I know there are reports of all kinds of obnoxious noises coming from the back of the slingshot but this one really blows me away.
First off I was worried that it might be related to faulty bearings of the wheel axle or one of the pulleys. Once that was ruled out then the clear choice for me was a defective belt because when I am in a left hand turn or driving straight the noise was loud and consistent but when I am in a right hand turn the noise goes away completely but only in the turn. When the car is lifted and the swing-arm unloaded the noise is barely heard rotating the wheel but when the swing-arm is under load (belt under tension) then the noise is clearly heard when rotating the wheel.
I was so fed up that I finally scheduled a visit at the dealership 90 miles away, I was hearing the noise as I pulled into the dealership but as my luck would have it by the time the service guys took her for a ride, yup you guessed it the noise was missing completely. I blamed it on a rainshower that drenched the car before they got to it and also the belt being way too loose for some reason.
As far as they were concerned there was nothing wrong with the vehicle (see above video to know there is clearly something wrong).
90 miles later I get back to my place (noise still missing) I then reset the tension and alignment of the belt (following to the letter the 25 steps of the service manual) and proceed to clean the belt as per the manual instructions and of course the noise predictably comes back (made the above video right after doing the belt maintenance).
I finally send a bunch of videos to the dealership who passed it on to polaris. I wanted an answer to what the hell was causing that noise. The vehicle is still under warranty (2.5 months old/5k miles) but the belt is not. So for me I just want to know what is the issue. The best answer I got from polaris was a possible defective belt.
Now here is the part that doesn't make sense, for 3 days straight, I drive the car for 20-30 miles a day and the noise is consistently present. I finally take a day off from driving her and the following day without doing a damn thing to her (no cleaning, no adjusting etc) the noise is completely gone. For two days and 40 miles the noise is missing, I am about ready to scream.
I know the way to get the noise back is to wash the belt (as per the manual instructions). My working theory now is that it's moisture acting on a rubber/metal contact producing a wet rubber noise involving either the belt, the wheel axle or pulley axle rubber materials (i.e. o-rings etc).
Once the vehicle is giving some time to sit still (24hours) the natural lubricants and moisture evaporating away will eventually take care of the noise. This is nuts because it means I can't wash the back area without the threat of that noise coming back and hanging around for at least a week. So either I let the back end get all grimey and dirty or I put up with the obnoxious noise for close to a week.
Anyone seen or heard of this before? If I just knew what part was causing this I would lubricate the crap out of it. I was hoping the polaris engineers would have the answer but nope.