- E-bikes are the pinnacle of technology at the moment,
but when we're out and about on the trails
mixing electricity with mud and the water isn't a good mix
and understandably, things can actually go wrong
and fail on your e-bike.
But fear not.
Today we're gonna be taking a look
at all your common problems
and how we can possibly fix them.
(electronic music)
Now there's a lot of talk about
worn out bottom bracket bearings and motor bearings
in the e-bike world, but if you look back
to when we rode the traditional mountain bike,
your bottom bracket was a serviceable item
that you replaced two or three times, probably a year
if you were doing a lot of miles.
So getting a few thousand miles
out your e-bike motor bearings
is pretty good if you think about it.
But if you're out on the trail
and your motor's making more noise than usual
or there's the dreaded coffee grinder noise
every pedal revolution
or you've got a bit of play in the cranks,
then I'm afraid it's time to get that bike
back to the dealer, if it's still under warranty,
to get the motor bearings replaced.
If you do develop a motor fault,
as tempting as it is to go digging around in the motor,
I strongly advise against it.
Especially if you're bike's in warranty,
cause if you go tinkering around in there,
removing the cover plate and deeper into the motor,
you're instantly gonna invalidate your warranty.
However, if you are a competent mechanic
and your bike is outside of the warranty period,
there is some fixes that are fairly accessible
by just removing the outer motor covers, not the inner.
(strong music)
Another problem you might be experiencing on your e-bike
is that you're all set, you're ready to go,
you're battery's charged, your display's all lit up
and you go to pedal away,
and the bike provides a little bit of assistance
for a couple of cranks, then all of a sudden dies off.
It might also be accompanied by the speed reading
on your display not coming up,
just displaying zero miles an hour.
It's all down to this little thing on the back wheel
not being in the right place.
This is a spoke magnet and what it does,
in relation to the speed receiver on the swing arm,
is to determine how fast the back wheel is going.
But if this thing is dirty, or it's fallen off,
or it's turned around, or it's slipped down your spoke,
you're getting no data from the back wheel
and hence that motor cutting out.
If you're experiencing that problem out on the trails
you need to refer back to your manufacturers handbook
and check that the distance between your spoke magnet
and the receiver is in the correct location.
If it's a few mil out,
that bike won't recognize the wheel speed.
Whilst you're down there you need to check the wires
from the speed sensor into the motor as well.
These are quite common to get damaged by trail debris
or get pinched between linkage bolts,
things like that, on full suspension bikes.
If your bike has a Bosch motor on it
then the error code will be 503,
displayed on the unit itself.
That means that it's got a speed sensor error
and you need to correct how that magnet is
in relation to the sensor.
And vice versa if you're a Shimano user
it will display a W011 on the display.
(melodic music)
So the dead e-bike's every persons worst nightmare.
You've pushed the power button to turn it on
and nothing at all lights up.
First up you need to check the battery level indicator.
Press the power button and you should have a row of LEDs
light up if you've got it on there,
and that should show a fully charged battery.
If not you need to be asking yourself,
was that battery in an extreme temperature,
was it stored in the shed and it's freezing overnight?
Because your battery will not charge
if it's too hot or too cold.
The other things you need to check is the charger,
was it plugged in, was it even turned on?
Was it connected to the battery?
All these things are meaning that
you're gonna plug a dead battery into your e-bike.
If you're running the Bosch system,
you've got an external battery.
A really good way of getting over any battery problems
is by doing a soft reset on the battery.
The way you do that is just by finding the power button,
holding that down for 30 seconds,
waiting for the lights to change,
and that should hopefully cure any battery problems
you might have.
(melodic music)
So if you turn your bike on
but the display isn't lighting up.
You've got power from the battery
but this part isn't actually lighting up,
could mean that you've got a flat battery
in your display unit.
So underneath there's usually a little cover,
you can undo that, there'll be a couple
of watch-sized batteries in the display unit.
Especially if you've had the bike for some time,
it could be worth checking those out.
Replace them with fresh ones
and you could see your display turn back on.
And if you're running the Shimano Steps system
and you're having a problem with the display,
I strongly suggest you go into underneath it
and check that the connections are firmly into that unit
with a strong click because sometimes they can get snagged
and come disconnected from the unit too.
(melodic music)
If your e-bike still isn't providing any assist at all,
you've put a fully fresh battery into it,
it's worth checking things like the wiring harness, below.
Is it even connected to your bike?
Have you remembered to plug it in?
Have a look at the connections too,
if they're dirty give then a clean,
give it contact cleaner in there,
maybe put a bit of dielectric grease in there
just to make sure it's got a really good contact.
It's also worth checking the wires as well from the harness
to make sure they're not broken, twisted or kinked.
Give that a good push,
make sure the connection is really good.
(strong music)
When you're out and about in the elements on your e-bike
it's quite easy to get water into the system,
and I mean water ingress into the battery.
Now Specialized have been really good with this.
What they do is display a couple of red lights
on the battery,
meaning that water has gotten in to the system.
Best bet is to whip the battery out,
put it somewhere nice and warm, nice and dry,
for a few hours, and hopefully that water should evaporate
out of the system.
It's vitally important not to confuse this
with the reserve battery power.
Meaning that if you run the battery down
you will get a couple of red lights
warning you that it's low on juice,
not that there's water in the system.
However, if the battery drying out thing
doesn't work for you,
it's time to take the battery back to your dealer,
if it's still under warranty.
(melodic music)
So let's talk a little bit about error codes.
It's really simple.
Basically you need to turn on the bike,
the bike will flash up with an error code
on your display unit, if you have one that is.
You just need to look at what error codes it says,
be it 503 or 502, 500.
Just google error 500 and then motor system
and the operating system that you've got on your bike.
From there you should be able to diagnose
what the problem is.
If you've got a bike that connects via an app,
or via Bluetooth, you should be able to go to your app
and there's usually a diagnose section
which will link up to the bike and it will actually diagnose
what that problem is from your bike
and then you need to go from there
and try and rectify the problem.
So if your bike is running the Bosch system,
and you turn the system on and it says error 500
on the screen, it means that there's an internal error
on the system, on the motor.
Unfortunately this isn't something that you guys can fix.
You need to get the bike back to your Bosch dealer A.S.A.P
and get them to have a look at the motor.
If you're a Shimano Steps user on your bike,
you might be really keen to get out there riding.
So you've got your bike, you've turned it on,
you feet are on the peddles,
you're just waiting for the system to kick in.
Your display's lit up and it's beeping straight away
and it's saying W013 accompanied with a load of beeps.
Basically it means that the torque sensor hasn't
initialized properly, and it won't provide any power.
So what you need to do, don't panic,
just turn the system off,
take your weight away from the pedals, turn it back on,
keeping your feet clear of the pedals,
and hopefully it should turn back on, no errors.
Get on with your ride!
So my top three quick fixes out on the trail
for e-bike problems is,
number one, is to turn the bike off and then back on again.
Wait a few seconds between, it might cure all your problems.
Number two is check the speed sensor magnet
is in the right location.
And lastly is making sure the battery is in your bike,
making sure it's fully charged,
and it's definitely connected to the whole bike.
So there you go.
I really hope you've enjoyed today's video
on the top e-bike common problems that you might experience
out there on the trail and hopefully how to rectify them.
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