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DS 250 Overheating

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12K views 3 replies 2 participants last post by  ctuinstra  
#1 ·
Hello,

My wife has a 2006 DS 250 and last time out the overheat lamp came on after a short ride of about 15 minutes. We ride in North Florida, but have had this out for hours on hot days with no issues and it was nice and cool this day (maybe 65 degrees). So first thing I did was check the reservoir and didn't see any water, so added water to that. It had been off for a few minutes so the light was off and we rode back but the light came back on.

So what I have done thus far is clean the radiator from any mud and checked to make sure it didn't lose water. I did notice that the fan wasn't coming on, but I honestly don't ever recall the fan coming on. It probably has been, but just didn't notice since I don't ride it and assume it should come on when the overheat lamp comes on.
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Then when I go to check the fuse I notice a ton of leaves under the seat, and then remember a dead mouse we found in the shed, so believe he built a nest in the two weeks since we rode it. Fuse was good but did see some wires chewed on to that little electrical box near the fuse box (don't know what it is yet). The copper was showing, but appeared to be Ok as far as not having an open. Also didn't see any places where it would be shorting, either to themselves or to ground. I then hardwired the fan directly to the battery to make sure it worked, and it does.

I have ordered a service manual, but thought I would try the forum while I waited for it. I'm thinking it's either the temperature sensor at the bottom of the radiator (that I read about in another thread) or maybe the box near the buse box is some sort of solenoid and could be bad. I thought someone that may know more about these than I do might be able to offer some tips to figuring it out rather than just shotgunning parts, or maybe I'm heading down the wrong path with this fan thing all together?

I'd appreciate any tips or advice you might be able to offer. Sorry for the long question, but I've found that most times people don't put in all the details needed to come up with any conclusions so I was trying to be thorough. Thanks.
 
#2 ·
Your right about posting enough information. Sometimes when I see just one sentences and asks "what's my problem", I just move on because I don't want to cover every possible issue that could be causing a problem. So you did a great job of explaining what is going on.

You said you added water to the reservior, did you check the radiator level or just the bottle? Check the radiator and top it off also.

You mention wires that could potentially be shorting, if that is the case then it should show it as overheating even when the engine is cold. So if the engine is cold and it DOESN'T show that it's overheating until it's running for awhile, then it's NOT a wiring issue and most likely actually over heating.

You're right about the fan, I don't know if my fan ever came on. If it did, I didn't notice it. The DS 250 is not a machine typical of overheating.

I'm not sure about the DS 250, but the other Can Ams have a specific method of bleeding the air out of the engine and if it's not 'burped' properly, they will overheat because air is trapped in the engine. Check your manual on how to refill the coolant system to see if it requires bleeding (I just did my Renegade 800 today).
 
#3 ·
Thanks for the advice my friend. I hadn't checked the level of the radiator, but did so and it was fine. The wiring was a red herring, but I fixed that first anyway.

Once I got the bike home I took out the sensor at the bottom of the radiator. Put a meter on it and it was reading correctly, then put it in ~190 degree water and it read correctly, so it was working fine. I then shorted the wiring harness that plugged into the sensor and the fan came on, so I knew that worked. Put the sensor back in and started it up, got it warm and saw the water flowing so I knew the water pump and thermostat were working properly (then thought to myself that I really should have done that first
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).

So at this point, I'm like what the heck. Ran it for a longer while, and the fan came on and then not too long afterward the fan went off so that got my thinking that the cooling system was working fine. So I took it and ran it even longer and everything was fine. The light was on, but it wasn't overheating.

So everything was working properly in the cooling system, I had a bad indicator sensor. DOH
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