03 shorty Overheating in -26C...here's what I did!

[SIMMER]

Hey guys, my RX-1 was overheating like crazy on the weekend. The light came on 8-10 times.

Here's the story...I accidentaly punctured a coolant hose in the fall. No big deal, I replaced it and bled the system as per the manual and figured everything was OK. Well this is my second time out this year and I noticed that my sled temp light was always coming on... (in 4000 miles last year the temp light came on twice :roll: ) This season my temp light came on about 20 times to date. I figured that there had to be air in the system somewhere. So on this past trip when the sled was apparantly too hot and the TEMP light came on....I felt the running board exchangers and one side was remarkably cooler to the touch than the other side. What does this mean.....AIR LOCK.

So here's what I did.......

I found a STEEP incline about 45 degrees and drove my sled up it to effectively bring any air in the system to the TOP of the system or in this case the front of the sled.

I left the machine running and SLOWLY :shock: released the pressure in the coolant resevoir and removed the cap.

I burped the throttle to allow the water pump to circulate the coolant and bang!...a whole bunch of bubbles came to the surface of the resevoir bottle.


I rode again for about an hour or so with no more problems in the same conditions....then guess what....the F&%^$N light came on again. So I repeated the steps above and to my surprise saw a more air come out. Light never came on again for the rest of the trip.

 

[RobX-1]

RXWonder,

I too had to replace a heater hose this off season. I also bled the system as per the Service manual and even confirmed with the dealer because I always thought you wanted to raise the front end when bleeding air out of the system. When you bleed yours, did you do the process twice (bleed system, run sled 2500-3000rpm for 3-5 min.) and then repeat bleeding system? If so, this is exactly what I did. I rode this past Saturday and saw my temp light come on as well. After reading about the TPS adjustment and how it causes the engine to run warmer, I was thinking it was caused by adjustming my TPS. Now you have me wondering too. :roll:

I may just have to raise the front end and perform the bleeding steps but this time not with the rear end raised.

 

[SIMMER]

The bleed screw is in the back because the tunnel angles up and that's typically where the air pockets would collect. It doesn't really matter which end you raise as long as the bubbles come to the top...which in my case was the front of the sled. I was very surprised to see how much air came out intially. Check your running board exchangers next time and make sure they are BOTH equally hot. If not...then there is your problem. The nice thing about the hill thing is that you can really do it anywhere...including a snowbank. Just get you machine nice and warm before so that your thermostat is open.

Try this before you get into the TPS stuff. I mentioned the fact that it happened twice because who knows where the air bubbles are....they could be anywhere so you might have to do this a few times...it's easy though and take no tools :wink:

 

[SumpBuster]

My solution? When the pod fogs up, rip it off and toss it. No more lights.
8)
Just kidding...good info.

 

[SIMMER]

I posted this a while ago but it still applies so after reading Josh's post about his RAD idea, I thought I would bring this one back up.

Hope this helps.