Yamaha ATV Clogged Air Filter Q&A

When an ATV goes underwater or in mud, its air filter is likely to get clogged. One of our Live Q&A viewers had an incident with their Yamaha Raptor taking on some water, which caused the ATV to rev slower. Was it because of a clogged air filter?

Our resident powersports pro John Talley goes live every Friday at 3pm Eastern on our YouTube channel. In this session, John provides insight on what to check on a Yamaha ATV that went underwater besides just the air filter. Here's what John had to say about a possible clogged air filter and other problems with a Yamaha Raptor that took on some water.

Yamaha ATV clogged air filter

Yamaha Raptor Clogged Air Filter

I have a 2017 Raptor 700 and I went through a deep puddle, and the exhaust and intake went underwater and a bit of water came out of the drain. Now it has a slower rev. Clogged filter?

John Talley: Yeah, if you went all the way under like that, it’s time to part the machine and open it up. Open up your air intake, take out your filter, clean out the intake that’s going into your throttle body, go ahead and drain your oil. I would probably even go through the fuel system as well, even though it’s a closed system on the 2017. It’s just a matter of taking everything down, and do it soon, because you’ve evidently got water in places it’s not supposed to be. And the longer it stays there, the more damage it’s going to do. Go ahead and break it down and do it quickly, because chances are you can just clean it back up and get some fresh oil, clean out your intake and then you’re going to be good to go. On that one I believe the filter is reusable on the intake, so it shouldn’t be that big of a deal.