As with so many others out there I have experienced my fair share of frustrating dropouts with the Vector 3 pedals. Was planning to send mine to Garmin this week, but decided to have one last look. Noticed that the area where the two little metal “horns” of the battery cap make contact with the bottom of the battery housing was a bit dirty with blackish stuff. Removed it with alcohol, dropouts gone. The cardboard trick also works as an additional rescue, but mine currently working without that. Will try out the CR1/3N/2L76/2LR44 batteries as well. Unfortunately those are extremely hard to find in SA.
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I had the same issues as you. I went through two sets of pedals and still had problems. The CR1 batteries appear to have solved my problems.
Yes, I also switched to CR1/3N 2 months ago and has zero problems since.
Check out this video:
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Hadn’t seen this. Thanks! Haven’t had issues since using baby oil, but will switch to these next time I run out of batteries.
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I had problems that were driving me crazy. They have been perfect since I started with the baby oil.
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I have had exactly the same issue. I am on my third set and while Garmin have been really good at replacing the product every time, the fact of the matter, is that there is something fundamentally wrong with the design. That’s an epidemic failure that should have commanded a product recall. This issue has affected most of my rides, training, etc…and that is just not acceptable for a brand that considers itself as market leader…
Had my Vector 3 pedals (pair) for 2+ years with minor solved problems. Just recently changed the batteries - green lights everywhere - but they won’t pair to my Garmin 520. Any ideas?
Do you have another ANT+ device you can pair with to rule out the 520 being the problem? Are you able to pair the pedals with a device using bluetooth (phone, iPad etc)? Presumably you’ve tried turning the 520 off and on again?
Yes, did all the obvious with the Edge. Will try using bluetooth to the pedals - thanks
Have you followed the link higher up about putting baby oil between the batteries. That is the official garmin solution. See my earlier post. I have had them for 2-3 years now V2 and now V3, and they have been fine. No dropouts with baby oil.
Hi there, probably a bit late for all this but I have a pair of vector 3 pedals and they’re rubbish. I’ve returned them once because the right pedal was not reporting data and the new replacement set appears to do exactly the same. The garmin 830 head unit didn’t warn me it was missing data or anything and when I ride they seem fine but I can see iin the garmin connect analysis afterwards that the right pedal is losing signal. It’s annoying because it makes you doubt the accuracy of the data. you can see the for some revolutions that 100% power is coming from the left pedal even though I’m pedalling smoothly. Is this what you guys mean by dropouts ? If so how can I fix it? I’m wondering whether to just accept the imperfection or go for a refund.
I have the faveros too and they’ve been much better thou I ended up sending them back as they were about 5% lower than my wattbike. Excellent service from favero who replaced the sensors very quickly and since been fine. To be honest if they’d said they were ok I’d have taken them back as 5% doesn’t seem to bad and clearly the wattbike could be a bit high
Asking the simple question first: have you linked the pedals? You must link the right pedal to the left each time you install or change batteries and on first use. That got me once or twice. You can link the pedals in the Garmin Connect app.
Yep, they are connected. I wouldn’t even notice there was an issue unless it was for the graphs on the garmin connect app.
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I have finally fixed this problem and it is a hardware problem as I thought! I have completed 3 rides since this fix and not one drop-out of power, I am soo relieved! Here is the link to the YouTube video that sorted the problem. I have had my pedals now for about a year. First I had problems where messages would show on my Edge 520 saying the left pedal wasn’t talking to the right. Then error code 8000 was appearing after a couple hours of riding. Then I had to replace the 520 because the side buttons broke (it was quite old) and I replaced with a Edge 830. All these errors then dissapeared and things were reasonably good for a while. Then after a battery change I suddenly started getting many more drop-outs and the thing that pointed to a problem with the batteries was that when drop-outs occurred, instead of the power reading saying zero (0), all I had was a totally blank window. I tried reseating the batteries that had been new, using baby oil, but no change. Then I found this video and hey presto! It sounds fiddly to placing the cork behind the contact, but with a fine pair of tweezers and a pin, it was easy. Here is the fix: Garmin Vector 3 /3s Don't Work - Power Drop Outs - HOW TO FIX ISSUE 😆 - YouTube
As I say, not a single drop-out of power in the rides of 250km total!
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I just changed the batteries in my pedals and ever since have been having dropouts. Going to give this a try.
Garmin have issued new battery case covers and inserts for the Vector 3. I had an email saying mine were free. Took 5 mins to fit.
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I still got dropouts and right pedal missing after installing the updated doors, and the single battery. Going to try the mineral oil trick as a last ditch effort.
Which version of the doors do you have? The latest versions look pretty different to the first 3(?) versions and have totally fixed all my issues
i have the most recent version of the doors. Just got them in the mail from Garmin last week, went for a ride on the weekend and had the same thing. Not the “H” style circuit board, but the 4 pronged one.