So I bought a used Ranger 800 from a dealership 6 months ago. It was not running well so I took it in. Was told the crank shaft was not good. Wallered out the housing. Rebuild for $2500 or new motor for $4500. Devestating news, I am gutted. What are my options? What would you do? Thanks for any help.

Would appreciate NOT being kicked while I am down. Thanks.

Hard to swallow going back to some one who essentially sold you a lemon, how could you trust them?

However if I was going to stay with it I'd go for the lesser of two evils and do the rebuild.

my guess is there was no oil in the machine. I posted something on here a while back that I learned from our mechanic. the Polaris 800 is known for loosing oil. it doesn't drip and doesn't smoke like its burning it. its going somewhere but its how they are made. I was also unaware until I blew my motor up last year-no oil. I had to put in a refeurbished motor in mine and I think it cost about 3500.
since then I put the maintenance check on 25 hours(on the odometer) now every 25 hours or sooner I make sure and am reminded to check the oil. it usually takes about 1/2 qt everytime in this timeframe. if I remember right the whole system only uses 2 qts. id fix it-cheaper than a new one. just make sure when you do you check the oil often as from what I was told there is no fix for the use of oil in the 800, even with a new motor. all other sized machines do not have this problem it is just from how the 800 motor was built.

There was defintiely oil in the machine, I was adament about checking it every two weeeks, the dealership even told me it had oil in it. It didnt seize up, was an out of position crank shaft, was the way I was told. I appreciate you sharing though.

Problem with the rebuild is that I might in the same boat 1-2 years down the road if not sooner, at least with the engine swap I'd get to start over at 0, on the motor at least. This is a crap day

Dealer knew or should have known. Failure to disclose condition. Breach of warranty. Breach of contract. Take legal action.

Was this a used ranger? if so how old?

Dont mean to kick you, but put your money in a Honda or Yamaha. One quick look on Craiglist will reveal how good Polaris are. Many more of those 4 sale than other makes.

I would not sink any more money in to the Polaris.

I like my ranger. But I have heard to stay away from the 800s

2010, 500 hours, had 450 hours when I bought it.

I wish it was that simple Swampy. I gave 8k for it, can't do anything without taking a huge loss. If I sell it as is, be lucky to get 2k, IF I rebuild and sell it, be lucky to get much more than what it blu books for which is 7K, so I will be eating $3500 there, and more if I sell it after a motor swap.

I can't take legal action, buying from a dealership it is sold as is.

I Called the insurance company who has a policy on it, no options there. Basically I can eat a loss, or fix it and use it and hope it lasts until it is paid off. I am between a rock and a hard place.

id slap a fresh engine in it. that way you have some peace of mind and know what your startin off with. gonna be hard $$$ wise, but worth it in my opinion.
i have a ranger and love it. had a kawasaki teryx previous to it and it was garbage compared to the ranger.

If you're hurting - try a smaller repair shop for the rebuild. If not, put the new one in from a dealership.
Feel for ya, not fun.

This is basically how I am looking at it. It really sucks putitng 4k into a ranger I bought for 8k, but at least the motor is brand new, plus everything else is in really good shape, so they say. The shop did do me a solid and is NOT going to charge me for labor, so that saves me $700. I never got the feeling they "screwed" me, I just feel like I ran into some bad luck. Such is life, if this is the worst thing that happens to me, I aint doing too bad.

I bought a Polaris 330 a few years ago. It puked a rod while I was heading home at 30 MPH & had 1009 miles on it. Polaris wouldn't stand behind it even for 1 cent. Made it my last Polaris.

After this one, I am not so sure I will ever own another, unfortunately I seem to be stuck with this one for the time being.

So just the engine is $4500.00? And they pay the labor. I am puzzled how any engine with the block wallered out wouldn't be spewing out a lot of oil. I am not familiar with Polaris engines, even though I have two 500's (never an ounce of engine trouble) but I would assume they have a bearing and seal on each side of the block. That means a bearing or both bearings went out which means they were probably oil starved before you got it, and if the bearings were oil starved a lot of other stuff was oil starved, meaning you would be better off with a different engine. If 900's are bad would another engine size fit? Sorry this happened to you.

I really don't know LJ. I am far from a mechanic, I know it was running like crap, sputtering, which turns out was the crank shaft knocking, was really more like a "tick, tick" sound.

I do not belive another engine size would fit, I will ask to clarify, but it was not presented as an option.

I have a diesel ranger and the only problem I had is when I got mud down and had to have the belt replace. i had my since 2013 but is a 2014 model. It is skid loader engine in it.

I make stabbs about mine all the time or when ever a wheeler this or that post comes up. So here it is again lol. I have a 2013 Polaris ranger that was made on Monday for sure. I've bought it back atleast a time and a half. Could not give me a polaris. It spends more time on a trailer and in shop .

How much can you part it out for?
In our country 4500.00 will buy a decent older Jeep Wrangler or similar.
Lots more comfort....
Maybe even sell yours as is, there may be a Motörhead out there somewhere who has an engine but is looking for the rest?
I'd mitigate my losses, chalk it up to experience ( for the umpteenth time ), and move on to greener pastures.
I do wish you luck.
Osky

https://www.ebay.com/itm/POLARIS-RZR-800...-CQ&vxp=mtr

Might be worth a call

How should they have known? Who knows when any machine or vehicle is going to break down?

I’d watch YouTube and find out how to repair a crankshaft.

put it somewhere someone will steal it..

get a 2nd opinion

Good evening Michael!!

looks like a rebuild kit with a new crank pistons bearings and gaskets is about 800 bucks on ebay

We use a Polaris Ranger 4x4 500 series 10 . We like it so far. You have to baby them.

I hope it works out for you. Best Wishes.

bummer. I think I would look into the used engine route. Just don't throw good money after bad. Sometimes it's best to just cut your losses and move on

Perhaps this was run harder than you thought??. Sorry you got taken on a lemon

do this first!

IMO a tick is not a crank. A crank is a deep knock. Running rough could be valve adjustment. Find another shop preferably a small shop, like said previously a second opinion!
Good Luck

I'd get a good small shop to rebuild , then sell asap . Like someone stated before Yamaha or Honda .

Option 2 . You may be able to feebay most of the parts and recover most of your money . But takes time and patience

Geez Michael. The more I hear about it, the more I feel for you. I'm gonna have to support the second opinion idea. And, ask around about a smaller shop. Big shops HAVE to produce big sales. Too much over-head. They may be 100% honest, a second opinion won't hurt though.

Seems Polaris has so many problems I can't see how they can stay in business, even 15 years ago they had a lot of problems. They make some of them less than 20 miles away

Hello Michael, as many have said I'd take it somewhere for a second opinion. I'm with Oh snap, I've messed up a few crank shafts, vechiles, bikes, lawn mowers and there was never a subtle ticking, think urgent thunking. I'd be real pessimistic about the lack of oil spewing out of the cases. The crank runs in oil and their basically telling you it has enlarged the hole in the crankcase and no oil is leaking out? Google and YouTube may help you to get an understanding of how these parts work together and why some of us are questioning that diagnosis.

I've heard that some of the modern Rangers are made in Monterrey, Mexico. That's what wikipedia says. If you got better info please enlighten me.

Been down the same road with a 900 rzr. My rzr was 8 months old, 2 months past warranty. The shop told me the best they could figure was it just stopped oiling for some reason. No help from Polaris or the shop where I bought it. I mulled over all the possibilities and went with the rebuild option(about $3,800). So far so good on the rebuild. It boils down to bascally two options: Spend about one third to one half more on the machine than you wanted to or do something that could result in collecting insurance. For me (and I hope for most) the second is not really an option. The way I look at it is sometimes in life you just have to play the hand dealt to you. You win a few and loose a few, even though loosing sucks it’s just part of it.

I have two Polaris 800 6x6s. One Ranger, one Sportsman. Neither use or lose any oil. About 3500 miles on each. Both get used hard. Tundra, mud, hills, willow bashing, river crossings, pulling trailers with fuel/gear or moose/caribou. I've had some electrical issues with wires breaking inside the pod on the Sportsman and above the airbox and a couple boots and that's it. I change oil on a regular basis and check nearly every day.

I had a buddy bought an 800 atv used from a dealer very low mileage. He only used for maple sugaring short trips. When he brought to my camp for a long ride it would quit like it had no gas. It did it for two years. The dealer ship found no problem. I went on youtube and found the problem in ten minutes. common problem with polaris 800 atv fuel pump failure. Cost him 1100.00 dollars. works fine now he plans on trading it in a couple years for a honda. Maybe check on trade in value as is and repaired still a loss but maybe less. Seems like polaris should no of the 800 atv fuel pump problem but they wont addmitt to it. Dealer that sold it to him said was owned by an elderly gentlemen and it had low mileage because it was to much machine for him and never had a problem with it. Funny that problem started the first year he bought it. Sounds like a load of crap to me.

Polaris customer service flat suxs... my brother had one with a warrenty and his started smoking... all his service work was done at a polaris dealer. oil changes etc...had a scored cylinder.. air filter was changed on schedule and Polaris said the warranty didn't cover wear and tear.......... he told them to stick it and got a kawa... I did the same to Suzuki when the magnets fell out of the flywheel and they told me it wasn't under warrenty anymore and I had ran Suzuki since 1985 with no problems....... nobody cares

I bought a new 800xp in 2011 it was burning oil so after the 6mo warranty I got the extended warranty it was burning a quart of oil every 100 miles. I had it worked on cost me $1200 they said it was normal wear didn't pay a cent. So I consider Polaris as junk for doing nothing on a utv less than a year old.

Sounds like the same story I got with my Polaris. Sorry but we won't help you. Now cough up a pocketful of cash & we will put your junk back together. This is why I don't own a Polaris now.

If your in them a lot though, the ride itself is worth it! Polaris rides ten times better than any of the others I've ever been in. That said, their warrenty sucks! There are prolly three rangers out there for any other brand. Wish they took customer relations more seriously!

I'd buy a different 4 or 500 for that kind of money... Good clean used on Not from a dealer.

Michael
What did you end up doing?

I bought a used 800 ranger for my company. It had under 1000 miles, and was an oil burner. We added oil every morning. It was a pain, but it always ran good.

Stop buying polaris rangers..... and razors.

The 800 and 1200 have many engine problems that polaris won't warranty.
The newer rangers (2012 and up) have bad bolts in the front A arms that break and cause lots of damage and polaris won't warranty.