scorpion56
New member
I've had my new (as in 3 miles on the odom leaving the dealer) 2019 F3-L for 5 whole days. There's always little nagging things to get used to with any new ride. But the most troubling issue from the get go was the awful FM reception. Much worse than an old Radio Shack pocket transistor radio. I'm in an area bombarded with FM signal so I knew that wasn't the issue. My second clue was that the auto-tune found exactly ZERO stations to lock onto (with the bike out on the driveway, with no signal obstruction).
So I started searching (thank God for this forum) and found that a lot of RT owners are having FM issues but they are more insidious like locktite getting on the connector, grounding issues and that sort of thing. I had also found a video on how to remove the trunk of a '17 F3-L because I was thinking of buying a rear fairing to convert the L to a sexier T for when the wife isn't riding with me. Anyway, I figure, let's at least get the trunk loosened up and look for the connectors underneath it.
Passenger seat - off. Trunk - loosened and being held up away from the body with a long screwdriver. By process of elimination (not too difficult) I see the FM antenna wire making its way from under the trunk, then snaking along the underside of the passenger seat, and disappearing behind the driver seat. Hoping that the connector isn't up inside the dashboard somewhere, I got a flash light and looked under the driver seat backrest to find........ yep, a disconnected antenna wire male connector laying a few inches from it's female connector, which is inconveniently wedged under the backrest.
It's either get the wife out here to grab and hold onto the female side with a needle nose or start removing the driver seat. We were able to get everyone connected with the needle nose/4 hands method, and just to be sure, I did my best to wrap the connector with electrical tape to hold them together from the vibrations of everyday use. Turned on the FM and guess what? Yeah, you already know. Clear, beautiful FM sound, and a million available stations to pre-set.:clap:
Yes, I will let the dealer know. What I've seen from YouTube, the dealer does a ton of the final assembly so this was a dealer, not a factory created problem. Did the dealer test the FM reception before delivery? Nope!
Why did I write this? Because someone with a new F3 might be searching for what the hell is going on with their FM reception being crap. This may well be the solution. It's a 15 minute job, not counting running back and forth into the house to replay that You Tube (which I'll post below).
2017 F3-L Rear Trunk Removal Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4ihJHPQTbM&t=4s
So I started searching (thank God for this forum) and found that a lot of RT owners are having FM issues but they are more insidious like locktite getting on the connector, grounding issues and that sort of thing. I had also found a video on how to remove the trunk of a '17 F3-L because I was thinking of buying a rear fairing to convert the L to a sexier T for when the wife isn't riding with me. Anyway, I figure, let's at least get the trunk loosened up and look for the connectors underneath it.
Passenger seat - off. Trunk - loosened and being held up away from the body with a long screwdriver. By process of elimination (not too difficult) I see the FM antenna wire making its way from under the trunk, then snaking along the underside of the passenger seat, and disappearing behind the driver seat. Hoping that the connector isn't up inside the dashboard somewhere, I got a flash light and looked under the driver seat backrest to find........ yep, a disconnected antenna wire male connector laying a few inches from it's female connector, which is inconveniently wedged under the backrest.
It's either get the wife out here to grab and hold onto the female side with a needle nose or start removing the driver seat. We were able to get everyone connected with the needle nose/4 hands method, and just to be sure, I did my best to wrap the connector with electrical tape to hold them together from the vibrations of everyday use. Turned on the FM and guess what? Yeah, you already know. Clear, beautiful FM sound, and a million available stations to pre-set.:clap:Yes, I will let the dealer know. What I've seen from YouTube, the dealer does a ton of the final assembly so this was a dealer, not a factory created problem. Did the dealer test the FM reception before delivery? Nope!
Why did I write this? Because someone with a new F3 might be searching for what the hell is going on with their FM reception being crap. This may well be the solution. It's a 15 minute job, not counting running back and forth into the house to replay that You Tube (which I'll post below).
2017 F3-L Rear Trunk Removal Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4ihJHPQTbM&t=4s
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