My F3 Adventures

[PW2013STL]

In December I purchased a used Black F3s SM6 from my dealer. It had just over 23,000 miles, and it ran great with good car tires on it. Picked it up in late March. On our way to the MN first ride of the year (these are based from the dealer's parking lot in Mora, MN) I got a limp home mode, after playing with it for awhile it cleared and we were able to make it to the dealer. I told the owner about it and they took it to the shop and hooked up Buds. The read out showed bad throttle body / bad wire harness. I was told to leave it and that they would order and replace the throttle body as that was the most likely issue.
I also found out from the past owner - who was also on the ride - that this had happed twice before. The first time the computer was replace and the second time the throttle body.

The dealer had the new throttle body replace and I was able to pick the F3 up two days before we left for Spyderfest. It ran great all the way down and around Springfield. On the day we headed home (Sunday) after 100 miles into the ride the F3 went into limp home mode. For the first 3 times I was able to get it to clear, but the 4 time it would not so I limped it the 14 miles into the next town where my wife and I grabbed a motel room. I dis-conneded the battery for about 3 hours in the hope that this would help clear the issue. The next morning I was able to drive it with out the limp home message. Told my wife lets see how far we get. That turned out to be 10 miles and I limped it another 5 to a Shopco parking lot.

We left it there and I hopped on the back of my wife's RT and we made it home by 8pm. I contacted my friend Jim who has a droptail trailer, and picked it up with my Cmax. Turned out that the hitch on my Cmax was loose and would cause the trailer to sway at 50 mph and above. Made it the 43 miles back home keeping the speed under 50. Planned to find a truck to rent the next morning only to find out that it would have to be a 3/4 ton or larger with special towing option and the cost with milage would be well over $500.

I noticed that a friends light was on (this is now after 10pm) I called John and asked if I could rent his Tahoe. He let me borrow it the next morning and my wife and I headed back the 450 miles to Trenton, Missouri to retrieve my F3. We left the house at 8am and arrived back at 12am. We left the house the next day and took it the 100 miles to the dealer. The dealer contacted BRP about the issue. BRP told them to replace the main wiring harness. This should happed today.

The dealer -Caswell's Cycle More, MN has been fantastic to work with and even provided me with another F3 to use on our last Saturday ride. Turned out that I liked that F3 (2015 SE6 White with 23,000 miles) better so yesterday I traded for it.

I think this one will be a keeper!

[Michaelscs]

Congrats Les! It's a bummer that you ended up going through all that. I definitely know the frustration, but I thought the troubles were over. Glad you were able to work out a deal on the white one. I hope they did better than what you told me they'd do on Saturday.

Mike