rocmar
Where Eagles & Angels....Dare to Fly...
Lifetime Member
i had this problem on mine i ride a lot of river bottoms with mudholes and there is mud that gets on the radiator fins. doesnt take much to deteriorate the cooling capability. the Hondas all seem to make more heat at road speeds at higher RPMs. this may have to do with load on the engine and transmission more than anything else. i could trail ride all day in 2nd and 3rd gear without overheating but as soon as i went to 5th gear and almost w/o it would get hot. i had the same issue with a Foreman 500. this is why i have a radiator relocate on the Foreman and i fabricated one for my p500. around where i am anyone that does any kind of serious mud riding normally uses a radiator relocate to help keep mud out of the fins.
ehart814
Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
Club Contributor
I'm definitely not a serious mud rider, but riding around here it can't be avoided. I have 1400 miles on mine now, so it's definitely seen it's share of mud. Until the other day, I had never seen this thing even get close to heating up. I've had the radiator completely plugged with mud and it didn't heat up. That's why I was concerned on Sunday. You must be right about heating up at road speeds. Doesn't make much sense to me, but it seems to hold true.
Anyone considered taking the plastic gaurd off the front of the radiator? I've got a bumper that protect mine pretty good an it seems like the fins on that gaurd pointing upwards would just hold mud in front of your radiator.
Montecresto
Montecresto el segundo
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I can see how that could be beneficial to the mud riders, as long as you have the Strong Made bumper.
Sorry, but I need to put my two cents here. I'm doing some research and going through the forms about overheating. On the road at top speeds in 5th gear. I'm having the same issue. Maybe I have too much time on my hands, but I search the internet in the other forms. And did some experimenting on my p500. When the temp gun here's where I come up with. We're over RPMing the engine. I don't wish to cause a debate but I promise you this is it. I had experience with this before on other mechanical Motors whether it be Nitro buggies. Or even electronic brushless engines working on am on bench when I went to school. To get my engineering degree. You can overheating engine just as easily by over RPM in it. When you run something as going to low gear ratio at top speeds, you're overworking the engine. Which in turn? Overheats it the p500 is not built for Speed. When I hit 30 miles an hour or more. For a long... time it will overheat. On a flat surface only suggestion is keep it under 30 miles an hour and make sure you're temp gauge. Don't go beyond three bars. Even bypassing the cooling fan or replacing the cooling fan with a performance cooling fan does not help. The p500 is just geared to low which is not best situation if you got flat roads want to go. High speed for long distances . The best thing to do is get bigger tires Basically, we have to choose what we want to use your p500 for it. Flat Road, high speed or low speed Trail condition. I hope this helps.
Montecresto
Montecresto el segundo
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I have a 5 mile asphalt run to the national forest where I ride. I do 40 mph all the way. Once in the national forest, opposite extreme. I’m climbing steep rocky trails a lot in low gear, very low rpms for extended periods.
I've never been over 2 bars on the temp gauge in my P5. I bought it the month Honda debuted them, August of 2014.
My buddy that rides with me, has a second year P5, he has had overheating trouble. 🤷♂️
tomcj2
I forgot the ditch was so close
Lifetime Member
ehart814
Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
Club Contributor
I started this thread. Owned my 500 for 3 years and more than 4000 miles. Conservatively 1/3 of those miles were 5th gear road miles between 35 and 40 mph.
Only ONCE did my 500 get to 3 bars or more, and it was because of mud in the radiator on the day it overheated (see post 1). And that machine ran like brand new on the day I sold it. So I'm going to have to disagree here. Most people that have 500's with miles on them run roads at high rpm and you hear very few issues. I remember reading a post where a guy went like 7 miles straight, on the rev limiter and it didn't overheat. If a 500 is overheating, most likely the radiator has mud in it. Sometimes you can't even see the mud, and it takes soaking with degreaser and rinsing over and over to get it out (i had to do this). Or the coolant could be low, or there is an air bubble in the cooling system.
Only ONCE did my 500 get to 3 bars or more, and it was because of mud in the radiator on the day it overheated (see post 1). And that machine ran like brand new on the day I sold it. So I'm going to have to disagree here. Most people that have 500's with miles on them run roads at high rpm and you hear very few issues. I remember reading a post where a guy went like 7 miles straight, on the rev limiter and it didn't overheat. If a 500 is overheating, most likely the radiator has mud in it. Sometimes you can't even see the mud, and it takes soaking with degreaser and rinsing over and over to get it out (i had to do this). Or the coolant could be low, or there is an air bubble in the cooling system.
I bought a used p500 fan for $45.00.
Mine hasn’t came on since I sunk it in the creek. My original fan was getting noisy. I don’t know if I trashed it or not.
Replacing the fan solved my problem.
