(sorry for the long post)
Well I have a cautionary tale and a way to fix it if your not so cautious... I took my P500 out to the deer lease and left it in an old barn so it was so covered and out of the rain. But of course the mice or rats or whatever other little hellacious critters got into my Honda. It wasn't out there for a week before they did the damage. But I didn't know it until two weeks later when I needed the Honda to help me carry a deer back to camp to get it cleaned and quartered. When I went to start it it cranked just fine and I noticed the yellow caution light flashing but they eh its freezing i just need to let it run for a bit and warm up. Except that didn't work. The flashing didn't change but after about 10 minutes of running I climbed in and tried to shift gears but nothing happened. Tried reverse, 1st, but nothing couldn't get it out of neutral. So i decided to give it some gas and help warm it up but it immediately died. I thought great now i got to throw this doe over my shoulders and start hiking, which i did. Once I got home I called around and checked the web (grossly underwhelming i might add) and finally figured out from the blinking code I was getting that I was dealing with a TP Sensor issue. I was also told it was highly unlikely it was out but the wiring had probably been chewed up by some mice. (multiple sources: Polaris Dealer in Mckinney and a good friend of mine in Greenville named Corey who sold me the Honda and sells ATVs and has some great guys in his shop!!)
If you run into this here are the steps to getting to this sensor and checking your wiring connections.
Before you do anything disconnect the battery.
Then you have to take off the back rack and plastic. I learned the hard way you can do all of this by removing 8 bolts and none of the plastic push pins. Pretty much there are 4 "post" with yellow painted bolts used a 12 socket to get them out and I did strip one so maybe some WD-40 before you begin would be a good idea or the Grip TIte socket sets. You will have to cut the zip ties holding up the brake light wiring and then disconnect the brake light.
Once you pull that off the sensor is sitting directly underneath your air filter casing. There is one bolt in the front of the air filter casing on the passenger side. On the same side there is a discharge tube that runs straight down that is held in by two clips pop those off and loosen the tube. There are also two pins in the rear of the casing that just pop straight out. There is one more hose that runs from the air filter to engine and I was unsuccessful in removing it but that is probably for the better because I doubt I could have gotten back on.
So basically now you can just lift the air filter partially from the passenger side and see a wiring harness that has three clips and three connections to the engine. the TP sensor is the one directly on the side on the drivers side. Another is toward the cab and another directly on top. Have to pop all three clips off to get to it and once you have you can sort of work the wire down and back towards the battery on the passenger side to give you some room to work with. I personally sat on the back passenger wheel while working on it and it gave me a pretty good position. Im a pretty big guy so you skinny fellas will have much more room.
For me, like I said it was rodent damage. I peeled away all the chewed plastic repaired the wire taped it up plugged it back in and I was up and running. I hope this helps some of y'all out there it took me two days to cautiously work my way around the Honda and get it fixed.
Pictures I added are as follows.
One of the four beams holding in the back rack
The Honda with the Rack and plastic off
The TP Sensor under the air filter
My chewed wiring harness
My fixed wiring harness
Well I have a cautionary tale and a way to fix it if your not so cautious... I took my P500 out to the deer lease and left it in an old barn so it was so covered and out of the rain. But of course the mice or rats or whatever other little hellacious critters got into my Honda. It wasn't out there for a week before they did the damage. But I didn't know it until two weeks later when I needed the Honda to help me carry a deer back to camp to get it cleaned and quartered. When I went to start it it cranked just fine and I noticed the yellow caution light flashing but they eh its freezing i just need to let it run for a bit and warm up. Except that didn't work. The flashing didn't change but after about 10 minutes of running I climbed in and tried to shift gears but nothing happened. Tried reverse, 1st, but nothing couldn't get it out of neutral. So i decided to give it some gas and help warm it up but it immediately died. I thought great now i got to throw this doe over my shoulders and start hiking, which i did. Once I got home I called around and checked the web (grossly underwhelming i might add) and finally figured out from the blinking code I was getting that I was dealing with a TP Sensor issue. I was also told it was highly unlikely it was out but the wiring had probably been chewed up by some mice. (multiple sources: Polaris Dealer in Mckinney and a good friend of mine in Greenville named Corey who sold me the Honda and sells ATVs and has some great guys in his shop!!)
If you run into this here are the steps to getting to this sensor and checking your wiring connections.
Before you do anything disconnect the battery.
Then you have to take off the back rack and plastic. I learned the hard way you can do all of this by removing 8 bolts and none of the plastic push pins. Pretty much there are 4 "post" with yellow painted bolts used a 12 socket to get them out and I did strip one so maybe some WD-40 before you begin would be a good idea or the Grip TIte socket sets. You will have to cut the zip ties holding up the brake light wiring and then disconnect the brake light.
Once you pull that off the sensor is sitting directly underneath your air filter casing. There is one bolt in the front of the air filter casing on the passenger side. On the same side there is a discharge tube that runs straight down that is held in by two clips pop those off and loosen the tube. There are also two pins in the rear of the casing that just pop straight out. There is one more hose that runs from the air filter to engine and I was unsuccessful in removing it but that is probably for the better because I doubt I could have gotten back on.
So basically now you can just lift the air filter partially from the passenger side and see a wiring harness that has three clips and three connections to the engine. the TP sensor is the one directly on the side on the drivers side. Another is toward the cab and another directly on top. Have to pop all three clips off to get to it and once you have you can sort of work the wire down and back towards the battery on the passenger side to give you some room to work with. I personally sat on the back passenger wheel while working on it and it gave me a pretty good position. Im a pretty big guy so you skinny fellas will have much more room.
For me, like I said it was rodent damage. I peeled away all the chewed plastic repaired the wire taped it up plugged it back in and I was up and running. I hope this helps some of y'all out there it took me two days to cautiously work my way around the Honda and get it fixed.
Pictures I added are as follows.
One of the four beams holding in the back rack
The Honda with the Rack and plastic off
The TP Sensor under the air filter
My chewed wiring harness
My fixed wiring harness
