P1000 Overheat and lack of power?

[sjacobson48]

While in Colorado last week and climbing up TinCup pass on our first day, my engine overheated.
Granted, I was pushing it pretty hard (it was the third mountain pass of the day) and when we got to the top, the temp warning light came on. I immediately shut it down..... in hindsight maybe I should have let it idle a bit so the fan could run?? Anyway, it boiled over as we were sitting there enjoying the view.
After it cooled, we added some water and down the mountain we went.
Back at base camp, the only coolant we were able to obtain was some yellow universal (bottle stated no silicants, and compatible with all known coolants). It was that or nothing, so I added enough to fill the reservoir back up.
Rode the rest of the week without issue. While I did reach the third indicator bar quite often, we never again hit the fourth bar or warning light.
I'm not sure if hitting the third bar is normal or not because I've never watched it that close before the boil over happened and then I was paranoid about it so was checking it all the time. It varied a lot between the second and third bar while riding.
Since I added water, and then some universal coolant, I'm thinking a complete coolant flush may be in order now that we're back home?

Also experienced a complete loss of power twice. We were climbing some steep rocky stuff and I got into a predicament where I had to stop and assess. When I stepped on the throttle again, there was nothing.... no power, no increase in RPM, nothing. Several times I stepped on the accelerator and nothing happened. Both times we were at steep upward angles with rock against the tires. Both times I ended up stalling out, restarting, backing up and letting it sit for a while..... and then got back into it and it went. Felt very strange. Anyone else have any experience with that?

 

[Admin]

 

[Farmer]

Yep I'd flush it. Beware of the dreaded 1000 air pocket problem.

Was it cutting the power while it was hot (limp mode) or was it happening separately?

Welcome to the "Pioneer 1000 covid over heating and lack of power" time in history. Search around the forum for this topic. You're not the only one. Since covid, Honda is going through some real QC issues. YOU LISTENING HONDA?????? Cripes it's disgusting coming here and reading the never ending posts of issues about the what used to be a bullet proof company. I wonder if it's happening through all of their product lines or just the sxs's.

Someone else will likely be along shortly to assist you further. lol!

 

[sjacobson48]

Yep I'd flush it. Beware of the dreaded 1000 air pocket problem.

Was it cutting the power while it was hot (limp mode) or was it happening separately?

That's a good question. Both times I think I was running hot.... with the third bar showing.... but not yet to the fourth. Like I said, I wasn't really aware of the issue until I had the boil over..... then I watched the gauge like a hawk.

 

[tdhanses]

Get it tuned and add the fan override switch from the club store and manually override or just turn it on when in altitude going up, both make a difference in overheating and tune will help with power. Flush that coolant but make sure you lift the front to get rid of the air pocket or you’ll have an issue, there is a write up on here somewhere if you search on how to do it.

 

[sjacobson48]

Get it tuned and add the fan override switch from the club store and manually override or just turn it on when in altitude going up, both make a difference in overheating and tune will help with power. Flush that coolant but make sure you lift the front to get rid of the air pocket or you’ll have an issue, there is a write up on here somewhere if you search on how to do it.

Thank you!!

 

[Surveyor]

Is the overheat issue common at higher elevation? Asking because I'm in MI planning to take my 2016 1000-5
to CO at the end of September. I have never had any overheating issues in the past.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[tdhanses]

Is the overheat issue common at higher elevation? Asking because I'm in MI planning to take my 2016 1000-5
to CO at the end of September. I have never had any overheating issues in the past.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Yes it is

 

[sjacobson48]

Is the overheat issue common at higher elevation? Asking because I'm in MI planning to take my 2016 1000-5
to CO at the end of September. I have never had any overheating issues in the past.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

We went up 3 - 12,000 ft mountains on the first day, along with a lot of other riding. I overheated and boiled over on the third mountain pass. To be fair, I pushed it pretty hard up that (Tincup) pass, and when the temp light came on as I got to the top, I immediately shut it down. About a minute later it was boiling over out the overflow tube. In retrospect I may have been smarter to let it run at idle so the fan continued to run and help cool it?
After that day, I watched the temp much closer. It varied between two bars and three bars quite often (more than I expected at three). If we were heading up and it stayed on three bars for quite a while, I would simply stop and let it idle for 5 minutes while we took a water break for the dogs, and when it went back down to two bars we continued on. Didn't have a problem after that, and we did several more mountains during the week. It was somewhat annoying to have to stop once in a while, but we made it work.
I'm sure some of my issue was operator error as it was our first "real" challenge on terrain like that. Still, I'm taking the advice above and installing the fan override as an additional precaution.

 

[GPR1500SC]

The fan override switch will not fix a leaking head gasket.
I will share my experience
In 2018 I went to Colorado with some friends on day four it over heated and wouldn't hold water and cut a week of trail riding short. ☹️
Went home decked the block (plained the top of the engine) plained the head new gasket problem solved so before going on are family trip to Colorado in 2020 I ordered two fan override switch kits for me and my brother his machine is completely stock including tires, I never used my switch or over heated my brother on the other hand left his run constantly if the machine was running the fan was running and it would over heat coming down every mountain start boiling and push the water out we pull up on a rock let it cool fill it up and be fine until another good climb and repeat process the whole week we where out there.

Verdict
Why does the Pioneer over heat? Because it is air locked.
Where does a pressurized coolant system get air? Through the head gasket it is the only source of pressurized air.

climbing up a mountain is like bleeding the system the front end of the machine usually high enough to keep the cool water circulating, going down causes a air lock and a over heating boil over.

it's really that simple.

 

[sjacobson48]

The fan override switch will not fix a leaking head gasket.
I will share my experience
In 2018 I went to Colorado with some friends on day four it over heated and wouldn't hold water and cut week of trail riding short. ☹️
Whent home decked the block (plained the top of the engine) plained the head new gasket problem solved so before going on are family trip to Colorado in 2020 I ordered two fan override switch kits for me and my brother his machine is completely stock including tires, I never used my switch or over heated my brother on the other hand left his run constantly if the machine was running the fan was running and it would over heat coming down every mountain start boiling and push the water out we pull up on a rock let it cool fill it up and be fine until another good climb and repeat process the whole week we where out there.

Verdict
Why does the Pioneer over heat? Because it is air locked.
Where does a pressurized coolant system get air? Through the head gasket it is the only source of pressurized air.

climbing up a mountain is like bleeding the system the front end of the machine usually high enough to keep the cool water circulating, going down causes a air lock and a over heating boil over.

it's really that simple.

Interesting. Thankfully I never had any issue whatsoever going downhill. In fact, I was happy when we crested because I would always cool down from 3 bars to 2 fairly quickly.

 

[Hondaman67]

If radiator is blocked by mud or a tall bumper that can cause overheating

 

[sjacobson48]

If radiator is blocked by mud or a tall bumper that can cause overheating

Good tip as well. I was just reading another thread and a light bulb went off about cleaning the radiator out.
I'm not one that is meticulous about cleaning my machine between uses..... it's just gonna get dirty again anyway, but definitely makes sense to check a critical point like that.
I have the stock bumper, but I do have a front hitch receiver installed that certainly blocks a lot of the front grill. That could be limiting air flow somewhat.
Thanks for the input!

 

[tdhanses]

The fan override switch will not fix a leaking head gasket.
I will share my experience
In 2018 I went to Colorado with some friends on day four it over heated and wouldn't hold water and cut a week of trail riding short. ☹️
Went home decked the block (plained the top of the engine) plained the head new gasket problem solved so before going on are family trip to Colorado in 2020 I ordered two fan override switch kits for me and my brother his machine is completely stock including tires, I never used my switch or over heated my brother on the other hand left his run constantly if the machine was running the fan was running and it would over heat coming down every mountain start boiling and push the water out we pull up on a rock let it cool fill it up and be fine until another good climb and repeat process the whole week we where out there.

Verdict
Why does the Pioneer over heat? Because it is air locked.
Where does a pressurized coolant system get air? Through the head gasket it is the only source of pressurized air.

climbing up a mountain is like bleeding the system the front end of the machine usually high enough to keep the cool water circulating, going down causes a air lock and a over heating boil over.

it's really that simple.

That is interesting but I don’t think common as most have the issue only going up and it’s a known issue that there can be an air pocket from the factory in the coolant. I doubt the head gasket is the issue for most vs the fan not always kicking on until it’s too late and the undersized cooling system on these.

Your the first I’ve heard of issues going downhill.

 

[GPR1500SC]

That is interesting but I don’t think common as most have the issue only going up and it’s a known issue that there can be an air pocket from the factory in the coolant. I doubt the head gasket is the issue for most vs the fan not always kicking on until it’s too late and the undersized cooling system on these.

Your the first I’ve heard of issues going downhill.

I am not saying it wasn't getting hot going up both are machine's where hitting three bars on the way up mine was in 2018 his in 2020.

I was talking about boil over, occasion if the climb was long enough they boil over on the way up maybe two or three times on the whole trip???
But usually sitting on the top or heading down they would boil over.