Cooling System HELP

[livintofish]

Quick ? for fellow ATVers out there. Got a 99 Polaris Sportsman 500 and am very happy with it other than the fact that there seems to be a cooling system issue. Well I looked at the overflow reservoir and it was empty, and though hmmmm that is not good. So checked radiator, and topped off, it was a little low. I did some riding, and one day was out on the trail and saw some AMAZING water/mud holes, I never had her in the mud. went through the watery hole 3-4 times and then the MUD got stuck used winch.....riding back to truck 40mph overheat light comes on I stop let it cool a bit and get it back. coolant res is empty...fill it...riding around and cooling system keeps draining? no leak in sight there is a little coolant occasionally on the inside of the skid plate under about the middle of the wheeler where the water pump may be..... I have done some research and THINK that it is a bad water pump seal I have heard these go out when going through water/mud on polaris as water and sand gets into the cooling system. Does this sound right to you guys? What else could it be? Fan works fine. You gotta run it pretty hard to get it to actually overheat, but I'm worried about burning out my impeller on water pump. Will that happen. How much you think a seal would be at a dealer to get fixed, I'm a student just don't have the time. Thanks

[Dave S]

If you're over heating after going through the water/mud holes, clean out your radiator if you haven't already. Polaris radiators are more susceptible to clogging than many other machines because they're mounted lower with very little protection.

DO NOT use high pressure and wash from the back to the front of the radiator. If you spray from the front, you can lodge some of the gunk in there.

[rundrave]

as mentioned try cleaning it, another way to tell if its dirty is to try and shine a light through it.

I pulled my radiator off my quad and soaked in it water and could not beleive how much dirt and gunk came out of those fins.

[Roofer]

Good info provided here.

Still check the water pump.

[NAMASafetyDirector]

Hi, 9 times out of 10 the overheating issues on the older Sportsman where as mentioned before, clogged radiator. As far as the coolant bottle being empty, if the machine did overheat pretty substantialy, the overflow bottle would fill up due to expansion and push some of the coolant out on the ground, then when the machine cools down there wouldn't be as much coolant in the system therefore the coolant bottle would be empty. Just a thought. Although the water pump seals occasionaly go out, this is a more likely scenario. As far as debris getting into the coolant system after going through mud or water, you would have to have a faulty cap, cracked bottle or some other means of gettting outside contaminents into the system, otherwise it should be sealed from the outside. Hope this helps!

[livintofish]

Thanks for the imput I already cleaned the radiator as well as possible without removing it and it seemed to help a little. You guys are just talking about spraying the junk out of the fins on the outside, right? However I do have a steady drip from the water pump area indicating the seal is out if I am not mistaken. What else can I do to clean it.