Honda quad problems

Ranger22

Well-Known Member
My quad, a 500cc hydrostatiic model, since new has had a problem. Every now and again (30 hrs -50hrs)it goes into limp mode. No ES gears at all, reverses only just( better pushing the bloody thing) The gear position light flashes, fault code 10. Normally the angle sensor gets changed and this cures the problem. The last time it went I was told to run the quad in the ES box and not the automatic box. Not made a difference. Are we missing something? What else can we have checked?

Al
 
Its a well known fault - we changed one angle sensor which was well filled with gunge - next time we stripped it down and put it together again without finding any fault and ever since then every time it happens I switch the quad off and start it again,

Not much help but seems to be an electronic glitch rather than a real fault
 
i have no clue on this but one of the members is a honda tech i saw him on the post wot do you do for a job post he may be a place to start !!
 
There was a chap on here called Keith he was a Honda specialist cant remember his SD name Keith something
norma
 
My mate had a similar problem with his quad, had a hell of a bother with it back and forward to local dealers for a while, dunno about ur's but his was water/dampness in the wiring looms, he even bought a 2nd bike for spares swapped something over and then it broke again so had 2 bikes that wouldn't run! Ended up stripping the bike right down then taking it to dealer to redo the wiring, dealer was quite happy for him to strip and rebuild the bikes to keep his costs down.
His had been stored in a steel shipping container up shoot for the last 2 years, think just being put away wet/damp and being stored in a damp container would not help.

I've had a few 420's ES over the years and got the 500ES now but only keep them under 2 years, for all hondas rarely go wrong when the more complicated ES or hydrostatic systems go wrong they can be expensive to fix. Must admit always glad off the warranty as have had a few things fixed towards the end off 2 the years.
Never liked the auto bikes always seem to be in wrong gear for the speeds i tend to travel, always to low and revving does my nut in.
 
I've got a 500 foreman hydrostatic at work. The only problem I've had is when the battery had been left flat, I then lost the gears at 2 in the morning the other side of the estate.
It turned out the gearbox needed recalibriating, which is easily done by using a combination of the hand controls. I've got the correct sequence written down in my workshop.
Apart from that the quad has been faultless.
 
Ranger22,Fault code 10 is to do with the ECU(electric brain).First place to start would be to check the plugs that go into it, they may have water in them,clean and blow dry spray with di-electric grease, make sure they are plugged back together properly it has been known for them to ease apart causing the bike to think there is a fault. to re-calibrate your bike turn off the ignition,Press and hold the up and down buttons in,turn on the ignition release buttons then press up down upon buttons,then press the throttle lever fully open- you then should hear the servo motors re-setting, the atv should then operate normally until it detects another fault,the newer ones can store more than one fault so if it hasn't been cleared it may still have previous fault codes stored. How old is your atv i will look in the workshop manual tomorrow for you if that helps
 
Ranger22,Fault code 10 is to do with the ECU(electric brain).First place to start would be to check the plugs that go into it, they may have water in them,clean and blow dry spray with di-electric grease, make sure they are plugged back together properly it has been known for them to ease apart causing the bike to think there is a fault. to re-calibrate your bike turn off the ignition,Press and hold the up and down buttons in,turn on the ignition release buttons then press up down upon buttons,then press the throttle lever fully open- you then should hear the servo motors re-setting, the atv should then operate normally until it detects another fault,the newer ones can store more than one fault so if it hasn't been cleared it may still have previous fault codes stored. How old is your atv i will look in the workshop manual tomorrow for you if that helps


Hi Keith, the quads roughly 3 years old. It's been to the garage and nothing faulty has been found. The previous codes have been cleared, two of them, it has been run every way possible to try and get it to do it again but as per normal it won't do it when a mechanic is there! Got it back home and to run it and see what developes. Other codes it has shown in the past are 3,5 and 7. Beginning to think its just a bad one. Any advice appreciated

Al
 
ranger22, for all the fault codes that you mentioned according to the book the common cause is the 21 pin plug into the ECU so i would start to check that out first, when you say it has been to the garage to be fixed do you mean local chap in the village or is it main dealer.if it is a newish bike some of these are now able to be plugged into a laptop and the fault found that way.
 
I'm sure keith will put me right here,

But last time i was in at the honda dealership the mechanics where saying that the hondas like ur's actually 'learn' how u drive it and changes gears to suit u, they had just been on a course about (still think they might off been on a wind up thou:doh:).
Said there was 1 or 2 on some big farms with 2 or 3 folk driving each and they were running/changing gear like a sack of sh**, mechanics said the bike could not figure out how to change the gears right as so many different styles of driving (young lad/son 100mph everywhere, older hand/owner plodding along sensibly)

Things are far too complicated now, long gone are the days of the old 'big reds' which were almost indestructable even running then almost bone dry for oil never bothered them, now the minute u drop below min the bikes don't like it. Must admit that althou i moan at how dear it is to change every 2 years it does make sense esp with the more complicated bikes (mibee not so bad with a manual shift) esp when u rely on them day in day out
U can even plug chainsaws into diagnostic computers now, the world has gone mad:cuckoo:
 
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Hi Keith, the quads roughly 3 years old. It's been to the garage and nothing faulty has been found. The previous codes have been cleared, two of them, it has been run every way possible to try and get it to do it again but as per normal it won't do it when a mechanic is there! Got it back home and to run it and see what developes. Other codes it has shown in the past are 3,5 and 7. Beginning to think its just a bad one. Any advice appreciated

Al
Eye al buy a Suzuki :lol:
 
ranger22, for all the fault codes that you mentioned according to the book the common cause is the 21 pin plug into the ECU so i would start to check that out first, when you say it has been to the garage to be fixed do you mean local chap in the village or is it main dealer.if it is a newish bike some of these are now able to be plugged into a laptop and the fault found that way.

Hi Keith, it's been to the main dealer. The mechanic like you Keith knows his stuff, just wondered if we were missing something somebody else with the same/ similar problem had found. Well I'll run it and see what happens

Al
 
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