Anyone else get this Howling Noise? What's the fix?

[aussiegordo]

hi to you all from down under, I have a 2016 F3 limited. It has 15000 miles and is not ridden hard. At about 40-44 mph i get a howling noise from under the tank region belt engine area 4th fifth or top gear. I have have been told this is probably a harmonic distortion between the drive belt and the cog wheel. Has any one else experienced this and if so what is the fix. Looking forward to a reply

 

[MrMagicFingers]

Welcome aboard Aussiegordo,

It more than likely is the belt.

I get the same thing at about 90kph (about 55mph) and drive through it. It's not good to have that happening and is hard on the bike. The speed at which it happens is related to how tight your belt, it's length etc but they are all around the same speed. You can get belt tensioners as a 3rd party add on... I believe Lamonster sells them. Just try not to drive prolonged at that speed where the resonate frequency is the worst.

Tim

 

[Piratezz]

Also Look at the front pulley, there's been a lotta buzz 'bout this, there's a fix from BRP. My Spyder F3S, does this @ 70 Km/h, but it goes away @ 72 Km/h, so it's not bothering me.
Front pulley is most likely the cause for the whining noise, Spyders aren't the quietest ones...

Look for red dust on the front sprocket too, that will tell you if you need to put on a new sprocket.

 

[aussiegordo]

Thanks for the info, much appreciated

 

[motoguzziman]

I had a loud howling at about 54 mph on my 2020 RT. Took it in for its 3000 mile check and they realigned the belt. Most of the noise is now gone. It is down in the acceptable range.

 

[aussiegordo]

thanks for the input

 

[motoguzziman]

hi to you all from down under, I have a 2016 F3 limited. It has 15000 miles and is not ridden hard. At about 40-44 mph i get a howling noise from under the tank region belt engine area 4th fifth or top gear .I have have been told this is probably a harmonic distortion between the drive belt and the cog wheel. Has any one else experienced this and if so what is the fix. Looking forward to a reply

I had the howling at 52-54 on my 2020RT. Took it back to the dealer and he re-aligned the belt and most of the whining disappeared.

 

[Bob from Florida]

Our new 2024 RTL howls between 45 - 50 MPH. The belt has been replaced under warranty but it still howls at those speeds. The service bulletin for belt replacement on 2024’s says the belt can touch on shoulder of either the front or rear pulley. The owner’s manual says not to touch either pulley’s shoulder. From reading about this, it seems the issue boils down to front pulley replacement or belt realignment. It’s been to the dealer 3 times now with BRP asking for confirmation the noise is not present on another RTL - which the service tech was able to confirm. I would like them to fix this under warranty, but the back and forth is quite frustrating. Starting to think it’s time to buy the socket for the rear wheel plus a tension gauge for the belt and make an alignment change.

 

[AndysF3S]

Its an easy adjustment and you can do it yourself just make small adjustments, maybe a quarter turn on one side until you get it right. Take a picture and make some notes so that you can see if you are getting better or worse. Good luck.

 

[Gwolf]

Loud howling noise? Maybe a silver bullet... no? A silver arrow?... A Silver open end wrench set?

 

[Bob from Florida]

Loud howling noise? Maybe a silver bullet... no? A silver arrow?... A Silver open end wrench set?

The noise is very audible to the driver, but as a passenger, not so much. It's definitely a resonance, as you can hear it at half frequency at half speed - 23 to 24 MPH, then again at 46 to 48 MPH. The dealer is working on it, but the level of “control” over what can be done is astonishing! They were able to change the belt immediately because there was a service bulletin. Anything beyond that requires back and forth with BRP.
A side minor issue is that the left service panel’s retaining tab by the “pull” to remove corner doesn’t snap into place because the part the tab snaps into is missing. Likely it was broken off during the initial assembly. The dealer ordered the panel below the service panel, which was not the part needed as it turns out. After they replaced it, I checked the repair only to discover the tab by “pull” was still not plugged into to anything. I asked the service writer “if he thought it was odd that the service tech didn’t realize the problem still existed after replacing the panel?" The reply was “those guys pretty much only do whatever they are instructed to do…"

 

[VitoNam]

... The reply was “those guys pretty much only do whatever they are instructed to do…"

Depending on the dealership, service techs are paid to do what they are told to do and are not paid to think beyond that - Unfortunately.

 

[Snowbelt Spyder]

The noise is very audible to the driver, but as a passenger, not so much. It's definitely a resonance, as you can hear it at half frequency at half speed - 23 to 24 MPH, then again at 46 to 48 MPH. The dealer is working on it, but the level of “control” over what can be done is astonishing! They were able to change the belt immediately because there was a service bulletin. Anything beyond that requires back and forth with BRP.
A side minor issue is that the left service panel’s retaining tab by the “pull” to remove corner doesn’t snap into place because the part the tab snaps into is missing. Likely it was broken off during the initial assembly. The dealer ordered the panel below the service panel, which was not the part needed as it turns out. After they replaced it, I checked the repair only to discover the tab by “pull” was still not plugged into to anything. I asked the service writer “if he thought it was odd that the service tech didn’t realize the problem still existed after replacing the panel?" The reply was “those guys pretty much only do whatever they are instructed to do…"

Hi Bob. That missing piece for the left side service panel by the “PULL”, is also missing on my 2023. After a pretty close visual inspection, the area of the missing piece is not rough or jagged as you would expect if it had been broken. Rather, it almost looks like it was molded that way on purpose. Maybe the design was changed for some reason, since your replacement panel has the same issue. Or, it was a bad run. Either way, I just left it be. It doesn’t seem to hurt anything. Now I wonder how many people will go out and look at theirs.

 

[Bob from Florida]

@Snowbelt Spyder, they told me that the correct piece was now on order. It will be interesting to see if it actually comes with the “missing piece”.

-

The manual screenshots show the same number of attachment points for both right and left service panels…

Depending on the dealership, service techs are paid to do what they are told to do and are not paid to think beyond that - Unfortunately.

Very sad indeed.

 

[Bob from Florida]

Hi Bob. That missing piece for the left side service panel by the “PULL”, is also missing on my 2023. After a pretty close visual inspection, the area of the missing piece is not rough or jagged as you would expect if it had been broken. Rather, it almost looks like it was molded that way on purpose. Maybe the design was changed for some reason, since your replacement panel has the same issue. Or, it was a bad run. Either way, I just left it be. It doesn’t seem to hurt anything. Now I wonder how many people will go out and look at theirs.

Update - the dealership got the second panel, under BRP warranty, and it was missing the piece as well. It appears you are correct about it being made that way. The tech simply installed it again with no thought as to whether it solved anything. BRP approved the part, apparently their warranty process is also unaware of the design change. The belt noise is still there, the dealer did finally make an adjustment to center the belt which moved the speed for loudest resonance from 47 MPH to 49 MPH. Obviously, in the correct area - now if they would just approve a front pulley as easily as approving a panel change that won’t make any. BTY, the service tech wrote in the work order that it sounded “normal” to him after the belt alignment. I am hoping he just didn’t understand what to listen for as the service writer had no problem hearing it initially….

 

[Bob from Florida]

2024 RTL Update on various issues. The dealer finally said the resonating noise between 45-51 MPH was normal and if I wanted them to look further, then they would have to charge a diagnostic fee of 1 hour labor that might or might not be warranted by BRP. I also had my display go out for the second time which did not recover this time until it was bike was off for a half hour. The dealer also charged 1 hour to look for failure codes and wiring issues. The result of this was that I forked over $413 for possibly nothing other than depletion of my bank account. The belt was tighter than spec and was slightly loosened, front pulley torque checked, service tech stated a “slight” noise was heard but it was not abnormal. No codes found for the display failure, however, the battery cable was loose at the battery - I didn’t think to check that. The dealer decided that Can Am would not consider authorization of warranty work for the loose battery cable and the belt tension out of spec and so did not submit a claim. My suspicions make me wonder if they did submit a claim and got paid by both BRP and me! The problem is - how would you know if they did anything claimed or if BRP Reimbursed them? They did suggest putting a Lamonster belt tensioner on for another $400, which I declined after researching it and discovering it was $139 and 1 hours work for me. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. I won’t get fooled again!

 

[MakoShark2]

Been riding with this noise (mine is at 44mph) since forever (32K miles now) on my F3-S... I'm convinced this is related with the belt tension and it's some kind of harmonic noise... I've added a belt tensioner with no significant improvement.

 

[Bob from Florida]

Been riding with this noise (mine is at 44mph) since forever (32K miles now) on my F3-S... I'm convinced this is related with the belt tension and it's some kind of harmonic noise... I've added a belt tensioner with no significant improvement.

Did you have a tensioner on yours stock?

 

[MakoShark2]

Did you have a tensioner on yours stock?

Didn't came with one... I've installed one from Lamont's with the upgraded roller, didn't make a change...
Removed it since, because I wasn't liking the marks it left on the belt.

 

[Bob from Florida]

What is the situation here? How widespread is the issue with the resonance? Has anyone had success curing this?