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900 ACE Life Expectancy


signfan

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Longer than the chassis... by a long shot..... better built than the 1200 and far smoother. 

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I guess it depends on how you like replacing loose rivets and adding doubbler plates to cracked aluminum.  I have a 95 Wildcat with about 22,000 miles on it that has been in a few "incidents".  The front frame is much stronger now than when it left the factory, the ski stance 5" wider, the rear suspension has much more travel, and the rear tunnel is more sturdy as well.  But no Ski-Doo guy would doo what I did because it would add too much weight.  This sled was a standby last winter and got pressed into action in Hearst to complete a trip.  Denis can attest to that.

 

BP

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I have minimal XS chassis seat time. I Have seen a lot coming through our shop though. 

 

Other than idler wheels, sliders and drive axle & jackshaft bearings, I don't recall seeing any substantial incidents with chassis. Odd loose bolt , clutch maintenance, maybe a coupla motor mounts.  

 

Ride it with common sense and it'll respond accordingly. 

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13 hours ago, signfan said:

How many km should these motors be good for if the oil is serviced regularly?  30,000 km?  More?  Anyone know of any of them blowing up?

Have been keeping an eye out on these on the dootalk forum - no mention of them blowing up. Some wiring harness crimping problems on certain models, they share an electric starter with the 600 ace which has been known to flood with oil and quit working without much warning. The "skandic-expedition" part of dootalk has a lot of information as per the 900ace on hunting and trapping like machines - no cold weather starting problems.

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8 hours ago, Denis007 said:

I have minimal XS chassis seat time. I Have seen a lot coming through our shop though. 

 

Other than idler wheels, sliders and drive axle & jackshaft bearings, I don't recall seeing any substantial incidents with chassis. Odd loose bolt , clutch maintenance, maybe a coupla motor mounts.  

 

Ride it with common sense and it'll respond accordingly. 

I have an xr chassis, the first chassis that a 4 stroke came in. It has 25000kms on it. There are no loose rivets or bolts.Just like Dennis said i have done bearings through out the sled,one set of rollers in the secondary. replaced the factory cheap plastic bushings in the front suspension with bronze oil lites and repaired a weeping valve cover gasket.It has had a track change also and the bushings in the front arm of the rear suspension have also been done. Shocks recharged a few times.I will say some of the bearings and bushings did not need to be changed when i did them but i did them for piece of mind.The engine has not been touched and or removed from the sled for any reason.It has the original battery. Probably just jinxed myself..Lol...The 1200 motor has been flawless so i would assume the 900 Ace would be just as good if not better.Everyone that i have talked to about their 900 claim really decent gas mileage and they are really quiet. I am sure the newer Xs chassis with the r-motion skid is every bit as good as the original chassis as there is not much difference between the two other then body work and a couple of other small things. As with all things mechanical everyone will have a different experience but again as Dennis said " ride it with common sense and it'll respond accordingly.   Hope this helps  Sorry i forgot definetly check out "Dootalk". If there has been a problem with a 900 or the chassis it will be found there. They don't edit out bad posts that are not favourable for Skidoo like i have heard happens on other sled manufacturers sites.

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23 hours ago, signfan said:

How many km should these motors be good for if the oil is serviced regularly?  30,000 km?  More?  Anyone know of any of them blowing up?

One season and 1100km and about 46 hours so far. Cold weather starting is the same as etec, pretty much instant even at 30 below. Very impressed with that, but I did put in super thin synthetic xp for four strokes for northern climate's, not regular oil that dealers tend to put in southern Ontario.

Only issue's had all winter was a fuel issue, learned it doesn't like stale regular gas and will go into limp mode with engine service light on. Called dealer and they told me to top up with high octane and see if problem goes away, it did. So learned to stick to higher grade fuels (not sure if regular gas was stale at that station, since all other sleds used premium that day and there wasn't much car fueling going on).

Also if sled is on a hill or ramp for an extended period of time, it can shut down, since oil in reservoir tank gives the computer a low oil level warning, which results in a instant shut down. Happened few times when un loading sled from trailer, going down the ramp backwards.

Lots of power down low, feels equal to etec 600 up to about 60 miles an hour, then etec will pull away.

Should be an 50,000 km engine. You won't wear it out, before the chassis no doubt.

Only disappointing feature is fuel economy. About 20 perecent more then etec 600, when run side by side down the same trail on the same day. (note only had 600 km's on after that trip) Top range is around 250 km's it seems, etec can squeeze 300 out usually. Need to run them side by side again, now engine is broken in and see what I get.

 

 

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If an 'avatar' change was in the works, I'd look at a SkiDoo powered by the 900 Ace. Have heard great things from Denis, riders and media reports. 

 

A friend spring checked one (I tried to get him to Denis' dealership, but he stayed well south). Hope to try it out this winter.

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10 minutes ago, Canuck said:

If an 'avatar' change was in the works, I'd look at a SkiDoo powered by the 900 Ace. Have heard great things from Denis, riders and media reports. 

 

A friend spring checked one (I tried to get him to Denis' dealership, but he stayed well south). Hope to try it out this winter.

Etec is a great sled for you too, see how 850's hold up.  900 will have a disappointing top end for lake runs, you will miss the power no doubt.  Other then that it is a great sled.

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A recent magazine (American Snowmobiler, current issue..fall 2017) writes that SkiDoo may have been stretching mileage on the 850. I have the hard copy of magazine at home...but reading between the lines, riders aren't get the expected range.

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1 hour ago, Canuck said:

A recent magazine (American Snowmobiler, current issue..fall 2017) writes that SkiDoo may have been stretching mileage on the 850. I have the hard copy of magazine at home...but reading between the lines, riders aren't get the expected range.

 

Bossman got 240km on a trip last winter on groomed trails with a Renegade X 850, along side an Expedition 1200.  The 1200 had 3 bars left, the 850 ran dry. I got 220 one tank and had 1 or 2 bars left on my new 800 MXz  (different trip).

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Thx for real life results, Denis.

Didn' intend to hi- jack from initial 900 Ace thread.

Great info all around.

 

 

 

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20 minutes ago, Canuck said:

Thx for real life results, Denis.

Didn' intend to hi- jack from initial 900 Ace thread.

Great info all around.

 

 

 

fuel economy numbers are difficult. I am sure I could squeeze 300 Km's out of the 900 in Eco mode, no doubt. 600 etec's seem to be best engine for performance, fuel economy, and low maintaince. Have the 2012 still at just under 10,000 Km's, no issue's yet. 

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I ran 2300kms on my 900ACE this past season and I can honesty say that I do really like this engine. People will tell you that it's not enough power or its too quiet etc. I did value and appreciated everyone's opinion and decided to go with this engine. It was the right fit for me for what I do. It has amazing clutching I find on it as well the fuel economy was good. After the break in period I put it in sport mode and to me it had quite enough torque and power to satisfy my needs, but yes on the lakes your buddies may get away from you a bit depending on what they have for a sled. I did find it to be REALLY quiet! This did take me quite a bit to get use to as you tend to hear more track noise than the motor till you get up around 20-30km/hr. Although I will say that now after the break in period, I do keep it in sport mode more ;). I have not heard of any blowing up issues though. I do remember in a thread a while back of SLOMO stating one issue with I think oil getting into somewhere and there was an easy fix that people were doing on dootalk, ask SLOMO for the specific problem/fix. Do your regular common sense maintenance on them and they should last you quite a long time. Some I have talked to have said they have gotten around the 30,000kms + range and that was when they traded it in so it had lots of life left in them.  

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14 hours ago, Viperules700 said:

fuel economy numbers are difficult. I am sure I could squeeze 300 Km's out of the 900 in Eco mode, no doubt. 600 etec's seem to be best engine for performance, fuel economy, and low maintaince. Have the 2012 still at just under 10,000 Km's, no issue's yet. 

You don't have to be in Eco mode to get 300 kms out of a tank of fuel...Mrs. irREVerent typically rides in Standard mode on her 900 Blizzard, and regularly does better than 300 kms on a full tank....better than her previous 600 E-TEC long-track.

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7 hours ago, irREVerent said:

You don't have to be in Eco mode to get 300 kms out of a tank of fuel...Mrs. irREVerent typically rides in Standard mode on her 900 Blizzard, and regularly does better than 300 kms on a full tank....better than her previous 600 E-TEC long-track.

Maybe it will get better with more Km's. What I do find is on hard trails 900 Ace excels,  only 3 to 4 bars and etec was at 7 or 8 with light coming on a few times.  Doo must have a better more efficient cooling system on the four stroke's. 

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23 hours ago, SuperG said:

 I do remember in a thread a while back of SLOMO stating one issue with I think oil getting into somewhere and there was an easy fix that people were doing on dootalk, ask SLOMO for the specific problem/fix.

The same starter is used for both the 600ace and the 900ace, as well as one of the Seadoo models. The problem with the starter seems more prevalent with the 600ace model. Oil seeps through the o-ring from the engine (it is thought while cooling down) inundates the starter and severely fouls the brushes. A simple fix is to drill a small hole in the starter cap which equalizes the pressure. (top 3 photos courtesy of dootalk skandic expedition thread on which a very long thread exists on the topic)

 

Starter apart -

pic01.jpg.a5ee3b84405617395e63513d2a786f44.jpg

Hole location-

pic02.jpg.866ddc8e2445a8b200c9dd70f66f1ec7.jpg

 

59a69d603454d_pic03insideviewofstartercap.jpg.f4fed730aaec9402fed3e1b8124e3e08.jpg

Trick to hold brushed back in while re-assembling-

 

brushes.jpg.babbfe3ed8b582da4d67d9b14de79eba.jpg

(repeat for each of the remaining screws - after insertion, the 1" deck screws are easily removed)

 

A kit with new brushes is available from BRP for around $60 CDN. The list price for a new BRP starter is $450.00. Equivalent model made by Stocker is available from Wild Bill at +- $160.00. Kimpex has a replacement for $129.00. I carry around a spare on my machine and could make the change trail side in under 10 minutes. Your results may vary.

 

My first friggen car didn't cost $450.00........

 

 

 

 

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It looks to me that the engine oil gets by the drive end cap bearing between the shaft and inner race and fills up the starter due to crankcase pressure..  The drilled hole is probably to drain out any oil that gets by making a mess in the machine.  A further solution would be a thin coating of 3-Bond on the shaft when assembling the starter to seal the shaft to bearing area and stop the oil entering in the first place.

 

The 2014-15 Yamaha starters have issues too.  One would think that after this many years of development, something as simple as a starting motor could be far more reliable.

 

BP

 

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