I'm shopping for a used sled right now. I've read a lot about the crank problems and the maintenance of the isoflex bearings for the 800 motors. I'm less concerned about doing the maintenance myself and more concerned about it's history. Did ski doo keep the isoflex bearings until the motor was changed to the 850? I've read somewhere the crank issues pretty much stopped after 2010? Any other watch out years for a used ski doo?
What year did ski doo stop using the isoflex bearings?
- Thread starter eou_edu
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Sorry this is late! Oiled Ski Doo crank bearings started with the 850's in 2017. You are correct about the 2010 800's having a improved crank set up and its associated higher reliability. 2008 (2007 in Summit's) and 2009's have lower crank reliability and the associated primary clutch wear issues. The isoflex greased bearings were OK for the most part until they were overheated or lost the seal.
2014's had a lot of electrical gremlins.
The first 800R engines (2007 Summits) were almost all replaced the same year or year after. BRP used Isoflex for years before that and a decade after that. The bad press is from those engines where tolerances weren't ideal. Now I have other issues with isoflex, like why have a sealed bearing at all, and why was isoflex so damn expensive when you could only order it from BRP. But that's another conversation.
Out west of the rockies, our sleds didn't last 3,000 miles before needing to be rebuilt anyways so it was never an issue. If you were going to replace a top end, you might as well swap a whole shortblock because the bottom end was about to expire anyways. By the time the 800 e-tec came out we could pretty much double the mileage before a rebuild. Less to do with isoflex and more to do with Rotax knowing exactly when parts time out.
Out west of the rockies, our sleds didn't last 3,000 miles before needing to be rebuilt anyways so it was never an issue. If you were going to replace a top end, you might as well swap a whole shortblock because the bottom end was about to expire anyways. By the time the 800 e-tec came out we could pretty much double the mileage before a rebuild. Less to do with isoflex and more to do with Rotax knowing exactly when parts time out.
