S
snowmobiler
Well-known member
noway should a worn belt lightswitch off 600 rpms flying down a trail.top speed maybe.
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The "fade" issue is much more complicated than just clutching or belt wear. I have been following the threads on HCS daily and some people have low rpm that can be fixed with clutching or a new belt and other people have the fade which seems to come on like a lightswitch sometimes. Can be fine for part of the day and then it could drop to 7600 rpm for a while and it could be back up to normal later on in the day. Other times, it could last for a few hundred miles. Aparently one sled has been cured by removing the coolant bypass and then reinstalling it which I guess bled the air out in the process and another has been cured by setting the tps a little out of the normal range. The people who have it say that the tone of the engine changes and fuel and oil milage gets considerably worse. Some people are leaning towards more of an electrical issue which causes the engine to go into some sort of protection mode.
Polaris has even sent engineers to Maine to test some of the problem sleds, some have been fixed with new belts, one with a new secondary and another with new exhaust valves and a controller. However there are a few that have tried replacing all of these parts already but they still have the issue. One sled even had the pistons replaced but it didn't change anything ( I think this was the one that ended up havint the tps adjusted a little out of range and that seemed to fix it). And a lot of people over on HCS suspect that Polaris may have found a bit more to the problem but wont admit to anything until they come up with a proven fix for it.
noway should a worn belt lightswitch off 600 rpms flying down a trail.top speed maybe.
I'm not saying there aren't people out there with legitimate and difficult to solve problems - I'm sure there are. I'm saying it APPEARS that lumping all that other stuff in there has made it seem like there is a more specific, widespread problem.noway should a worn belt lightswitch off 600 rpms flying down a trail.top speed maybe.
Not sure - I seem to get a season out of the OEM ones before they drop some RPM become a spare, and I was ok with that. Or maybe my 2015 will be better than my 2011 was - the clutches on the 15 do run cooler.What belt works best for holding RPM? Or have you found an aftermarket alternative you like as well that gives max RPM?
http://www.hardcoresledder.com/foru...e-issues-here-results-polaris-testing-13.html
Been following that thread pretty closely and it seems to make sense what some people are pointing out.
There is no such thing as fade. It was made up by the folks running Hardcoresledder.com to draw traffic to the site. Just look an the numerous posts from the premium members used to bump it to the top of the topic list. All the ?'s asked about the sleds were met with more statements of my sled has fade. Wondering why that site has artificially inflated user numbers. It doesn't have 100k in users, u just can't leave once u join. The so called fade sled has been at the dealer for over a week now why no response on what they found out?
Read the whole thread. Seems to be pushing toward heat buildup in the pipe. How does that explain the guys seeing fade sometimes when cold and sometimes when warmed up and heat soaked? I'm not buying it quite yet
Heat is always a bad thing for any sled. My sled has the issue on single digit cold days, Perfect snow conditions, Warm days and also flicks like a switch from Good to Bad. Sometimes Fades other times just flat out missing RPM all day. No Rhyme / No Reason. Oh, by the way my temperature readings are always nice and cool. Average running temp is between 120-130. Runs consistently 15 degrees cooler than my Pro-R 800 ran. Maybe there are hotter temps in the system that the gauge isn't reflecting??? IDK
Jeckyl-n-Hyde all the way!!
I believe your story 100%. And the diagnosis on this is probably going to be very difficult for the affected sleds like yours and I can understand exactly how you feel. I was one of those idiots that snowchecked a 2005 Skidoo RT 1000 back in April 2004. 2 years of runnability issues, pulling my hair out, etc. and the complaint's sound identical.
The "change in engine tone" with lower RPM is the big one in my mind. I'd hope the people that have actually had a loss of RPM on 2005-2015 Polaris CFI's realize they never heard the "change of engine tone" with a worn belt.
This is exactly "one" of the issues we were having in 04-05 and 05-06. I was a little skeptical when I saw the electric exhaust valves on the new 800HO. The Skidoo RT's had notorious issues with theirs in the beginning and this "change of tone" from the motor being reported and accompanied with the loss of RPM's would require adjustment of the valves. Tempermental. I was adjusting valves on a weekly or monthly basis.
Could this be an exhaust valve and/or control issue? Absolutely! DTR has seen it.
The next thing that caused this issue: Exhaust system....mostly silencers that created weird pressure issues which then would cause the exhaust valves to go wacko. You could take a perfectly good running 1000 and put twin pipes on it and have the exact same complaint that these guys are having.
Could this be an exhaust system/pressure/or temp issue? Absolutely!
Tony mentioned a possibility of the electrical system.....Ding Ding Ding....Polaris has been very weak with their electrical systems. Anybody that does driveability work in automotive/transmission and chases wires and sensors for a living absolutely laughs at the Polaris electrical system. We all know how weak the Pro is for available power. Now Polaris has added an electric oil pump ECU Controlled and electric controlled exhaust valves again ECU controlled. This is not the simple on/off exhaust solenoid of the Pro.
So the big question is....What did Polaris do different in the Supplying Power to all of the extra electrical stuff on the 800HO? On this type of system, any type of runnability problem could present itself if there is not enough power/voltage/noise, etc. to run all of the added electrical components. Something the RT 1000 was plagued with as well...intermittent loss of RPM's with everything sound. Major rework of the ground system solved by some guy back east fixed what was causing low voltages, etc.!!!!
I think we must also consider that this might be an electrical noise issue. Electrical noises will wreak havoc on TPS and VSS signals. Early Cummins diesels and some Powerstroke's have been inflicted with impossible to solve runnability engine/trans control issues only to find out that the electrical system was louder than a Ted Nugent concert. I installed a noise filter on a problematic TPS sensitive Pro 2 years ago. Same fix I came up with on those trucks.
Polaris might get lucky and find out this is a mapping issue causing a hot pipe to go cold or remap the opening/staging of the exhaust valves. if so then a simple reflash would take care of it. I also think we should take it easy on the guys that did shell out $14K this year and are having problems.
I was really hoping Polaris (who already builds the best handling and riding machine) would bring us a 21st century electrical system in these sleds. Take a good look at an ETEC and compare. I am convinced if they did, alot of the weird complaints would vanish.
I'm not sure why you're giving me neg rep when you're confirming exactly what I said...?I believe the # of sleds affected is fairly Low. Going to guess 5%. Just my GUESS guys. The HCS site has a higher Pole # I think because some people don't really know what the issue is. I believe some people may have read the RPM problems and thought they had the issue when in fact a new belt probably did fix some of the performance issues of lower RPM reported. Although people who have been plagued with a truly Bad Sled will get nowhere with a new belt. The Dealer can't fix it. Polaris has no answer and some very good mechanics and Dyno guys haven't found the answer yet either..
Well that sounds like a bunch of individual and relatively solvable problems. Calling all that stuff "rpm fade" doesn't make sense. If some sleds have worn belts, others worn clutch components, others something faulty from factory, cooling system bleed fixes others - how is that even remotely the same thing even if the end result is the same? Or how would they have "a fix" for a problem that is a bunch of different problems, some of which are wear items/owner induced?
That sucks if a few people have a difficult issue to trace, but lumping that in with those other things doesnt make sense. It sounds like if you take out all the people who had fairly generic snowmobile problems, that you're really left with a handful of people with intermittent problems that may or may not be related. That sucks if you happen to be one, but it sounds like the scope of this was blown out of proportion by people branding a bunch of unrelated issues with one name.
You better not be right.
5% is huge - it is a DISASTER...
I agree and hope the 5% is higher than the true number as well.
Here is a TRUE statement. I only know 2 people that bought the new Switchback "S" 800. (( Myself & My Buddy )) Both of us have the RPM problems. His sled was brought to the dealer several times with no fix to his problems. His sled also was one of the sleds that was tested by Polaris and given a FREE BELT. I elected to try a few changes myself before bringing my sled to the dealership for them to have a crack at it. They were un-succesful in their attempt to fix by the way.
Maybe myself and my Buddy should have run out and bought lottery tickets.
We have actually thought that just maybe we beat the **** out of our sleds harder than everybody else out there? He has been a mechanic his whole life and we both maintain our sleds better than most. He has worked on his sled this year so much that it isn't even funny. I elected to just go pound the snot out of it right to the finish. My sled has been traded and is sitting at the dealer. I hope to get one of the 95% next year. He is going to continue to work with Polaris and be a test monkey next year. I'm not a mechanic and I don't want to be. I learned more about sleds this year than I've learned through all of my lives sledding experiences combined. It's nice to gain knowledge but I'd much rather of been putting on miles grinning ear to ear.