked out and all will be well.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

Living in North Dakota, almost all start-ups are cold to extreme cold. brrrrr.... I leave my new 700 DU version outside, covered up. One morning it was -28f, it would not crank over, period. Went that day with no fun. The rest of the morns I have tried have been between zero and 30 degrees. It would turn-over and start without fail within 3-4 seconds. I would say it starts great, and runs awesome in the cold, so far.... knock on wood.... The one morn it would not start, neither my car or truck would start, so I cann't fault the grizz for not wanting to run then either.

The only prob I have is the dying when I'm running above idle, and let go of the throttle. Instead of going to idle, it goes to 0 RPM pronto. My dealer said bring it by, they would check the idle and goose it up if need be. I'd rather do it myself, can that be accessed via the panel too? Not wanting to mess with it much while it's under warranty. I did ask him about the horsepower gain when ya mess with the settings, and he said it's true, and won't mess with the warranty. He also stated if by chance it messed anything up, they would fix it under same.

On another note, I absulutely love this machine!!! Pushes snow like it is'nt there. We don't have any trails in the area, so I run it on the lake on the ice. It's a blast!! Hit some clear ice, and spin city, and I don't mean the tires... hehehe.

GO GRIZZ!!

 

Per the update to the Manual from Yamaha Grizzly FI. Idel is to be 1550 to 1650 RPM. Old setting was 1350 to 1450.
That sounds fast to me but my grizz runs real good. Stopped at the dealer today and he did not even carry the right plug yet. I like to have a spare with me. He ordered 20 for stock. Book update on plug is a CPR7EA-9/NGK Gap 0.031-0.035in or just look at whats in the grizzly now. my unit came with the correct plug.
CB did you get your Grizzly back yet?

 

No didn't get it back yet.
Just called, tech said spark plug was black, not fouled but showed a rich condition.
He wants to keep it a couple of more days to drive it and determine if mixture change is too much.

You know guys if this unit came into Yamaha in Sept and was on show room for ? long. I wonder how much of this cold start issue is due to just the way the dealers move units around. Hell my test drive consisted of a 1 min warm up followed by a 3 min drive.....

I'll have to wait to get her home and then ride her to know for sure. But I think they are on to something.

In a previous life I worked as a auto mechanic at a GMC dealer and we always were fighting fouled plugs due to same issue. GM would never pay to replace them so we had to use a spark plug cleaner and even then we would have rough idle. Best thing was to break it in and then readjust all the sensors etc.
Maybe this is why some of us have had better luck once we broke in our toys. I'll admit I'm being pretty easy on breaking her in.
I read on another forum where the recommend "non-offical" break in is to ride them hard like in race mode right off the show room. In fact they said that if you don't do that the rings won't seat properly. Note they still HIGHLY recommend waiting for unit to fully warm up. I'll search for link and provide this below.

http://mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

Again I'm just sharing not recommending at this point. But the link really makes you think!

 

NDBirdman, the idle adjustment is in kind of a strange place. You have to take the top "tank" cover off (remove the seat and remove the 4 plastic fasteners that hold the cover on). Then if you look down in from the top you will see the idle adjustment ****. I believe it was to the right of the air filter box.

Those plastic fasteners can be tricky to someone that has never messed with them before. You turn the inner part about 1/4 turn or so with a screwdriver while holding the outer part to keep it from turning. This raises the inner part of the fastener which also closes the clamp on the inside. Then you should be able to just pull out the fastener, possibly with the help of a flat blade screwdriver to pry the outer part up a little so you can grasp it. Just be sure the inner part is raised before you start to pry and pull...

 

Wouldn't that be the same spark plug as the Raptor 700EFI???

 

i had a 06 350 bruin and i had to put a new plug in it after having it a couple days and i was told that it was a floor model and that is why the plug was bad. never replaced it in 6 months then trade d it in on the 700 and fouled that plug from pulling it in and out of garage and ond trailer. you must carry extra plugs on hand if you do a lot of short trips with these machines. it needs to get to running operation to fully clean out the cylinder for it not to foul out.

 

CB, my Grizzly 700 was purchased while still in the crate and being unloaded from the semi. I had to wait for the dealer to assemble it before loading it into our toy hauler on the way out of town. It was ridden at less than half throttle for one tank of gas, and has been ridden like any other ATV I own since then.

I personally think there is more to the cold start problem than just fouled plugs. Yamaha either did not tune the fuel injection properly for high altitude and cold weather, or they have a poor fuel injection system on this ATV. I guess the good part of all this is that the cold weather will go away, and all will be well once again. I loved this quad back in September, and I suspect I will love it again in March

DV

 

I think you hit on two answers right there. Yamaha probably didn't

A. tune the fuel injection for cold weather (disturbingly likely didn't do any cold weather testing at all) and

B. is using a poor fuel injection system. Well, maybe poor isn't the right word. Limited. All of the ATV manufacturers as far as I have been able to determine are using very, very, rudimentary fuel injection systems. They simply don't have the number of sensors or the ability to deal with the range of situations or variables that better systems would. Look at the number of sensors inputting engine data to the computer on your Grizzly and compare it to the number of sensors on even a first generation throttle body pick-up engine.

Hopefully Yamaha gets this straighted out pretty quick. It's not a good practice to use your customers to work out the engineering faults on your products. That should have been done during the design and preproduction and testing phase.

 

Hi guys, I purchased my 700 Grizzly in Nov. I have been reading this thread for a while now and I am starting to get nervous. Is the starting problem only in extreme cold ? are people having starting issues at any other temps? or, is this a cold weather and altitude only problem. So far I have 37 hours on my Grizz and no problems. When I start mine, it barely turns over more than twice before it fires right up. I live on the gulf coast at sea level. I thought I would not have to worry about big 1st year bugs on a yamaha.