2010 Honda Rancher

[brad dryden]

I have this Atv I started noticing every blue moon or so the check engine light would kick on and kill it. Well this only happened two maybe three times in a few months time. When I went on a atv trip it got alot worse and we got up in the mountains and the RPMs would climb and then mellow back down and sometimes it would do this and die and with this the check engine light would kick on. Then when heading back to the truck it would just die and lights and all started to go out then few sec. latter would kick back on lights that is and then it would start fine and some times they flickered maybe like a short in their.

So took it to the dealer and they ran a test on the check engine light and looked in the atv memory to see what was coming up but nothing they checked all the wiring and couldn't find nothing loose. After having it back from the shop haven't had a issue yet. Any ideas? It had water and oil in it.

[wtnhunt]

Bad gas maybe would be a first thought, but then that would not explain the lights acting up. Maybe a loose ground or bad connection, think I would check over all the connections starting at the battery.

[Shaun_300]

It sounds like an intermittent electrical issue. They may have fixed it and didn't know it when they were checking all the wiring, moving it around, unplugging connectors etc. It doesn't take much to screw a connection up. Sometimes when a connector is unplugged and plugged back in the problem is gone and can't be duplicated again. If a terminal was just out of place a bit. Or if one circuit is getting interfered by another one, moving the wiring around when you check it might move it away from the interference enough to have it not cause the problem again. Happens in my trade on cars and trucks too. Like William said though check over your main connections, make sure your cables are tight at the battery, etc.