COOLANT TANK ISSUES?

    Quote from Goats_Hogs

    Most of the posts after yours were more directed at SoCal I believe. As for the tank, I've replaced mine and thankful I don't have any worries about it any longer. When I think of all the things I've changed on mine, the money spend on it originally and to make it what I want.... the coolant tank upgrade was a small amount compared to just the other things found just under my hood. I'm looking at building a gauge pod so that I can monitor water temp/Volts/Oil pressure and I'll have over double the tank upgrade price in that. It's all in what you want and use the SS for. I run mine rather hard at times, and many of those times I'm several hours from home. Peace of mind that I have not used cheap parts that will fail as quickly over time are worth it to me. Being able to monitor what the machine is doing without having to rely on idiot lights is priceless to me.

    As for failing tanks, I've seen pictures of ones that split the tank over 1/2 way while out on a trip. Can it be fixed? About any auto parts dealer will have some type of tank you could adapt if only held in place by zip ties. I've done many roadside repairs in my motorcycle/Slingshot history, but the best ones are the ones that preemptive the threat beforehand (in my garage, out of the sun!) in my opinion.

    All great advice and thank you to all! I have an appointment at the dealer next Tuesday for them to look at it and decide what the failure is. After they tell me I will make the decision. I paid a good chunk of change for the six-year warranty plan and this is covered. Being stranded sucks and I agree the price of a new tank - replace it and forget it - is very attractive. I will let you know when I know 😎

    We’ll get there when we get there and not a minute before. 😎

    For those people that are changing the stock tanks themselves. The mounting holes are too close together putting undue pressure on the plastic tank. You can gain a little more clearance by grinding the tabs back to the mounting nuts but you will still have to spread these apart to bolt the tank down. I promise that you will understand this when you try to mount the tank. I know that this is a problem with the 2015's and I suspect it is the same with the other years also.

    Quote from SoCal

    All great advice and thank you to all! I have an appointment at the dealer next Tuesday for them to look at it and decide what the failure is. After they tell me I will make the decision. I paid a good chunk of change for the six-year warranty plan and this is covered. Being stranded sucks and I agree the price of a new tank - replace it and forget it - is very attractive. I will let you know when I know 😎

    If you get the DDM tank your dealer would probably do the install under the warrantee. Just a thought...

    Quote from EjFord

    If you get the DDM tank your dealer would probably do the install under the warrantee. Just a thought...

    Hummmm now that is a thought.....👏🏼


    I will be phoning the dealer tomorrow to find out if the replacement plastic Polaris tank is a “new and improved” model. If not it makes no sense to put the same piece of $&@! back in and then wait for another failure .

    We’ll get there when we get there and not a minute before. 😎

    Quote from SoCal

    Hummmm now that is a thought.....👏🏼


    I will be phoning the dealer tomorrow to find out if the replacement plastic Polaris tank is a “new and improved” model. If not it makes no sense to put the same piece of $&@! back in and then wait for another failure .

    There are probably enough lightly used stock ones floating around here on the forum you could put a new one on every year for the next few years and not have to worry about it.... :00008172:

    Quote from wjfyfe

    I am trying to imagine if I worried about every "what if" that could potentially happen and tried to repair it before hand, what would our vehicles look like?


    Bill

    I don't worry about the "what ifs", as they are nearly infinite. I do maintain my vehicles to the extreme, and they have served me well over my lifetime for it. Known problem areas however, I take note of. The overflow tanks have had issues, and are well documented. That is why I replaced mine, and I also bought it while it was on sale. The smaller batteries in the 2016.5 and up models are known to cause problems, and mine got upgraded after the first season I rode it. That wasn't a waste of money either, as I had the battery in my Harley die that following spring and the SS battery was the same size and amps, so it's been re-purposed to serve me there. Another issue that's well documented is the swingarm bearings on the axle. I've ran my belt at the loose side of the recommendation, to about 3/8" out of tolerance on the loose side. I've had no noise from the belt, no issues with bearings, and have 36,500 miles on it.

    Choosing to ignore known issues is a roll of the dice. You may win or lose, no one really knows the odds. Fixing known issues before they break will most likely increase your odds of making it to your destination and back without failure. There really aren't that many that are known to break and leave you stranded. Those are the ones I pay attention to.

    2016.5 with 36,500 miles and -0- times it's left me stranded. That's my $.02.

    Even though my above post is mostly accurate, if I were to be totally honest about this whole issue, if an equivalent tank was offered at half the price of this one, it would have already been installed. :whistling:


    Bill

    Oh I get it wjfyfe . When I bought our SS, I was just going to ride it as is and not change anything. But once I rode in one that had shocks, I realized that stock wasn't going to cut it, the machine can be twice as fun with a number of changes. Just about everything I've done to it makes it a better experience for me than it was stock, every time I'm behind the wheel. While I do have a trailer to go to events like MV where there can be bad weather, most of my travels didn't have or use that option. I've been as far as 14 hours driving time away from home. That's not the time to realize that coolant tank needed replaced before I left. Odds are that it wouldn't have, but peace of mind helps me to enjoy the trip more.

    In fairness though, you have had yours (assuming you bought it new) for an extra year or more than I have, but only have a little over 1/2 the miles. Hoping you didn't just jinx yourself! 8o But in honesty here, with all the issues I read about people having had, (breakdowns, issues that take them into the dealer, with much less miles than you or I have) I'm just thankful that I have what has proven so far to be a good one.

    Quote from Goats_Hogs

    Oh I get it wjfyfe . But in honesty here, with all the issues I read about people having had, (breakdowns, issues that take them into the dealer, with much less miles than you or I have) I'm just thankful that I have what has proven so far to be a good one.

    Yea, during the first year or so while participating on the other forum, almost everybody were there to whine, whimper, and complain about all the problems they were having with their SlingShots and putting down Polaris and how bad they were as a manufacturer, while during this same time Justina and I were having a ball riding ours with virtually no complaints. Why is this? Well, I have my theories but all they would do is ruffle feathers if I shared them! ^^


    Bill

    Quote from wjfyfe

    Yea, during the first year or so while participating on the other forum, almost everybody were there to whine, whimper, and complain about all the problems they were having with their SlingShots and putting down Polaris and how bad they were as a manufacturer, while during this same time Justina and I were having a ball riding ours with virtually no complaints. Why is this? Well, I have my theories but all they would do is ruffle feathers if I shared them! ^^


    Bill

    I wasn't on TDS other than to read and learn what I could about the SS before I got mine. Found this site and never looked back there other than parts for sale. I may have been there for 3 or 4 times in the past 2 plus years. I don't think I even posted there. That statement about ruffling feathers wouldn't bother me at all. All I've pointed out in this thread are facts, and was trying to help others here. If I ruffled yours it wasn't intentional.

    Besides, there was enough whine I listened to until my angle drive broke in and I went with different gear lube! :D I won't say what gear lube I used, so as not to derail this thread with another train wreck! Perish the thought, another oil derailment!