Cat dies!!! WTF

[Trenchmaster]

Went out today for a ride around home and my sons 07 M8 just died on the trail. We had been riding for about an hour and it was working fine, about a half mile away from home we stopped on the trail to talk to some neighbours and the M8 just shut off right after he pulled the brake to stop (no kill switch used). He tried to start it again right away, but it would not start. We pulled the easy to get to plugs and both had spark, but the sled would just not fire. This sled had the new adjustable steering post installed recently, but if we had a wiring issue would we still get a spark? There is plenty of fuel, and it is getting to the injectors for sure, not sure what might be happening from there though. We poured a cap of fuel into the cylinder and it fired but would not run. It seems like a fuel delivery issue to me but I'm not sure how to diagnose the the problem as we are new to Cat. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[diggerdown]

Check for power to the injectors. Installing the new steering stem might have rubbed a wire. Did he move the bars when he stopped? Also check the wires going to the tail light, if he hit his brakes and it died the brake light wire may have shorted out and cut power to the injectors or fuel pump.

 

[Trenchmaster]

Thanks for the tips Diggerdown, we checked the fuse on the tail light harness and it was ok. When we pull the rope the lights flicker so they are getting power, he did not move the bars before it died. Not sure how to check power to the injectors, would you use a 12 volt test light across the terminals? We will look into the tail light harness more closely, thanks.

 

[BigRed118]

I would check all of the electical connections behind the aluminum cover.

 

[Trenchmaster]

Thanks Bigred, we did that first thing, if any of the wiring is gone bad it is underneath the protective covering. I think it must be something with the tail light wiring, cause the sled died after he put on the brakes when we were stopping on the trail.

 

[89sandman]

check the throttle override switch, its in the throttle block. just remove the throttle side block you will see a 2 wire connector, just unplug it, if this is your problem the sled will fire right up. the 07 and up M's seem to have a lot of problems with this. didn't know until a couple of weekends ago that the newer tors can also kill the injector pulse. had the exact same symptoms as you, figured it couldn't be the tors cause when we primed it, it would run. spent a couple of hours checking everything under the hood. finally was ready to tow her out, thought what the heck i'll just try it. sure enough pulled the plug and fired first pull. i now have both my tors and kill switch unhooked. am using a teather now. you will need a torx screwdriver to get the bolts out of the throttle block and be careful they are a wood type thread that come out VERY hard and are EASY to strip.

 

[F_ast]

i had a similar problem with my F7 after installing an 8" riser on it. It turned out that the added length was pulling the TPS and all the slack out of the throttle. The is suppost to be 1/8" free play in the throttle cable. this is a bult in safety so your sled doesnt take off when you fire it up.

I cut the zip ties and rerouted the throttle cable to free up as much slack as possible. No problems after that.

 

[Trenchmaster]

Thanks for the suggestions, the overide switch in the throttle block sounds like it could be the problem, I will check that out. We also got the sled to fire when we primed it, so we believe it's not getting fuel. I don't think it's the throttle free play as there is enough slack in the cable, we re-routed the cables when we installed the new steering post. Is the overide switch and throttle freeplay two different things?

 

[diggerdown]

check the throttle override switch, its in the throttle block. just remove the throttle side block you will see a 2 wire connector, just unplug it, if this is your problem the sled will fire right up. the 07 and up M's seem to have a lot of problems with this. didn't know until a couple of weekends ago that the newer tors can also kill the injector pulse. had the exact same symptoms as you, figured it couldn't be the tors cause when we primed it, it would run. spent a couple of hours checking everything under the hood. finally was ready to tow her out, thought what the heck i'll just try it. sure enough pulled the plug and fired first pull. i now have both my tors and kill switch unhooked. am using a teather now. you will need a torx screwdriver to get the bolts out of the throttle block and be careful they are a wood type thread that come out VERY hard and are EASY to strip.

Thats good info. The older ones would lose spark and were easy to see.

 

[Trenchmaster]

Cat lives!!

Thanks for all the good tips guys, I'm not really sure what I did to fix the sled but I did get it going today. I took the throttle block apart and diss-connected the overide switch, but that was not the problem. I loosened off the handle bar clamp, and removed the plastic wiring cover on the adjustable post. Pulled the rope a couple of times and away she went, must have been something with the new steering post pinching the wiring, but not sure. Thanks again

 

[simmer29]

Not impressed!!!!!

This is Trenchmasters son, I own the sled in question.... When we fired it up the dash light was flashing an injector malfunction code, so we decided to take it in to argyll Motorsports in Edmonton. They are now telling me that my ECU needs to be replaced and no one at Arctic Cat has offered any sort of warranty thus far..... The sled only has 300 miles on it and the factory warranty ended less than two months ago.... Needless to say I am not at all impressed with the arctic crap customer service or product (though it was an awesome ride while it worked). Might have to check out a dragon....at least Dad knows how to work on them!!!!!!!!

 

[JHG]

This is Trenchmasters son, I own the sled in question.... When we fired it up the dash light was flashing an injector malfunction code, so we decided to take it in to argyll Motorsports in Edmonton. They are now telling me that my ECU needs to be replaced and no one at Arctic Cat has offered any sort of warranty thus far..... The sled only has 300 miles on it and the factory warranty ended less than two months ago.... Needless to say I am not at all impressed with the arctic crap customer service or product (though it was an awesome ride while it worked). Might have to check out a dragon....at least Dad knows how to work on them!!!!!!!!

Wow, tell us how you really feel.

 

[JasonAK]

This is Trenchmasters son, I own the sled in question.... When we fired it up the dash light was flashing an injector malfunction code, so we decided to take it in to argyll Motorsports in Edmonton. They are now telling me that my ECU needs to be replaced and no one at Arctic Cat has offered any sort of warranty thus far..... The sled only has 300 miles on it and the factory warranty ended less than two months ago.... Needless to say I am not at all impressed with the arctic crap customer service or product (though it was an awesome ride while it worked). Might have to check out a dragon....at least Dad knows how to work on them!!!!!!!!

You can not work on a ECU. Polaris, ski-doo, or A/c. They just somtimes fail.

Jason

 

[simmer29]

The Sled is basically Brand new though.... you would think Arctic Cat would Stand behind their product if they wanted return customers!!!

 

[JHG]

If you talk to Cat about it they will most likely help you out. They did over a million dollars in warrenty work on out of warranty machines last year. They're cracking down this year but an ECU with 300 miles on it should probably get a replacement. They way you communicate with them will make a huge difference in the amount of customer service you get. Give them a chance to make it right, if they don't, look for a used ECU. I would be skeptical that the ECU is bad, just haven't heard of many M8 ECU's going bad.

If you have to by one new, talk to your dealer about getting one through cat special services. If he's a good dealer he should be able to get you one pretty cheap.

 

[simmer29]

If you talk to Cat about it they will most likely help you out. They did over a million dollars in warrenty work on out of warranty machines last year. They're cracking down this year but an ECU with 300 miles on it should probably get a replacement. They way you communicate with them will make a huge difference in the amount of customer service you get. Give them a chance to make it right, if they don't, look for a used ECU. I would be skeptical that the ECU is bad, just haven't heard of many M8 ECU's going bad.

If you have to by one new, talk to your dealer about getting one through cat special services. If he's a good dealer he should be able to get you one pretty cheap.

Thanks.. I'll see what they have to say about Cat Special Services...

 

[diggerdown]

I don't know about your dealer, but there are too many dealers that hook a tester on and tell you the ecu is bad and in the end it is something else feeding back through it. There have been a lot of ecu's sold that did not fix the problem.

 

[Woody67]

It may not be your ECU. Normally if the ECU fails the sled will never start again with the bad ECU. And it is very uncommon for the ECU to fail

 

[DVarmit]

It may not be your ECU. Normally if the ECU fails the sled will never start again with the bad ECU. And it is very uncommon for the ECU to fail

Ditto that one. In fact, this is the first time I ever heard of a ECU failing. Obviously it can happen but I would tend to question that one. I am sure someone asked this already but why don't you ask the dealer to put another one in as a test. If they are so sure that is the problem they should be able to prove it before you spend time and maybe money to fix a problem that might not even be a problem. Hell, find someone you know with a M series sled and see if theirs works. They are easy to swap...

 

[akMcat]

check, very carefully, your injector wires where they are run along the fuel rail. the wires will sometimes rub through and ground out to the fuel rail and kill the fuel supply. it actually grounds through the throttle cable to your handle bars since the throttle bodies are isolated by rubber on both sides. if you loosen your throttle block assembly and it starts, but when you tighten it the sled dies this is most likely your problem. you can check by grounding the throttle cable to the chassis with a jumper wire if it kills the sled this is the problem ........hope this helps