The MOST unreliable POS I have ever owned

[dave01]

Ron, not sure if you remember but thats what happened with my RS. Randy bought it and had no issues for almost a year. Sold it and the new owner had DPS issues. I am willing to give BRP one more try, but after that, my options will be limited. I use the RT for my main transportation when I am home and hate not having it. Looks like BRP wont be the only ones not making it to Biketoberfest this year.

Electrical gremlins can be tough. They are very good at hiding from the tech and coming out as soon as you leave the shop. Here is what I'm afraid of. You sell it, taking a beating as you say, the guy takes it somewhere, they find the $3.00 gremlin and he's sailing home free! I've seen it happen!

You endure the misery, he reaps the benefits.

Again, here's hoping you get that sucker this time. We're all rooting for the good guys to win this one!

 

[lookerjdc]

Sorry to hear about the electrical stuff going on with your :ani29:. You had mentioned in a previous post that you have lots of lighting accessories installed on your :spyder2:. Is there a possibility that some of that may be causing the problem with electrical drain?

well, if you removed all of them....

it sounds like something is leaking the charge, whether its a loose ground, or a frayed wire....

as others have said, electrical stuff should be relatively easy to isolate if they are checking all the harness connections

 

[Bob Denman]

I think that Mr Orange may be on to something here... The harness itself has lots of room for disaster contained within it... :gaah:

 

[dave01]

I think that Mr Orange may be on to something here... The harness itself has lots of room for disaster contained within it... :gaah:

You guys may be right. I am over it now and its up to BRP to make it correct. Goes in the shop on Tuesday and I have a limit on the time I have for it to be corrected. I feel that with the number of times it has been in, they have used up almost all of the time to correct it. But, lets give them the benefit and one more try.

 

[BajaRon]

Ron, not sure if you remember but thats what happened with my RS. Randy bought it and had no issues for almost a year. Sold it and the new owner had DPS issues. I am willing to give BRP one more try, but after that, my options will be limited. I use the RT for my main transportation when I am home and hate not having it. Looks like BRP wont be the only ones not making it to Biketoberfest this year.

Not trying to talk you into anything Dave, just saying we are pulling for you. No one will accuse you of giving up too soon. You've been taking it on the chin with a vehicle that is supposed to bring you satisfaction of ownership.

Maybe this cheerleader will help! Better than a gremlin at least!

 

[Blue Star]

Has your tech tried to replicate the condition?

You guys may be right. I am over it now and its up to BRP to make it correct. Goes in the shop on Tuesday and I have a limit on the time I have for it to be corrected. I feel that with the number of times it has been in, they have used up almost all of the time to correct it. But, lets give them the benefit and one more try.

Don't know how to explain without a long story, sorry. When I was a kid my Dad had a Chrysler that whenever it rained the car would drive fine until he stopped the motor. Then he would have to wait about two hours (or more) for it to start. The dealership had several techs look into it, but could not find it. Got to the point that the dealership stopped charging him for the parts/labor. Then one time they had a newly hired tech look at it, and he found it. Turned out it had a small crack in the coil. When it got hot the crack would open, the water got in, and the coil would not work. All the other techs worked on the car in normal conditions. The new guy thought outside the box, and replicated the situation. After running the car thru a car wash several times, he got the car wet enough (like when it rained) to have the coil not work. Car ran like a champ after that. Maybe what your techs think is the cause, is being caused by something else like a cracked wire.

 

[dave01]

Not trying to talk you into anything Dave, just saying we are pulling for you. No one will accuse you of giving up too soon. You've been taking it on the chin with a vehicle that is supposed to bring you satisfaction of ownership.

Maybe this cheerleader will help! Better than a gremlin at least!

Thanks Ron, giving them another shot at it next week. If nothing, it will be a low mileage seller. Lol

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk 2

 

[dave01]

Don't know how to explain without a long story, sorry. When I was a kid my Dad had a Chrysler that whenever it rained the car would drive fine until he stopped the motor. Then he would have to wait about two hours (or more) for it to start. The dealership had several techs look into it, but could not find it. Got to the point that the dealership stopped charging him for the parts/labor. Then one time they had a newly hired tech look at it, and he found it. Turned out it had a small crack in the coil. When it got hot the crack would open, the water got in, and the coil would not work. All the other techs worked on the car in normal conditions. The new guy thought outside the box, and replicated the situation. After running the car thru a car wash several times, he got the car wet enough (like when it rained) to have the coil not work. Car ran like a champ after that. Maybe what your techs think is the cause, is being caused by something else like a cracked wire.

Lol, just had a vision of my tech riding the spyder thru the local car wash over and over again. This has brought a smile and made my night. Thanks.

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk 2

 

[rollingstone]

Dave, I know how you feel. I bought my RT two months ago and after ONE day it was sent back to the dealer with a check engine alert. That one turned out to be "instrument panel interruption" and the dealer tightened all connections behind the panel. I didn't know how to check for codes until recently and I have had a few such alerts since then but they reset by turning it off and restarting about 5 minutes later.

Today I was going to go out and the dreaded "check engine" alarm came on as soon as I started it up. This time I checked for codes and it was P1614; bad throttle body. I'm now waiting for a truck to take it back to the dealer again for the second time in two months but the dealer told me that they were "booked solid" for the next two weeks and he doesn't know when they'll be able to get to it! Here in Australia the dealer network is pretty sparse so it's not easy to just go to another dealer. I can't go back to two wheels because of specialist medical orders so I'm stuck and if this continues I may just have to give up riding altogether.

I hope this isn't seen as hijacking your thread, I just wanted to say that I understand and commiserate with you.

Robert

 

[dave01]

Dave, I know how you feel. I bought my RT two months ago and after ONE day it was sent back to the dealer with a check engine alert. That one turned out to be "instrument panel interruption" and the dealer tightened all connections behind the panel. I didn't know how to check for codes until recently and I have had a few such alerts since then but they reset by turning it off and restarting about 5 minutes later.

Today I was going to go out and the dreaded "check engine" alarm came on as soon as I started it up. This time I checked for codes and it was P1614; bad throttle body. I'm now waiting for a truck to take it back to the dealer again for the second time in two months but the dealer told me that they were "booked solid" for the next two weeks and he doesn't know when they'll be able to get to it! Here in Australia the dealer network is pretty sparse so it's not easy to just go to another dealer. I can't go back to two wheels because of specialist medical orders so I'm stuck and if this continues I may just have to give up riding altogether.

I hope this isn't seen as hijacking your thread, I just wanted to say that I understand and commiserate with you.

Robert

No problem Robert. Good luck on the repairs. For the most part, the spyders have been reliable for many riders. Tons of trouble-free miles for a lot of riders. Mine just has gremlins, demons, or whatever you want to call them.

 

[tobor9]

Mr Orange' idea is good but be careful ! this type for trouble shooting is risky and can cause fires!! I was a telephone tech and saw cable techs use "Breakdown sets" to find high resistance faults and burn up x-boxes and splice cases.Make sure BRP approves doing this as they may have to replace harness or the hole trike!

 

[Arr MiHardies]

Don't know how to explain without a long story, sorry. When I was a kid my Dad had a Chrysler that whenever it rained the car would drive fine until he stopped the motor. Then he would have to wait about two hours (or more) for it to start. The dealership had several techs look into it, but could not find it. Got to the point that the dealership stopped charging him for the parts/labor. Then one time they had a newly hired tech look at it, and he found it. Turned out it had a small crack in the coil. When it got hot the crack would open, the water got in, and the coil would not work. All the other techs worked on the car in normal conditions. The new guy thought outside the box, and replicated the situation. After running the car thru a car wash several times, he got the car wet enough (like when it rained) to have the coil not work. Car ran like a champ after that. Maybe what your techs think is the cause, is being caused by something else like a cracked wire.

As a computer tech, trying to replicate a situation is critical to troubleshooting it. Surprised no one else tried to replicate it.

 

[kman]

Could it be the throttle body constantly drawing power?Just throwing this out there since they are a source of failure on some Spyders.

 

[dave01]

Mr Orange' idea is good but be careful ! this type for trouble shooting is risky and can cause fires!! I was a telephone tech and saw cable techs use "Breakdown sets" to find high resistance faults and burn up x-boxes and splice cases.Make sure BRP approves doing this as they may have to replace harness or the hole trike!

Good call. I refuse to do the tech work on this bike anymore. Its now out of my hands.Lets see what BRP comes up with.

 

[arntufun]

Dave, I have to say your a better man than I am. Your attitude towards your dealer and BRP is absolutly amazing. No way would I be so kind in the words I type towards either of them if I had your problems. :thumbup:

 

[dave01]

Dave, I have to say your a better man than I am. Your attitude towards your dealer and BRP is absolutly amazing. No way would I be so kind in the words I type towards either of them if I had your problems. :thumbup:

Thanks for the compliment. I have found you might get better results by giving them a chance. But, when diplomacy fails.........

 

[motoford]

You mentioned the lighting mods were all removed, did you remove them trying to track down the battery drain problem or was it happening before the mods?

 

[dave01]

You mentioned the lighting mods were all removed, did you remove them trying to track down the battery drain problem or was it happening before the mods?

I change things on the spyder from time to time. The lighting mods are all fused, separated from any other wiring and fuses pulled when all of this started. The battery drain issue was here before any mods were put on. When I first got the RT, it needed a battery tender if it sat over 5 days.

 

[r1100rider]

I change things on the spyder from time to time. The lighting mods are all fused, separated from any other wiring and fuses pulled when all of this started. The battery drain issue was here before any mods were put on. When I first got the RT, it needed a battery tender if it sat over 5 days.

I have serviced major applIances for 30 plus years and have had one of these impossible cases from time to time and everyone always thinks they got a lemon and thinks it need some big part but 9 times out of 10 it won't even need a part to fix it will turn out to be something super simple in the end there is always a reason and a simple fix,an owner just doesn't want to be the guy who has the one Problem that no one has seen before

 

[dave01]

Will continue this thread after BRP checks it out next week.