8 Common UTV Maintenance Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Having a UTV can be a source of utter joy. Yet, we tend to get too involved in all the fun and forget to do our homework when it comes to preventative maintenance.

Your UTV can be the epitome of fun and work, as there is very little that they can’t do.

But, you don’t want your UTV to break down in the middle of a fun ride or during a work period. Thankfully, the process is as simple as can be, so no worries if you’ve been doing a lot of UTV maintenance mistakes until now. Keep on reading to learn the top eight UTV maintenance mistakes and how to avoid them.

1. UTV Maintenance Mistakes 101: Not Cleaning Your Air Filter

Let’s start with some of the most basic mistakes, and that is not cleaning your air filter frequently.

In the simplest of terms, your air filters have a direct effect on your UTV’s engine. It can swiftly breakdown if it’s clogged up with dust particles coming in.

Sure, you can always buy a new engine. Yet, why waste money, when you can simply avoid engine problems by making a habit of cleaning your air filters, especially right after a mud-ride.

It’ll take you a couple of minutes, and save you a hefty chunk of cash.

2. Not Changing Your Oil

You might not be aware of how dirty your engine oil can get with every ride, due to the accumulation of dirt and debris.

Generally speaking, you should be changing your engine oil once a year. However, if you’re a frequent rider, and tend to take your UTV on long muddy rides, then you’ll want to change the oil twice a year.

Also, you can aim to go your oil change right before storing your quad away for the winter season.

3. Not Maintaining Your UTV Wheels

This is a simple task that tends to slip through the cracks of our busy daily lives.

That’s why it’s highly recommended to add it to your maintenance schedule and set it up with electronic reminders so you don’t forget.

Your UTV tires will have a lot of nuts and bolts, like axle nuts, lug nuts, skid plate bolts, wheel hubs, and sprocket bolts. All of those should get a frequent checkup. You can make it a habit to go that every couple of days, to ensure that your wheels didn’t take a rough impact from the terrain and your nuts and bolts are in good condition.

4. Ignoring Your UTV Battery

First things first, you’ll want to have a battery tender on hand for this one.

Usually, if you haven’t been using your UTV often, the battery can die in no time at all, and leave you with a depleted battery with a shortened lifespan.

You can easily avoid this fate by hooking up your battery to a battery tender, which works by using a little juice to keep your battery all nice and charged all through the winter. Just remember to remove your battery from the machine properly before doing this step.

5. Lack of Washing Your UTV

Let’s talk about mud.

A big mistake that the majority of novices fall into is failing to clean their UTV after a long day of muddy rides. Sure, it’s a ton of fun to roll around the muddy areas. After all, is a clean UTV actually been used?

We assure you that while we understand that you might want to keep the dried mud baked into every crevice of your machine as a badge of honor, it’s going to cause your machine to breakdown sooner rather than later.

Basically, the more dirt you leave on your machine, the higher the probability that the dirt will get sucked into your air intake and contaminate your fluids.

Furthermore, it can cause your suspension components to degrade rather quickly and rust up. In short, clean your machine. It’s not worth it. Save your UTV insurance for bigger problems.

6. Leaving Your Radiator to Clog up

Whether it’s mud, sand, or dirt, your radiator will get chocked if you don’t specifically unclog it frequently.

If you ignore the problem, this can overheat your engine, which (of course) will have your quad in dire need of professional repair that you can’t DIY at home.

An easy way to keep your radiator happy is by breaking out the pressure washer and cleaning up your radiator after a couple of muddy rides. If your radiator is already clean, then the water will swiftly flow through it and won’t splash back at you.

7. Forgetting to Add Stabilizer or Drain Your Fuel

Simply put, if you leave gas in your machine for long periods of time, it tends to go bad.

This is doubly true if your UTV has a plastic gas tank, so make sure that you routinely drain all your fuel out. The same rule applies to your carburetor and fuel lines.

On the other hand, if you’re dealing with a metal gas task, and live in a humid area, then you’ll want to add a fuel stabilizer instead of emptying the tank. After all, an empty metal gas task will easily rust in high degrees of humidity.

8. Not Adding Enough Grease

Grease is always a good thing when it comes to UTV maintenance.

You’ll want to ensure that you’re properly reading the bearings and pivots on your machine so that it can live longer. Besides, there are specific areas and gears that literally can’t operate without grease, like:

• A-arm bushings or bearings;
• Pivot bolt;
• Steering stem bushing;
• Carrier bearings (axle);
• Front hub bearings

When in doubt, just add more grease.

Ready to Give Your UTV Some TLC?

Keeping your UTV nice and operational isn’t as hard as rocket science.

Hopefully, our breakdown of the main eight UTV maintenance mistakes will help you avoid doing them in the future. For all the love we have for our UTV, it’s easy to set up some preventative maintenance protocols that will save us a lot of money and heartache.

If you liked this article, you’ll want to check out more tips and tricks in our automotive section.