Ludicrous Speed question - 2002 GEM E4

Make sure you check to see if there are any Factory Recall Orders outstanding. I have a 2002 which completely upgraded on the charging side as a result of one of the recalls.

Where are you located? Thinks about upgrading my gem.

@Inwo - thanks for that. FYI I am still looking for info on how to buy a magic magnet for a Ford Think…

@Razrbx - are you asking where I am located? If so - I am in Phoenix

$135 with a note to:

Got it - I need to get the title cleared on this one first, and then I will order a magic magnet. Should be in a couple weeks.

Anyone know where to get a service manual for my 2002 E825-4

How do you go about checking on factory recalls?

Is this a new car to you? How well do you know of it’s inner workings?

Under dash, over on passenger side, do you have a bunch of wires going to an open circuit board thing with exposed resistors, diodes and caps??,
or do you have a black box with fins on it with a label on it marked SurePower?

What is your email address?

Hey @Inwo - I just sent you $135 for a Ford Think Magic Magnet… Let me know if you need more info.

Thanks!

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Try Check for Recalls: Vehicle, Car Seat, Tire, Equipment | NHTSA

I remember there was a website where you could enter the vin and it would tell you what’s outstanding. Since it has a Vin, it’s in a federal database.

NTSB’s site does that. There might be others though that you could be referring to, I don’t know. NTSB did change their entire layout and graphics in the last year, so maybe you are thinking of the old site?

@hkyman54
If your VIN search comes back with something that amounts to “Not applied - Recall window expired” , don’t worry about it. Contact your nearest Polaris dealer, they should fix it anyway. If they don’t, call another one or call corporate.

The “time limit” or “window” expired is referring to the Federally imposed legal minimum time a company must continue to honor the recall. Polaris though, has chosen to continue honoring / repairing the recall items. There is no requirement though for them to on these items though, so they can stop at any time. As such, I would recommend jumping on it if your VIN search comes back with unapplied recalls as Polaris just announced they are spinning GEM off, so when the new company has full control, they might stop honoring at any time… jus’ sayin’

@hkyman54

Also, if you have an unapplied DC-DC converter, get that recall done ASAP. Those old open circuit board DC-DC converters have been known to start a number of GEM car fires.

Could be… It’s been a couple of years. Don’t remember the site looking that nice. I know there are a couple iterations of the recall. If your car went in early, there’s an exposed model that looks like the original recalled one that could be applied. @dougl ran into this.

The website will tell you for sure. Agree with @JarJarJava. No reason you shouldn’t apply it

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Yeah, the old site was real plain vanilla. I too had not been on there in over a year and was surprised by the new site.

I recall seeing some step-by-step documents that were shipped to dealers with the new converters and what you just said explains why there were two different procedures. Never realized they recalled the first recalls. Nice… /smh

Ya it was quite strange but it seems there was a fully circuit-exposed version which was the problem version, then they replaced that with a potted version and then they used a 3rd party fully enclosed and with heatsink version. What threw me off was I found the factory recall instruction manual and it had pictures of the potted one(which is what I have) and the pictures were showing the converter which was to be removed(ie the recalled/old one). So from the docs it looked like my vehicle did not have the recall applied even though the records say it was applied.

Later one GEM service guy, the 2nd one at the Vista CA shop I talked with, explained the early replacement converters for the recall were the black potted ones.

I wonder if the recent buyout of GEM will affect that policy?

Was it a buy-out or a spin-off? I thought it was a spin-off, but I could be mistaken. I guess it really doesn’t matter…

I feel it certainly could affect the legally expired ones. I guess it just depends on how cool the company want’s to be and the effect it has on their bottom line. Fledgling spin-offs and restructures are known for trying to trim up budgets and arguable expenditures. Of course the could also be cool and keep doing it, I mean how many of these 18-22 year old carts are left and of them, how many weren’t repaired. There is a legal amount of spare parts they had to purchase for the recalls, how many of them remain could also be a contributing factor to the decision.