hello all, was out riding today with my wife and son both on 02 vipers , and my sons temp light came on after riding for most of the day, I know there has been issues with these. but the sled only has 600 miles on it and it did not do it yesterday, nor did my wifes come on at all. sled is stock with clutch kit and a can on it. does it need the rear heat exchanger? light comes on while riding, pull over let sit for a bit and light goes out, fire it up and take off comes back on in 1-1\2 mile. its full of coolant, all heat exchangers are warm, it runs awsome, dosnt seam hot, but hard to tell, any ideas Im up north for 4 more days would like to try to fix it or make sure its safe to ride. 
is it really hard trail???
yes it was 33* early in the day it rained/ drizzled snow was crusty,he rides alot harder than my wife too. maybe it just needs the srx rear exchanger???
yes it will help for sure in those condition sounds like your problem
many member here made that change just ask i'm sure someone will help u out
I will take it out tomorrow and try it . its going to be cooler. thanks chris..
np i'm not a pro with viper i think they have problem with water pump too ..i'm sure viper people will pop out something
Dr. Viper
New member
The viper needs lots of snow or you will have heating problems. It has to do with the Y on the bulkhead exchanger the coolant bypasses the rest of the exchangers. they have a poor cooling system. I run SRX cooling system on mine but thats a bit of work not something everybody wants to do but it works.
Snowsnake
New member
Never had a problem with my stock 02 Viper,but my nephews 02 Viper had a belly pan protector put on by the dealer and the temp light was always coming on.If you don't trim about 2 inches off the back of the protector it will cause a wall of ice to build up between the front of the track and the front heat exchanger.It would come on pretty regularly so you would have to flip the sled on it's side and knock out the ice wall and then carry on.The dealer was the one that told us to trim it on installation,but apparently didn't tell his Mech.
daman
New member
Vipers are a strange breed for sure some over heat easily some do not but i do know putting the SRX rear cooler bleeding the system good and using 50/50 coolant helps allot.
Hatch
New member
I have had the same heating issues with my 02 viper. I added the rear cooler and no more issues. Until you get a chance to put one on, you'll have to pull over and throw snow on the running boards, that really seems to help.