Overheating 04 RX-1M (NEED HELP)

[Warden]

I have just purchased a brand new 2004 RX-1 Mountain. I drove 50 miles and the overheating light came on 7 times. I called the dealer and he told me he will order a new thermostat. The closest dealer is 2 hours away. The temp outside was about -10C and I drove on lakes, and trail. The 2" track was kicking up lots of snow. I tried bleeding the line to see if that would fix anything, but I can't really trust it to go anywhere.

I called another Yamaha dealer and the mechanic there told me to install a rear heat exchanger immediately. I really don't want to fork out another couple of hundred bucks after dumping over 12 thousand dollars on it.

Does anyone know what the cause may be???? Has anyone had heating issues with their RX-1 Mountains??? Does this motor produce alot of heat??

While bleeding the line, the bolt from bleeder came flying off and I lost all of my coolant. Does anyone know what ratio to mix anti-freeze to water??? The manual says 60:70 coolant to water ratio which doesn't make sense to me.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. My machine is just sitting in the garage itching to be cured.

 

[RX1 PW]

Overheating

My wife and I have 2 - 03 RX1 Mountains and both overheated for the first 100 miles. On one of them I even had the rear heat exchanger on from day one and still it overheated a bit. Seems like after 100 miles they really loosen up. We have the rear heat exchangers on both now as well as scratchers and no more problems overheating. The scratchers seem to really help on trails as they fill the skid with ice and snow and keep the exchangers cool
A lot of people do not install the rear heat exchanger and have no trouble overheating once the machine has a few miles on it.
Good luck.

PS - We really love our RX1's and only wish we had some snow to use them again.

 

[rx1mtn]

INSTALL THE REAR HEAT EXCHANGER NOW!!!!!!!!!! DON"T WAIT!!!!!!! Look at all the posting for engine overheating. I can't belive that if you have 1 with the rear cooler on that it over heated. You paid a lot of money for your sleds, pay just a little more and put the cooler on it. Yamaha should pay for it, but they won't. Yamaha has their heads up their a$$ and it is going to cost them at least 1 customer. I'm only 1 but I talk alot too. The ONLY reason I'm still on a Yamaha, is because of the 4 stroke engine. The dealer I dealt with lost my bussiness and they sell all 4 brands. The RX1 and Warrior are awsome sleds. So are Rev's and RMK's. Spend the money, you will be glad you did. Maybe, just maybe, if you bitch enough, Yamaha will help out with the cost.

 

[Prairie Dog]

My light came on a couple of times when it was brand new too. Stay in the snow, stop and throw some snow on the boards and work it for a couple hundred kliks before you decide if you have a problem. The engine is tight and likes lot's of heat cool cycles on break in.

I put a rear exchanger on and haven't seen a light since.

As far as ice scratchers go, nice, but not necessary. Last year going into Keystone, we did about 3 miles of gravel in total. We kept it under 10mph and no appreciable wear on skags, sliders and no overheating.

Your engine is telling you something. Act accordingly and all will likely be fine.

 

[Thrusted Vector]

I went all last year on my 04 with no rear heat exchanger,but I did have scratchers,and yes when the engine is really new it is tighter and overheats easily.

 

[snowmotion]

INSTALL SCRATCHERS My sled Overheated First Day

My RX 1 Also Overheated First Day And EVERY DAY that it WASNT Powder ALL day Scratchers Helped but on TOTAL HARDPACKED Trails It still overheated and still does The only thing that will trully fix it is an extra heat exchanger under the tunnel I think the Light comes on Easier than needed & I doubt you have done any Damage
It is wierd How I have been on the Same Trail with riders riding the Same & other Sleds and not all the stock rx 1 sleds had the same heat issue
but to be fair on some trips the 2 stroke sleds had heat issues as well but I Always overheated First and more often
some would call this a design flaw I do.

 

[SoCoRX1]

mine overheats when im going 50mph on pure ice. if i get off the trail and get some snow in my track it will cool back down.

 

[powder muncher]

My light used to come on also. Be careful to not overheat them idling.
I have seen this on several new sleds . It seems that as soon as you start to run them hard the issue goes away, for me it was after the first WOT mountain climb. My Theory is that they vapor lock in the rear cross over if they get hot at low rpm. When you climb a steep hill at WOT the cross over becomes the low point on the cooling system and the vapor lock blows through. I haven't had a problem since.
No extra coolers or scratchers.

 

[rx1forever]

I installed scratchers, they work no tunnel cooler, you might also want to check the antifreeze ratio as well I found out that all 3 werent mixed properly and let them get some miles on them as well hope this helps !

 

[A K MtnViper]

It is very important that the coolant is at 60% antifreeze and 40% distilled water. If you put in more antifreeze then that, sled will not cool properly. Check your running boards, make sure they both get hot, bleed system again if not. Yes, the first 300 miles or so they run hot. Stop and toss extra snow on the running boards. Scratchers help also. I do not run a extra cooler and only have to pay extra attention on warm days with hard packed trails since I got it broke in.

 

[Thrusted Vector]

I'm reading some of these posts,and thinking that some of you need some clarification on how the cooling system works.The heat exchangers are NOT radiators.They are heat transfer units,meaning they require water or snow to transfer heat.Now just because you have scatchers,doesn't mean you have the"fix"scrathers only work if you're going slow enough to have the ice or snow chips get into suspesion then throw up into the heat exchangers.If you're ice or hard pack snow you will overheat,even worse if it's a brand new machine.Scratchers are most effective if you're not going over 50 kph or 30mph.The best insurance is to throw snow into the suspension and or put snow on the running boards,throwing large chucks of snow in the suspension works suprisingly well for a long time ,so long as you don't go too fast.

 

[Jonny Rocket]

I had the same problem with my 03 and 04 mtn sleds. They overheated at 1st, then after a hundred miles or so, the overheating stopped. I never had to install the rear heat exchanger. The only time my sled over heated after 100 miles was on miles of iced roads. Then again, there were 3 other, non-RX1 sleds that were also overheating.

J.

 

[p0wd3rp1l0t]

i've heard taht some dealers dont put in mixed coolant....i'd try flushing ur coolant and then putting some mixed in. mine as well give it a try. i run on marginal snow conditions all the time and i've only overheated once...that was cuz i had to jump my dads sled inside trailer..sittin there. other than that its stayed cool.

 

[04rx1]

did anyone notice a huge difference in speed and fuel mileage when your sled was running warm

 

[RX4fun]

Warden

I have two 03 mountains and they had the same overheating problems as yours. They both also had 100% antifreeze from the factory by the way.

Installed 50-50 antifreeze and 6oz water wetter, factory rear heat exchanger (which should have come stock), ice scratchers and the problem has gone away.

Tell your dealer to give you the "accessory" heat exchanger!!!