Now what?!!! Coleman 550 no start

Bret4207 · September 13, 2021

2019 Coleman Outfitter 550, 160-ish hours. Was driving it slowly and it just slowed down and died. Won't start. Pops once as soon as I start cranking and that's it. I have great blue white spark on the spark tester, jumps 1/2". Changed injector, no joy. Changed plugs to new several times, no joy. Pulled injector power wire and tried ether through air intake after removing air filters- nothing! I do notice if I put my hand over the air intake where the filter goes, I get pressure pushing back at me. Jumped time? Stuck valve? Is there a decompressor on this that could be malfunc?

This is the one I've had that was inop for months and months while Coleman tried to find someone to fix it. Warranty is long expired now. I'll never have anything good to say about this thing.

Travis · September 13, 2021

I don't know how hard or easy it is, but i would pull the valve cover off and check the operation of the valves for that cylinder, if you can find a way to rotate the engine by hand, should go Intake valve, (compression, both valves closed) power (piston going down) exhaust valve opens (piston travels upwards).

bayoutim220 · September 13, 2021

I have the same issue with my Coleman Outfitter 550. I have less than 100 hours on it and it spent months in one of "Coleman's certified mechanics" garage without the issue being fixed. It does not run. I bought this UTV because I have bought Coleman for years because of the Coleman quality but I have lost faith. I need help. I am disabled and spent $10,000 on something that Does. Not. Work. I've tried to contact them about it with no luck. It's a shame, I've never bought anything new in my life until now and I might as well be buried in it because it won't run and Coleman won't help. I have NEVER heard ANYONE say ANYTHING good about it.

Scott Meszaros · September 18, 2021

is it getting fuel.....when my mule started that crap, i changed the fuel filter and it was perfect

Bret4207 · September 29, 2021

An update- I pulled the box off so I could access stuff. Checked the valves, both appeared to be at the recommended clearance, forget what that was. Then pulled the injector and checked for fuel spray, got it. Then pulled injector off the fuel line and checked the flow, got lotsa gas fast, no idea on fuel pressure though. Checked spark again and with another new plug- good blue spark. I tried giving it a sniff of ether through the injector hole and she fired. did that a couple times and she certainly seemed to want to run. So I put everything back and gave it a try. She spun and spun and suddenly sounded like she wanted to start, so I kept going and it did! I ran it around for 15-20 minutes and got her well warmed up. I still had that thing where it would get to about 5 or 5500 rpm unload and it would die. It would run up to the 6-7K area with no load (in neutral). I was thinking the fuel pump may be weak or the filter on the pump might be clogged a bit. Got looking around and found "The Motorcycle Doctor"s website. There I found the instructions on how to reset the ECU and injection system. That was "Clean the O2 sensor first and then warm it up good, run the engine up to full throttle for 5 seconds and shut it off at full throttle, wait 15 seconds and restart and drive it around at varying speeds and loads" according to the instructions. I did that and after some spitting and sputtering I was able to run down the road in excess of 40 mph at about 6500 rpm, which I haven't been able to do since it was new! I still get the bogging, like it's either triggering the retarder in the seatbelt system or maybe running out of fuel. I still wonder about the fuel pump. I don't the gauge and fittings to check it.

At this point I'm further ahead than I have been for some time. I'll update as I work on it.