2015 Polaris Sportsman 1000xp: fire, smoke or burning smell

Filed Jan 8, 2016 · Engine · 191 miles · FL · fire · 1 injury

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.

Filed Aug 21, 2015 · Body, Electrical · 120 miles · TX · fire

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. Hope polairs finally listen and protect their cusotmers safety, before some one get hurt. As per forums, more than 50% of these atvs polaris sportsman 1000 xp 2015, have the same problem, melted plastic parts.

Filed Aug 21, 2015 · Body · 420 miles · WI · fire

The muffler gets so hot it melts the plastic fender starts on fire

Filed Jul 5, 2015 · Engine · 20 miles · NC · fire

The muffler in the exhaust system glows red as a charcoal briquet under all operational speeds. This produces very excessive heat and renders the plastic above the rear fender well untouchable. The usfs approved heat shield is very flimsy and at one point a twig got caught between the shield and the muffler and was burning. We just happened to have stopped on the trail and smelled the familiar campfire smell and pulled the twig away before it caught the dry leaves on fire. This is an offroad vehicle and I find it hard to believe that a company like polaris would manufacture an atv with this kind of issue. This is not an isolated incident or complaint as the online "polaris atv forums" website is covered up with threads about this issue. Thanks for your time and attention to this matter.

Filed Jun 19, 2015 · Engine, Fuel system · 13 miles · TX · fire

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.

Filed May 18, 2015 · Engine · 260 miles · MN · fire

Purchased this 2015 sportsman 1000 xp brand new in february. Most of it's operation has been lower speeds at a local atv park. This past weekend, I had a chance to use it on trails in a national forest in northern wisconsin. I noticed that operation above 25-30 MPH resulted in red hot metal on the exhaust system. According to a website forum (polarisatvforums.com), and it's users there, this is not an isolated incedent. However, due to the extreme heat generated by this exhaust system, it appears one of the fasteners has failed on the exhaust system. When this happened, the atv got somewhat louder (not too noticeable when you're going 40 MPH). I then noticed my right leg begin to feel very very warm (almost to the point of burning. Looked down and saw the body plastics smoldering/smoking and a small amount of fire. Stopped the vehicle and was able to put the fire out with a wet towel. Had I continued driving (which would have been easy enough to do being that it wasn't significantly louder), I am fairly certain that the atv would have been engulfed in flames in no time. This is unacceptable on a vehicle with only 15 hours of use on it, and only 260 or so miles. It's basically brand new. Will be taking it in for warranty repairs, but it appears I am not the only one with these issues. This seems like a very dangerous combination when you consider where these atv's operate most of the time (national forests, swamps, farmer fields etc)- places where there is much fuel to add to a fire. This could result in a forest fire etc., if not addressed soon.