A few comments on Apexes/Attaks "overheating"

[Polar_Bus]

I have done a lot of reading up on these models prior to my purchasing a sled for this season. I am reading a lot of overheating issues with Apexes and Attaks. I just want to share my overheating experiences that I had for a season with my 2002 Polaris Edge X 600. There were a lot of issues with '02 and '03 Polaris sleds overheating in marginal and hardpack snow conditions. The main culprit was the M10 skid. The M10 and Polaris' tapered tunnel design was simply letting too much snow dust escape too quickly from inside the tunnel. Polaris found out that on many instances, simply adding a longer snow flap cooled the sleds much better. Also, If you truly overheated a Polaris (not the initial "limp mode" warning), the composite coolant overflow bottle would distort , and the pressure cap would leak causing the cooling system to become "air bound". Polaris Edges also would fester stubborn air pockets within the heat exchangers. Polaris has a very unique service method for "purging" air from the cooling system. My 600 was way better after adding a longer snow flap, but didn't totally cure my overheating. Polaris ended up adding a RMK rear heat exchanger as a last resort, and that was the end of my overheating completely.
So maybe some of you who are only experiencing ocassional overheating, simply add a longer snow flap if Yamaha has one it's way cheaper than retro'ing a complete aux rear cooler... good luck,
Rich K.

 

[Blue Dave]

I don't think that a longer snow flap would help sleds without heat exchangers in the tunnel. I believe that Polaris runs dual heat exhangers the length of the tunnel below the seat.

I am not sure which made the most difference for me since I added a rear heat exchanger, dilluted the glycol concentration, and added Water Wetter all at the same time. All I can say is that I haven't overheated since.

 

[Polar_Bus]

I don't think that a longer snow flap would help sleds without heat exchangers in the tunnel. I believe that Polaris runs dual heat exhangers the length of the tunnel below the seat.

I am not sure which made the most difference for me since I added a rear heat exchanger, dilluted the glycol concentration, and added Water Wetter all at the same time. All I can say is that I haven't overheated since.

The Polaris Edge chassis use 2 under tunnel heat exchangers strips, each about 1-1/2" wide spanning the length of the tunnel , as well as a bulkhead exchanger.

 

[ahicks]

Mine is all stock, I haven't done anything to it yet as far as the cooling is concerned. Seems like every time mine gets warm (it's only happened a couple of times), that stupid flap is jammed up with snow, holding it out away from the bracket it hangs on. Being familiar with the Poo issue, I've cleaned that out to allow the flap to hang down properly, and it seems to cool it down where the light stops coming on. FWIW

 

[monsterattak]

only time mine has ever heated up is if i am running on trail surfaces or roads that are made up of various other bases ie..rocks, gravel, sand, dirt ,ice with no snow etc...

my yellow light turns off within 30 seconds of riding in some nice soft snow... I think that either the apex/attaks are more sensitive to needing snow to cool or they are better alerted with idiot lights than the ski doos i ride with.

I think yamaha electronics play the safe side. I am glad.

Last season while i was down in Florida one of my riding buds called me to ask if he could ride my attak for the rest of the weekend.

His 06 1000SDI gade had a fuel pump failure. No light and no warning whatsoever on his 2 yr old sled. He leaned it out and seized it up. Entire motor is shot. 5k plus to rebuild.. OUCH . I told him to part it out but he wanted to rebuild it...

The idiot lights can irritate a bit and even make us think things are messed up that arent but better safe than sorry in my opinion.. I read that are sleds will shut down automatically if fuel pump fails. Funny thing is even if they didn't no damage would be done. You would think ski doo would try and protect their flagship motors from being destroyed by a 39 dollar fuel pump... not a bash since yammie has their own issues for sure...

 

[jds1000]

I have over 5 thousand miles on My Apex and it has never ever overheated. I've ridden on bare roads for miles and in every condition I could imagine and My sled has never shown signs of overheating. I've had My 800 Rev overheat in these same conditions but never My Apex. I have no idea why I don't have a problem but I don't. What am I doing wrong?

 

[LJ 452]

I have over 5 thousand miles on My Apex and it has never ever overheated. I've ridden on bare roads for miles and in every condition I could imagine and My sled has never shown signs of overheating. I've had My 800 Rev overheat in these same conditions but never My Apex. I have no idea why I don't have a problem but I don't. What am I doing wrong?

Simple, you or your dealer diluted the coolant before riding it. Before diluting my coolant, my sled over heated on occasion. After dilution it's only don't it when sitting and idle for five to ten minutes. Even then I just get moving hit a ditch and within a few seconds the light is off and stays off.

 

[CaptCaper]

I put the exchanger on the rear because some posted here doing the other stuff still didn't do the trick. Best to be safe and add the exchanger.Simple to do. Mine overheated and shut down while idleing sometimes. It hasn't since I added the rear cooler.
I ride with 2 friends who have Cat 4 strokes and over heat all the time on trails with temps down near zero. Snow is packed harder of course.

 

[LJ 452]

Yes, it does appear that the Attaks/LTX's are more suseptable to the overheating issue even with the diluted coolent it seems my buddy's LTX will occasionally have the light go on in low snow conditions while mine does not.

If you plan to ride in bad conditions, or bad conditions occur where you often ride. I.e. low snow, ice, ice drags, and you have an Attak/LTX I would probably go ahead and get the rear exchanger. If you have an Apex I wouldn't bother, just dilute and add water wetter you be more than fine.

 

[Blue Dave]

While I agree that the Apex may not need a rear heat exchanger as much as the Attak/LTX, I feel that it is still cheap insurance.

My Apex rear heat exchanger was only $81.95 from Pioneer. The Apex rear heat exchanger does not need any protection from studs and is very easy to install.

I added the rear heat exchanger, dilluted the glycol concentration to 60/40, and added Water Wetter all at the same time and haven't overheated since.

Perhaps the glycol dillution and Water Wetter would have been enough and the rear heat exchanger may have been overkill, but for me it was worth the peace of mind.

 

[monsterattak]

mine will overheat if i let it idle for too long but I fixed that problem.

I just hit the red button on the right side of the handlebars.. does the trick everytime.

 

[wigman1]

My '07 Apex overheats on groomed trails. I love this sled but I am sick and tired of having to pull over a $10,000.00 sled and let it cool down on a 20 degree day, and it is a rediculous engineering fault of YAMAHA. The sled is at the dealer right now, and it has been there for over a month. I told him I don't want the sled back until Yamaha fixes the overheating problem. There is a fix out there - the extra heat exchanger that CaptCaper referred to - Yamaha should pay to have it installed. I paid for the extended warranty package on top of the sled, it should be taken care of. It's pretty rediculous that my 1977 Rupp Nitro L/C can run all day on bare ice without overheating but a sled that is supposedly the epitomy of engineering you can't get a days ride in without stopping and letting all the Poos and Doos go flying by. I will let you know how I make out with the dealer on this. Wig

 

[Blue Dave]

Wig,

Have the dealer check the glycol concentration of the coolant. Mine was off the scale of the tester. dilluting to at least 60/40 will help a lot.

 

[jds1000]

My '07 Apex overheats on groomed trails. I love this sled but I am sick and tired of having to pull over a $10,000.00 sled and let it cool down on a 20 degree day, and it is a rediculous engineering fault of YAMAHA. The sled is at the dealer right now, and it has been there for over a month. I told him I don't want the sled back until Yamaha fixes the overheating problem. There is a fix out there - the extra heat exchanger that CaptCaper referred to - Yamaha should pay to have it installed. I paid for the extended warranty package on top of the sled, it should be taken care of. It's pretty rediculous that my 1977 Rupp Nitro L/C can run all day on bare ice without overheating but a sled that is supposedly the epitomy of engineering you can't get a days ride in without stopping and letting all the Poos and Doos go flying by. I will let you know how I make out with the dealer on this. Wig

I ride groomed trails all the time and I never experienced overheating problems with My sled in over 5 thousand miles. I would say that you have a problem with something if all the Poo's and Doos go flying by you because your on the side of the trail overheated.

 

[monsterattak]

My '07 Apex overheats on groomed trails. I love this sled but I am sick and tired of having to pull over a $10,000.00 sled and let it cool down on a 20 degree day, and it is a rediculous engineering fault of YAMAHA. The sled is at the dealer right now, and it has been there for over a month. I told him I don't want the sled back until Yamaha fixes the overheating problem. There is a fix out there - the extra heat exchanger that CaptCaper referred to - Yamaha should pay to have it installed. I paid for the extended warranty package on top of the sled, it should be taken care of. It's pretty rediculous that my 1977 Rupp Nitro L/C can run all day on bare ice without overheating but a sled that is supposedly the epitomy of engineering you can't get a days ride in without stopping and letting all the Poos and Doos go flying by. I will let you know how I make out with the dealer on this. Wig

I ride groomed trails all the time and I never experienced overheating problems with My sled in over 5 thousand miles. I would say that you have a problem with something if all the Poo's and Doos go flying by you because your on the side of the trail overheated.

Wig, I agree you have something serious going on to have that much trouble. I have read on here that many LAZY dealers filled the machines with 100% antifreeze at prep time. thats a big problem.. 60/40 is max for proper cooling.

2800 miles for me and only time i have ever heated up is on bare roads with zero snow or idling for extended periods. usually i can hit the ditch once in a while and keep her cool on bare roads. keep in mind in nlow snow conditions those other sleds are heating up too but the owners just don't know it... thats is until they spray parts out the expansion chamber my buddies 06' 1000 sdi ski doo blew up like a grenade with no warning lights ever coming on!