Lost ALL of the oil out of my RX-1M!!!

This site is awesome! I bought a new 03 RX1M hold over with no miles. You folks have been an incredible asset in helping me get it set up and making sure that the dealer takes care of upgrades.

I had a horrible experience a couple of weeks ago. I was out in about 3 feet of packed powder and came upon a tree (growing on the left side of the road) bent across the trail with the top frozen to the hill that bordered the right side of the road. I figured that I could go up the hill a little ways (not really side-hilling because the snow was pretty well settled) and just plow my way through the little branches as the top. The little branches were tougher than I thought and stopped me dead in my tracks. So, to help you visualize - I am perpendicular to the slope, the sled is almost all the way over on the left side I and I am feeling very stupid. I throw it in reverse to try to back it away from the branches and the oil light comes on. I IMMEDIATELY shut off the engine and notice oil pouring out of the left side cover. I jump off and try to get the thing upright but it was too late. ALL OF THE OIL flowed out of my 150-mile engine and into the snow. I dug it out and got it sitting upright and, as darkness fell, started the 2.5-mile (only 1.5 miles but I went the first half mile in the wrong direction and had to backtrack) hike to the nearest pavement. It is amazing how difficult it is to hike in snow, even if it is fairly settled.

I spent the next morning at the staging area asking sledders to come help me out, I am in California so you folks would be amazed at how many people said "no" before a father and son came along, rode me back to my sled, towed me out, loaded my sled manually.


Chapter 1 of the Dealer Interaction
I lost lots of sleep before I had time to take it to the dealer, worried my new engine was a paperweight. The dealer told me that putting it over on the side started the oil flowing from the breather and a siphon effect caused this to continue until it was all gone. They told me that it was NOT a design flaw and they were only willing to warranty 1/2 of the $400 bill (clean oil out of the carbs, replace oil-soaked belt, replace plugs, clean up oil mess in the engine compartment). They say the the engine was not damaged.

Seemed strange to me because, when I am out in the deep powder, I regularly have it on the side at the same angle as the one that It was at during this outing. Anyone have an opinion on this? Maybe a combination of the angle and the sudden stop?


Chapter 2 of the Dealer Interaction
I got the sled back and headed straight for the hills, to the same elevation that I always ride. Bad news for me. Intermittent problems (occuring about 75% of the time in the 40 miles traveled that day) now include the following:
-A single backfire through the exhaust each time that the engine is shut off
-missing or bogging over 7500 rpm
-VERY difficult to start
-Smoke clouds from exhust when difficult starts are successful

I am not sure about this point so take it with a grain of salt - The intermittent problems seem to occur when the exchangers are getting cooled. If I did a few miles on the trail the problems seemed minimal but if I was in some soft snow or on the first mile of trail the problems were really bad.

I took the sled back to the dealer and they are looking into it.

Chapter 3 of the Dealer Interaction
Pending


Any opinions would be GREATLY appreciated.
thank you!

Don't know where you ride, but anywhere i have ever been in California, any sledder would help out another sledder at the drop of a hat. Nothing like a good rescue to make a trip more memorable.

I would guess it was something your dealer did that was causing the problems. Find out exactly what the mechanic did when he worked on cleaning up your carbs. Did they pressure wash the engine by any chance? Are the coils pushed down on the plugs all the way. Did they get the air box on the carbs correctly?

Who is your dealer just out of curiosity?

bdm said:

I spent the next morning at the staging area asking sledders to come help me out, I am in California so you folks would be amazed at how many people said "no" before a father and son came along, rode me back to my sled, towed me out, loaded my sled manually.

Click to expand...

There is no excuse for crap like that!!

Actually, I did not really blame some of the folks for not towing me out. When I was asking for help, although I offered each of the people cash for a new belt, I was estimating 2 to 3 hours to retrieve my sled. That is alot of time out of one's riding time. It actually only took about 1.5 hours because the folks that helped me were VERY good.

My dealer is Capitol Yamaha in Sacramento. They admittedly have little sled experience; but, I have been happy with their attitude and I think that they have been fair. Back when I bought the sled I asked them to do the float bowl update and the Factory gave them some hassle - the dealer took care of it.

I assume that my troubles are carb-related and it was something that changed while the dealer was working on it. I am betting that they will handle it without asking for any more money.

Why would they mess with the carbs? Pop off the airbox, plugs out, crank motor over tilted up (so that pouring stuff down the carbs will pour down into the engine), dump down a bucket of carb cleaner into each carb, put everything back together and new plugs.

To clean oil off clutches, remove clutches and soak in degreaser. This is NOT a job that you should be paying anyone for.

Oh $hit ----Thats where I bought my sled. Would you believe they couldn't answer any of my questions. I argued with the mechanics (3 years ago) they kept giving me BS then I asked them how long have you been snowmobiling------they said never :shock: . I don't know, but would you take your car to a mechanic thats never driven before?

I ended up taking my sled to Michaels in Reno, Nevada. But again you have to double check everything they do. Everything is done fast fast fast and little things gets left out.

We are so lucky to have a site like this. Everyone is great here.

Where do you ride?

RX1Tahoe,

I am the one that you gave the suspension tape to!


LB,

With something as potentially catastrophic as complete oil loss, and with it still under warranty, I really didn't want to touch anything myself. Especially since I have never heard of such a thing happening.

Oh no, I'm sorry to hear what happened. The good part is your engine was not damaged. I have a friend that lives at Serene lakes and wants me to snowmobile in that area. If you want we can meet somewhere close and my friends and I can help you.

PM me if you like and tell me who the mechanics are @ Capitol.

I don't want to seem like I am bashing the dealer. I like them. I think that I got a good deal on the sled and I like the service guys. I would rather they be up front with the limits of their experience and be honest with me than to BS me and think that I won't see through it. I started the thread hoping for some insight on the "oil siphoning" issue, please don't think that I was knocking the dealer. If anything, I was a little bothered by a design that drains the oil when you get it over on its side.

Chapter 3 of the Dealer interaction
They think that the coils weren't fully seated on the plugs. I will pick it up and try it out as soon as I can get down there.

So what's the verdict, did they solve the problem?

Chapter 3 (continued)
Made the trip to the dealer yesterday and brought my sled straight home for an immediate ride. Did about 40 miles from about 5k feet to 7500 feet. It bogged only once and backfired once, otherwise ran stronger than ever.

I am very close to my break-in mileage so I opened her up on a straight, flat trail to over 10k rpm...... wow!

Now all I need is some fresh powder.

So, no opinions on the "oil siphoning" issue, huh? Anyone?

thanks for the comments.

Are you sure you lost all your oil?
Never heard of a problem that bad but I suggest shutting your engine off when it gets over on it's side
As far as hard hot restart is concerned, it is another thing entirely, your dealer or any Yamaha dealer should be able to get a carb warmer shut off for you, any petcock will do it
the hot carb bodies make for a rich condition after it sits for a few minutes

So what was the fix for the oil syphoning out oil reservoir or will it do it every time it rolls to the left?

According to the dealer there is none, that is why I was wondering what you folks thought. Apparently when I am carving on the left side I will need to constantly pray that I don't get stuck and lose all of my oil.

I guess this advantage goes to the two-strokes, huh?

i disagree with the sleds position being the reason for oil loss. My blue sled has been on its side plenty of times, no problems. my red sled has been rolled countless times with the engine running and NO oil loss whatsoever on it.