2001 Polaris Virage bad CDI again!

[johnsonrecreational]

Looking for a little guidance on an issue with 2001 polaris virage carb. Two identical skis, being to a customer, that have been sitting for a couple years. One received an engine rebuild due to low compression, the other was good. New engine ski started and ran perfect. Other ski started hard, ran ok, but not great. Attempted fuel system adjustments but it slowly got worse over 10 min run time and wouldn't restart. Turns out it has no spark. Went through hours of reading and diagnostics and narrowed it down to bad cdi. 11.7v while cranking. Tested ground and power at the cdi box and had battery voltage while cranking. There was not 8v going to the pickup coil via brown wire. Removed cdi from other ski, had 8v at brown wire, started flawlessly. Put it all back together, went to start again and had no spark again. Tested for 8v and brown wire and had nothing. Put cdi back in other ski and no 8v brown wire there either. Is there something that can directly kill a cdi box on these skis?

[casey67]

Welcome to GreenHulk.
Is the CDI red/pur connected to Orange terminal ?
The was a special service message for warm restart ( CDI wouldnt reset) the fix was to use the LR(voltage regulator/start stop module) to turn on/off the CDI. But then you need to test the LR for proper operation.

I've seen this happen on any restart, even a second start or press of button.

[johnsonrecreational]

Welcome to GreenHulk.
Is the CDI red/pur connected to Orange terminal ?
The was a special service message for warm restart ( CDI wouldnt reset) the fix was to use the LR(voltage regulator/start stop module) to turn on/off the CDI. But then you need to test the LR for proper operation.

I've seen this happen on any restart, even a second start or press of button.

Yes, the red/pur wire has been moved to the orange terminal on both skis. And it shows 11.6v going into the cdi while cranking. I bypassed the LR module with no results on one but I can try it again on both.

To add to the confusion, when I came out this morning to resume testing, one ski (the theoretically good cdi) had intermittent spark for 5 attempts, then great spark for 2 attempts then back to zero. While it had intermittent and good spark, it had 8v on the brown wire, which it lost when it returned to no spark

[casey67]

Other then connecting the battery backwards, we haven't seen the CDI fail in front of your eyes.

Losing the 8+ volts on brown wire seems to be the weak link in these CDI. It does seem to be more common now that they are 20 years old.
K447 had a write up to modify with an external regulator, when I tested that, another part of the CDI failed after like 6 months.
Not practical for a repair shop.

Yeah ,With consistent power supply,I'd have to say you have a CDI problem.


By the way, we get several members looking for repair people that will even touch a Polaris.
Do you want to add your location ?

[johnsonrecreational]

Other then connecting the battery backwards, we haven't seen the CDI fail in front of your eyes.

Losing the 8+ volts on brown wire seems to be the weak link in these CDI. It does seem to be more common now that they are 20 years old.
K447 had a write up to modify with an external regulator, when I tested that, another part of the CDI failed after like 6 months.
Not practical for a repair shop.

Yeah ,With consistent power supply,I'd have to say you have a CDI problem.


By the way, we get several members looking for repair people that will even touch a Polaris.
Do you want to add your location ?

Yea, I definitely haven't hooked the battery up backwards, and I agree, never seen a cdi just fail. That's why I'm going through the entire diagnostic procedure again today. Haha. Hard pill to swallow for me and the customer trying to tell them they have 2 bad cdi boxes that are $500 each.

Yea, I'd be happy to add my location. Any specific place I should do that? My business is Johnson Recreational Toys in Darlington WI. You can find me on Facebook!

[radio-active]

I'd be tempted to look for a bad supply or ground connection, an arcing spark plug wire, maybe an insulation break, a shorted spark plug, compromised coil.... all the kinds of normal things that can overstress any ignition system. Mind you I am not familiar with the Virage CDI system.

[johnsonrecreational]

I'd be tempted to look for a bad supply or ground connection, an arcing spark plug wire, maybe an insulation break, a shorted spark plug, compromised coil.... all the kinds of normal things that can overstress any ignition system. Mind you I am not familiar with the Virage CDI system.

I have checked all those things and it all seems good to go. But naturally, I will be sure to check again!

[casey67]

You could check the A/C output on the purple wire. A member here has some experience with that reading. But we don't have an official Polaris spec for that. It could affect the CDI waking up.

A close look at the 8 pin inline connecter.

I've worked on cars for over 20 years, I deffinetly don't like swapping parts and really dont beleive in new parts being bad.
Unfortunately I have really lost confidence in the brown circuit in these CDI, I have no confidence in the Chinese made electronics but even their CDI dont hold up.
K447 and Lakeside have taken an interest in CDI failures, Maybe we will have a solution.

Yeah, I've seen way too many CDI have the problem your having, a couple days ago I saw a new (20 year old) CDI not work.
Owner was getting intermittent good tests,but it never started. Known good CDI got it started.

https://www.watercraftsuperstore.net/

Picture looks like the Chinese model, Although their "update Kit " looks to have the PVL version.
Maybe buy one for testing, checking for other intermittent issue ( kinda doubt there will be )

[johnsonrecreational]

You could check the A/C output on the purple wire. A member here has some experience with that reading. But we don't have an official Polaris spec for that. It could affect the CDI waking up.

A close look at the 8 pin inline connecter.

I've worked on cars for over 20 years, I deffinetly don't like swapping parts and really dont beleive in new parts being bad.
Unfortunately I have really lost confidence in the brown circuit in these CDI, I have no confidence in the Chinese made electronics but even their CDI dont hold up.
K447 and Lakeside have taken an interest in CDI failures, Maybe we will have a solution.

Yeah, I've seen way too many CDI have the problem your having, a couple days ago I saw a new (20 year old) CDI not work.
Owner was getting intermittent good tests,but it never started. Known good CDI got it started.

https://www.watercraftsuperstore.net/

Picture looks like the Chinese model, Although their "update Kit " looks to have the PVL version.
Maybe buy one for testing, checking for other intermittent issue ( kinda doubt there will be )

AC output on people and yellow were between 6.5v and 7.5v, don't recall which was which, but that seemed to match up to someone's experience in another thread from a working ski.

8 pin looks great on both skis.

Yea, I'm not a parts swapper typically. I prefer to simply diagnose. Only reason I swapped this time was based on diagnosis and wanted to be sure so I wasn't ordering a $400+ part that I didn't really need.

Any idea where the most cost effective place is to buy cdis?

[randys]

It does seem to be more common now that they are 20 years old.

yep. capacitors go bad on 20 year old electronics.

currently I will get one good spark on initial start on my 2000 if I have anything less that a new battery with a full 12+ cranking volts. If my battery is older and not giving full as-new voltage then usually doesn't start due to needing more than 1 spark/rotation to fire.

Pull a plug and ground, watch the spark while cranking. If you only get 1 good spark and then stops firing while cranking then a capacitor in the cdi is likely going bad. also hook up to a battery charger and attempt to start, if fires on the battery charger (usually around 14.3-14.5 volts) then also a clue to a bad cdi capacitor.

My fix the last few seasons is to have a fresh battery and keep the carbs in top shape so fires up on first try to minimize cranking.

[johnsonrecreational]

Just an update on this thread. Turns out, I experienced the rare case of watching two CDI boxes fail before me eyes. New cdi in each ski and both worked perfectly now. Thanks to everyone for the help.

[Uncletinman]

Just an update on this thread. Turns out, I experienced the rare case of watching two CDI boxes fail before me eyes. New cdi in each ski and both worked perfectly now. Thanks to everyone for the help.

WOW.. what was the cost of the CDI? brand? and where did you source it? Thanks.

[Cole_1812]

I got a cdi for my 2000 Virage tx 1200 from Pelican Rapids Powersports for $530. Try asking them if they can get you one. It took 2 weeks for it to get shipped to me since they had to reprogram it to my ski but I highly recommend them.

[Uncletinman]

I got a cdi for my 2000 Virage tx 1200 from Pelican Rapids Powersports for $530. Try asking them if they can get you one. It took 2 weeks for it to get shipped to me since they had to reprogram it to my ski but I highly recommend them.

I see they have a listing on Ebay for $800 for a NEW one. and Martos has one for $1000.

[Cole_1812]

I sent my cdi out to Pelican Rapids to get it tested so I could know for sure if it was bad or not. They emailed me a few days later saying it was bad and they could get me a new oem replacement one for $530, I thought I would end up paying $800-1000 so I jumped on the deal for $530.