Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire My Polaris 700 EFI is in the shop again

My cousin has a '07 Polaris 700 EFI with just over 2500 miles on it. It has been in the shop several times already, and it still doesn't run smooth or idle well at all.

Our '12 Yamaha Grizzly 450 has a little over 2000 miles on it and has never had a single hiccup.

Yup, they had trouble with some of the fuel injection stuff as far as I know they still do, that said I have a carbed 04 Sportsman 500 and the thing runs like a watch and never lets me down and I ride it like I stole it. When it comes time to replace this one I'll look for something carbed also.

New machines should run good. Mines a 1999? Honda 300 Fourtrax 4X4. I pull my buddies new Suzuli 750 4x4 up hills because it's too light in the front and wants to tip over. All this bigger is better and newer must be better is pure unadultaerated bullsh!t. The best 4 wheeling machine ever built is the Honda Fourtrax 4x4.
Cases in point-

1) Going down a semi-steep road grade and want to slip into stealth mode? Hold the shifter lever up with your foot and coast, either with engine on or off, let it out when you're ready to power up again. You don't have to come to a complete stop and switch a bunch of gears or levers then try to get your machine rolling again.

2) Roll start your machine if the battery dies because it's a manual transmission. My battery has never died.

3) Back up kick starter with compression release in case battery fails. Did I mention my battery has never died?

4) Low center of gravity for SERIOUS off roaders.

5) Narrow and short with no overhangs for going extremely unfriendly places other machines get hung up or tip over.

6) pulls thousands of pounds in a pinch, with no high range, low range, two wheel drive, four wheel drive levers to dick with. One range, one cylinder, full time 4x4, raw torque.

7)No stopping to shift into low range.

8)No stopping to shift into 4 wheel drive.

More Mechanics-

Starts every time with the push of a button. Does not run rough. Carburator does not load up. Carborator does not lean out. Spark plug goes forever. Does not smell. Does not sound like a snowmobile when you hit the gas. Does not have all the power robbed by an automatic transmission. Battery never dies. Lights always work. Nothing falls off. Nothing rattles loose.


It's light enough to go over snow with a little crust when everyone elses machine breaks through and gets stuck. I literally run circles around them while they dig. (Very satisfying by the way)



I could go on. Just say the word. Get a Honda Fourtrax 4x4 and go where you want while your buddies either work on their machine, are laying under their upside down machine asking you to pull it off of them, or wish they had listened to you when you told them to get one. My buddie spent over $9,000 on his POS Suzuki and I've used his winch to pull him up hills I climbed three times now.

I gonna pose a question;


Did you leave [bleep] 10% ethanol gas in it for the last 6 to 9 months? Without
starting it for say maybe 2,3 months???

and did you bother to put any kind of stabilizer to preserve or slow the phase redux of said [bleep] gas???


Maybe you do have a mechanical issue, IDK - throwing that
out there.

It ought to, it looks new.... and babied


My Polaris is a 1995.

it weeps oil from the auto injector and FILLS the Mikuni bowl with straight Blue Oil
I can yank the seat, filter, breather box and carb off and disassemble, flush with Gumout slap all back together in 20 minutes. If the atv sits for 30 days this [bleep] happens.

the counter balance dipstick is impossible to get to and that one qt of sae30 is a [bleep] to change (have only changed it once) then broke the dipstick plug and rod trying to get it back in. Dealer says gfy-discontinued part. I got a blob of blue RTV over the dipstick hole. lol

it needs a new battery every year, dead short/dead ground IDK WTF.

the proprietary plastic that the belt case cover is made out of warps if the engine/belt is hot and you plunge into a big ass water filled whooptidoo. Then the belt gets wet, squeals, loses friction then deteriorates. So plan on a new belt and new cover. DIY $200. Dont ride it thru water.

Btw, I'm on my second short block. (400 scrambler). Three days old, balls to wall, screamin down a trail.....kaboom- clunk...kaput!!!

seems as though some nifty little piece of teflon tape from assembly dislodged itself and took a trip down into my carb and settled in the jet, leaning
out the mixture and causing a catastrophic mechanical failure.

anyway....brag to us when she's ragged out and you got some grime under your fingernails.

I'm still riding mine, started it up tonight and killed 514 mosquitoes and almost a calico barn cat.

Made in USA- a few quirks but it's like being married. Cheaper to keep her

'11 Grizz 450 EPS

Nah, you just need something that doesn't have Polaris written on it.

a barometric pressure switch sounds like its over engineered to me.

I'm rebuilding both a polaris 4x4 and a Honda 4x4. In a few weeks I should be able to abuse them both.

I'm feeling my age I saw that your Polaris was in the shop and my first thought was 'I wonder where they can find parts for that old car?'
I think it was Dodge/Plymouth who made the Polaris.

Jim

I've got a Honda Rincon 650 and I ride with several people with Fourtrax 300's. They certainly cannot keep up with me in deep snow or situations where there is snow up very steep hills and you need to keep your speed up. Sometimes nothing makes up for more horsepower. It is bigger and weighs more, but at 600 pounds, it is certainly not a 900 pound beast like a Polaris or Arctic Cat. Mine has over 5000 miles and I haven't had one problem. Did I mention it is a "HONDA".

Owned a bunch of Polaris Sportsman 500's through the last 12 years or so....nary a problem that I didn't cause from abuse. I like the 500 platform...it's been around for years and they have all the bugs worked out of them.

You really put the miles on them don't you.

Guy that saw a need and opened a "used Bike/ATV shop" here had a 3' or so sign on the building that read "No Polaris Repairs". He is factory trained in all of the Jap brands and says he didn't have the time or the room for Polaris.
Friend of mine has a two-stroke Sportsman that I wouldn't mind having but otherwise I'm not that impressed with them.
Like Fireball, I have a FourTrax[2wd,96] and that thing is a tank!!!!

My aunt/uncle bought a '12 Polaris 500 Sportsman. It sounds like killing a cat when you start it. It sits in the garage while they ride their '97 Polaris 2 stroke 300 around.

Polaris outsells the next closest 2 or 3 brands - combined. So, because you sell the most, you're also going to need the most repairs and you're going to have internet "experts" saying the product is inferior. But that really doesn't mean the product is flawed, it is just simple statistics combined with a product that is often not just used, but abused. Take, for example Japanese autos. Same story. Now that they sell in numbers equal to Detroit autos you see that they lead the roster in factory defects for the past several years. No surprise.

You know, it's bad enough that a few have to bad mouth a product that is made in the U.S. by a U.S. company, but now you're bad mouthing a company that builds their product in Minnesota. You might want to reconsider your position.

Yep, and Chevy is the best thing since sliced bread and mom's apple pie.

I'm pretty sure I heard that Polaris moved some of their production down to Mexico.

My dad had a Polaris 350, I think it was a '93. It lasted a couple years before the engine blew up.

Exactly what I've heard. Lovely machines to ride. Often have innovative technology. Just can't keep them running. I know people who travelled with spare belts and tools. They did have to replace belts in the boonies. Luckily, he is a mechanic. As a know nothing, I can't do that.

I would buy a Honda, Yamaha, or other Japanese.

Bovine excrement!! The Rangers in our camp are the side by sides that have ALL the problems. They don't get used any harder than the Hondas and Yamahas, yet they're the ones that are in the shop much of the time. Not just the older ones, but the new ones too. Have two club members with Rangers that have spent more time in the shop during their first 6 months of ownership than than at home. One of the owners still has his old Grizzly, and uses it for backup. His warranty is up and he's almost afraid to use it because he just knows it's going to break again.