Stuff to watch for on the 18+ cats.

LMLCHEVY · Oct 1, 2019

Cool. Pulled mine.
Put a little dielectric grease in the connector to the hood, am thinking I should do all the connectors I can get my hands on. Doesn’t look like the wires from the ecm connector harness have very good seals on them at the back of the plug partially due to how tight they are pulled so I might toss a little attention to that area also.

I may also replace a couple of the connectors with higher quality deutz ones that seal better with gold plated pins too.

LMLCHEVY · Oct 2, 2019

skegpro said:
Bought the side ones from moflo.

And the center I took out the goggle holder and replaced.it with the grill piece from the early release or snopro model. It's plastic, cost $15 bucks from Cat.

Then I bought a sheet of hydroforbic prefilter material from moflo, cut and glued it into place.

It has been awesome, really lowered the engine bay temps and the sled can always get cool intake air.

Am looking to cover up the snow hole on my alpha also. Did you just glue it to the underside and just leave room for the cables?
And the piece you used is the front grill from a snopro of which year/model?

skegpro · Oct 2, 2019

Glued it to the top.
It the piece from a non mountain cat model, anyone 18+.
I think the piece was $20.
Prefilter material cost more.

LMLCHEVY · Oct 2, 2019

skegpro said:
Glued it to the top.
It the piece from a non mountain cat model, anyone 18+.
I think the piece was $20.
Prefilter material cost more.

Alright thanks. I’m going to do the same thing I think.

E-Zmoke · Oct 2, 2019

LMLCHEVY said:
Alright thanks. I’m going to do the same thing I think.

Take a few pieces of black gorilla tape and tape up the holes on the side of the bulkhead by the a-arms, they let in a lot of the dry fine pow, you wouldn’t believe how big of a difference it makes.

LMLCHEVY · Oct 2, 2019

E-Zmoke said:
Take a few pieces of black gorilla tape and tape up the holes on the side of the bulkhead by the a-arms, they let in a lot of the dry fine pow, you wouldn’t believe how big of a difference it makes.

I’ll have a look and try to find this spot you speak of. I saw big holes where the stock bumper mounts which I will tune up if needed when I put a better front bumper on.

The open space between the steering tower and the gauge cluster really kind of blew my mind for a mountain sled to have with no options from cat to fill or cover it. Kinda silly but ima do my best to tune it up and make it look stock.

I still can’t believe how sweet those gauges are with all their options. Coming from Doo’s they really blow the calculator screen out of the water!!!

E-Zmoke · Oct 3, 2019

LMLCHEVY said:
I’ll have a look and try to find this spot you speak of. I saw big holes where the stock bumper mounts which I will tune up if needed when I put a better front bumper on.

The open space between the steering tower and the gauge cluster really kind of blew my mind for a mountain sled to have with no options from cat to fill or cover it. Kinda silly but ima do my best to tune it up and make it look stock.

I still can’t believe how sweet those gauges are with all their options. Coming from Doo’s they really blow the calculator screen out of the water!!!

They sure do! Lots of cool secret functions you can access in there as well like testing your tps setting, yeah the open space has been there since 2012 when the proclimb chassis first came out lol, it’s not as bad as it looks not as much snow gets in there as your thinking and it all melts right away, it actually works pretty good to keep your gloves, helmet and goggles warm and not freeze up or fog up when you stop and let’s all the warm air out from the engine, and yes beside where the bumper would mount is where I’m talking about they are little square holes those are what you need to worry about they let in snow cover them up

bjd68 · Oct 24, 2019

So I am wondering if anyone has been doing the ECM update on the 18 cats, I know a couple of guys did it last season with some having it run worse and some better but my 18 has run flawlessly since I bought it new last season with now 560 kms on it, Im deabting if I should even bring it to the dealer for the update ? Would not doing it affect the warranty ?

ippielb · Oct 24, 2019

bjd68 said:
So I am wondering if anyone has been doing the ECM update on the 18 cats, I know a couple of guys did it last season with some having it run worse and some better but my 18 has run flawlessly since I bought it new last season with now 560 kms on it, Im deabting if I should even bring it to the dealer for the update ? Would not doing it affect the warranty ?

Don’t do the update, I updated my 2019 alpha and from the dealer in January it ran flawless, once I had a backfire on a hot stop.

With the update, I lost rpm, backfires quite often, and has an extremely high idle for a minute after you stop riding.

tmo1620 · Oct 24, 2019

My 18 did the same thing after the update but not permanently, it went away after 300 km or so, from what I was told is it puts it back in a sort of break in mode, over fuels for a bit but goes back to normal, mine did anyway, I still never did get all my rpm back though, about a 100-150 short

ippielb said:
Don’t do the update, I updated my 2019 alpha and from the dealer in January it ran flawless, once I had a backfire on a hot stop.

With the update, I lost rpm, backfires quite often, and has an extremely high idle for a minute after you stop riding.

ippielb · Oct 24, 2019

tmo1620 said:
My 18 did the same thing after the update but not permanently, it went away after 300 km or so, from what I was told is it puts it back in a sort of break in mode, over fuels for a bit but goes back to normal, mine did anyway, I still never did get all my rpm back though, about a 100-150 short

I put on 400km after the update. It did it until the end of the season. Seemed to have gotten worse.

My sled ran better after the initial rpm break in then it did after the update.

I’m barely pulling 8,000rpm on not even hard pulls. Had my gopro on and was able to watch the rpm frame by frame through the video. And it peaked 8,050 when I got onto a tamer part of the climb at WOT. 7,850-7,900rpm was the most common rpm I saw.

My sled is completely stock other then a finger throttle, and it’s adjusted properly. The throttle was on the sled before the update for 12+ rides. The update happened, and it ran like it does now. No other changes then the update.

FastFarmer · Oct 24, 2019

ippielb said:
I put on 400km after the update. It did it until the end of the season. Seemed to have gotten worse.

My sled ran better after the initial rpm break in then it did after the update.

I’m barely pulling 8,000rpm on not even hard pulls. Had my gopro on and was able to watch the rpm frame by frame through the video. And it peaked 8,050 when I got onto a tamer part of the climb at WOT. 7,850-7,900rpm was the most common rpm I saw.

My sled is completely stock other then a finger throttle, and it’s adjusted properly. The throttle was on the sled before the update for 12+ rides. The update happened, and it ran like it does now. No other changes then the update.

maybe they de-tuned it so it will be trouble free for 4 years of warranty?

tmo1620 · Oct 24, 2019

FastFarmer said:
maybe they de-tuned it so it will be trouble free for 4 years of warranty?

It’s definitely possible, and I was told if I didn’t do the update that cat could void my engine warranty if I had an issue

kanedog · Oct 24, 2019

tmo1620 said:
It’s definitely possible, and I was told if I didn’t do the update that cat could void my engine warranty if I had an issue

Too funny. My dealer made me write an email saying I understand that no ecu update may affect my warranty coverage. I think warranty is a crapshoot anyway. It’s uncomfortable and always a battle. Well with Brp anyway. So far so good with Cat.

tmo1620 · Oct 25, 2019

Ya ive never had an issue with warranty claims with cat, so far so good since 2011 but I didnt wanna poke the bear and lose the warranty just in case I pop a motor, need to make this cat last another two seasons as I need an acreage before a new sled. Id love a new alpha but Im on the saving kick until I can get some land

kanedog said:
Too funny. My dealer made me write an email saying I understand that no ecu update may affect my warranty coverage. I think warranty is a crapshoot anyway. It’s uncomfortable and always a battle. Well with Brp anyway. So far so good with Cat.

bjd68 · Oct 25, 2019

Well sounds like maybe I should leave it, I did only get one year warranty so its up in december! Machine was a leftover so I didnt bother extending the warranty, but havent looked at pricing to extend warranty either , maybe I should ?

Sounds like some have had motor issues but could just be the crappy intake design that caused those engine meltdowns and I fixed all that so!

ippielb · Oct 25, 2019

bjd68 said:
Well sounds like maybe I should leave it, I did only get one year warranty so its up in december! Machine was a leftover so I didnt bother extending the warranty, but havent looked at pricing to extend warranty either , maybe I should ? Sounds like some have had motor issues but could just be the crappy intake design that caused those engine meltdowns and I fixed all that so!

I also got one year warranty. The letter I received, said possible engine fire and void warranty. So this being my first new sled I took it. Took it in, regret it. I am tempted to send my ECU in to get it flashed and pay out of my pocket. My warranty expires in January.

Rjjtcross8 · Oct 25, 2019

Had the re flash done on mine and experienced much the same. It did clear up after about a tanks worth of fuel and it felt normal after.

mountianguy · Oct 26, 2019

ippielb said:
I put on 400km after the update. It did it until the end of the season. Seemed to have gotten worse.

My sled ran better after the initial rpm break in then it did after the update.

I’m barely pulling 8,000rpm on not even hard pulls. Had my gopro on and was able to watch the rpm frame by frame through the video. And it peaked 8,050 when I got onto a tamer part of the climb at WOT. 7,850-7,900rpm was the most common rpm I saw.

My sled is completely stock other then a finger throttle, and it’s adjusted properly. The throttle was on the sled before the update for 12+ rides. The update happened, and it ran like it does now. No other changes then the update.

Why not take it in now and have it checked? There were some injector failures and or injector harness failures could be you have a separate issue. The flash may have exposed the problem more so. Use the remaining warranty to your advantage when its over and if the problem is still there then do a reflash.

ippielb · Oct 26, 2019

mountianguy said:
Why not take it in now and have it checked? There were some injector failures and or injector harness failures could be you have a separate issue. The flash may have exposed the problem more so. Use the remaining warranty to your advantage when its over and if the problem is still there then do a reflash.

I tried to take it in after my April trip but they said they are done working on sleds until next season. I’m taking my sled in and paying for an hour or two of labour for them to go through it and repair everything they can under warranty.

Stuff to watch for on the 18+ cats.

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