2015 Polaris Sportsman 1000XP Engine Problems

“After a 15 minute ride, the muffler was so hot it was glowing red. The heat put off by the muffler actually melted my rear body panel above the exhaust. The heat could have easily caused a fire had I parked the unit without first checking the exhaust, which I do after every ride after reading similar reports from other owners of the same vehicle.”

“Atv Polaris sportsman 1000 xp 2015 almost new, 120 miles on it. Exhaust heat melted the transmission speed sensor harness, fender and other smaller plastic parts. Flexible heat shields were not enough and distroyed as well. Vehicle got on fire (melted plasitc ignited), I turned the fire with hands (tks god I had gloves). Dealer want to replace parts only, no changes at all. Have been waiting 9 weeks for the parts to arrive, no parts yet. I'm a mechanical engeneer and almost sure that will not solve the problem. …”

“Exhaust becomes red hot only after a couple minutes of riding. The exhaust muffler is very close to the plastic fender and right rear tire. Because it gets so hot and sits so close to the rear tire I fear that there will be a fire. In fact, I have noticed leaves and grass catch fire from normal riding but they burned off without causing damage to the plastic. The plastic gets so hot it will soften and bend easily to the touch. The stick on heat shield under the fender gets so hot, it lost its stickyness and is now falling off. …”

“The poor design of the exhaust system routes the header past plastic and your ankle area. My exhaust has, several times, heated up to cherry red. The last time it caught on fire and melted the plastic and burned my boot (my bodily damage to persons). Polaris refuses to admit a problem. The heat is so great when riding it is next to impossible to keep your foot in the wheel well on the foot rest making this machine a fire hazard in federal, state and local forests as well as a hazard to being burned or loosing your machine to fire. Polaris is refusing to do anything about it.”

“When I ride this brand new sportsman xp 1000 the exhaust system gets glowing red hot, plastic fenders near the exhaust are untouchable, rear tire is extremely hot, and some grass that was thrown onto the exhaust caught fire. This is a two week old atv with 13 miles on it. I am not riding this machine hard. This occurred while driving the machine for about 10 minutes at a minimal RPM. Polaris says this is normal break in occurrences. These machines will catch an owner's property on fire and/or hurt someone substantially if this problem is not resolved immediately.”