Sidewinder Problems and Warranty Items.

[Fast]

Glad mine doesn’t sound like that lol

must have the hurricane shaft

 

[Turboflash]

Now the driveshafts are on backorder until February 19th. The back order date keeps moving out. My dealer alone has had four on backorder since December. Obviously they can not keep up with all of the failures. I am still riding with a vibration above 60 mph and a chain case leak that I hope will both be fixed when the new driveshaft & bearing are installed someday.

The one time I decided to push it on a straightaway this last weekend it popped out of gear again. Luckily it popped back into gear on it's own this time without destroying my chain case like it did last time. It still blows belts every 300 miles or so if ridden hard despite both clutches being completely rebuilt and the offset set properly.

To answer the question as to if I would buy a Side Winder again I would say not until we get a Yamaha designed driveline. I bleed blue and have been a die hard Yamaha guy forever. I have owned over a dozen Japan built Yamaha's over the years that were rarely ever on the wrong end of a tow strap. Yamaha built their reputation on reliability and that is why I have bought so many of them. Using Arctic Crap engineered and built components will irreparably damage this reputation in my opinion.

And, always good to keep in mind that even if they had a new driveshaft, and they put it back together the same way it was built from the factory without changing anything, the failure will happen again and again. It's the design that's the problem, not the parts.

 

[Blue Dave]

And, always good to keep in mind that even if they had a new driveshaft, and they put it back together the same way it was built from the factory without changing anything, the failure will happen again and again. It's the design that's the problem, not the parts.

Yes, this is exactly the issue. My chain case and drive shaft are warranty repairs which is great, but they are putting in the same poorly designed Arctic Crap parts so they will absolutely fail again. I did buy the BOP driveshaft saver which the dealer will be installing when the driveshaft is replaced under warranty (someday when they are available). That should fix the poor driveshaft design but I fully expect that my chain case will certainly have another failure, especially since it has slipped out of gear once already since the warranty repair earlier this year.

The Arctic Crap designed parts create a great opportunity for aftermarket companies to design and sell improved parts to fix these issues. However when we are paying big money for top of the line sleds we should not have to spend more money on aftermarket parts to simply make them reliable. As I said earlier, Yamaha has built their reputation on reliability and the partnership with Arctic Crap is seriously jeopardizing this IMO.

 

[Sled maniac 98]

I hope someone will know what i meen. My dealer is working on having waranty work done on my sled for the pramary clutch rubing on the 4 bolts AGAIN cause the did last year. Now yamaha want a machine report that the dealer need to get from my sled. What is this report all about. Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[Blue Dave]

I hope someone will know what i meen. My dealer is working on having waranty work done on my sled for the pramary clutch rubing on the 4 bolts AGAIN cause the did last year. Now yamaha want a machine report that the dealer need to get from my sled. What is this report all about. Thanks in advance for the help.

Well the issue is that your stub shaft has slid inward. This is a common issue and is usually caused by blowing belts at high RPM.

I have no idea what they mean by "machine report" but I suspect it may be some sort of a download from the sleds computer. I am not sure what exactly is saved in the computer but I suspect that it stores parameters such as maximum boost which would indicate if it has been tuned up.

 

[Fast]

Yes, this is exactly the issue. My chain case and drive shaft are warranty repairs which is great, but they are putting in the same poorly designed Arctic Crap parts so they will absolutely fail again. I did buy the BOP driveshaft saver which the dealer will be installing when the driveshaft is replaced under warranty (someday when they are available). That should fix the poor driveshaft design but I fully expect that my chain case will certainly have another failure, especially since it has slipped out of gear once already since the warranty repair earlier this year.

The Arctic Crap designed parts create a great opportunity for aftermarket companies to design and sell improved parts to fix these issues. However when we are paying big money for top of the line sleds we should not have to spend more money on aftermarket parts to simply make them reliable. As I said earlier, Yamaha has built their reputation on reliability and the partnership with Arctic Crap is seriously jeopardizing this IMO.

I called yamaha canada and they said there is no back orders on the drive shaft there's lots in stock and still don't think there is a problem there, so are all the back ordered shafts in the usa, source one from canada if you need it now.

 

[Langer]

Picked up my 2020 L-TX SE this winter, just got to 500 miles this past weekend. Getting those miles has mostly been great except for this past weekend. a lot of overheating! I'm sure it was mostly trail conditions. We were in the Baxter, MN area with no fresh snow to speak of, pretty much all hard pack and temps of around 20 F. Ordered scratchers and will be throwing those on before our next trip this weekend to the Hibbing area in MN. Should be mostly hard pack there as well with no snow in the forecast so we'll see how it does. Now I'm reading here about all these drive shaft issues, I'm a little concerned with my purchase. Guess I'm glad I have a 5 year YES plan, hopefully they have redesigned parts within that time frame.

I handed over the Keys to my 2018 800 Rush Pro-S to the wife for this sled, hope I don't regret it!

 

[kinger]

I hope someone will know what i meen. My dealer is working on having waranty work done on my sled for the pramary clutch rubing on the 4 bolts AGAIN cause the did last year. Now yamaha want a machine report that the dealer need to get from my sled. What is this report all about. Thanks in advance for the help.

Now yamaha want a machine report that the dealer need to get from my sled. What is this report all about. Thanks in advance for the help.

Here is the report Yamaha gets from the dealer. Lots of info there. See my max rpm of 9910! Belt blew!

Any hex coders able to decipher page 5 and sniff out if there is a tune on the sled?

 

[grubf]

Interesting that they want to know RPMs at different ranges of temps. I thought the ECM limited RPMs until a certain temp was reached. Apparently that is not the case. Not that had anything to do with your situation.
Anyway Monday is the day for the big presentation. If they have redesigned the chaincase and drive axle I will snowcheck a new SRX. I am not optimistic this will happen. If they do not I will snowcheck a Polaris 650. The places I use 115 mph are few and far between. And I also will not miss the 175 lbs of extra weight.

 

[snowcaine]

Here is the report Yamaha gets from the dealer. Lots of info there. See my max rpm of 9910! Belt blew!

Any hex coders able to decipher page 5 and sniff out if there is a tune on the sled?
View attachment 153064 View attachment 153065 View attachment 153066 View attachment 153067 View attachment 153068

kinger, did you get any dealer feedback on this yet? Curious what their diagnosis is.

 

[Nosey]

FYI: Remember if you having issues with your New Yamaha Sidewinders, please take them to the dealer. That's why you have a warranty. The dealer can register the problem with Yamaha so we all can benefit from an update or a bulletin about the issue. Without doing so the numbers will be skewed and there will be no changes due to lack of unreported problems. Posting the problems on the forums or social media is not the way to bring the issues to the attention of Yamaha sorry to say.

I have 1,500 miles on mine with no issues except it started to flat spot rollers. I took my helix off and sanded and repolished ramps so 3rd ramp not touching would touch and no further flat spotting. Everything else has been fine.I have a 2020 xtx started popping belts at around 500 miles popped two at about 1500 miles dealer found bad rollers I have now need a new drive gear assembly the plastic piece inside of it broke off and caused the forward gears to strip drive gear assembly is back ordered till June

 

[Alphadog]

4200 km and going to replace belt for the first time before it blows lol, it owes me nothing

 

[Nosey]

4200 km and going to replace belt for the first time before it blows lol, it owes me nothing

Maybe too gear should be added blew mine at 2400 seems to be known problem at 2500

 

[Jamie Matheson]

I hadn't spoken to my dealer, only have 43 miles. I notified them that I lost one if the turbo bolts. I had ordered the bolt myself already and just was told it is backordered 'til end of Feb. I'll go crazy if my next ride is March! The dealer doesn't have any bolts but have some ordered. They are going to take a bolt off a floor model for me. They claimed they have only seen 3 out of 10 serviced with flat spots on rollers.

30% is huge

 

[sidewinder 2018]

Owners of either new or used sidewinders should consider the new lower driveshaft repair kit offered by Barn of parts.This replaces the original driveshaft bearing in the disc brake housing.This upgraded bearing has a collar pressed into the bearing inner race,and the collar has 3 Allen screws to lock it to the lower driveshaft.No need for a replacement shaft.Barn of Parts has kits available or call Travis during normal business hours @ 717-821-9639 Best $160 you will spend on your sled