Creaking on my Giant Trance e+2

[Crawford919]

Had my E+2 now about 2 weeks and it has started making a creak or popping when pedaling mainly off the seat. It did have a creak in the head set but I greased and re torqued and that’s all good now but in the rear shock area it pops pretty badly. I took it completely apart and applied grease to every bearing and bolt, applied thread locker and re torqued, even took the motor out and re torqued. I greased the seat post, rear wheel and axle mating surface and the rear hanger, no change. You can push up and down on it and sometimes feel it in the shock body but you have to give it a hard push. Also can give the rear wheel a quick hard push sideways and make it do it sometimes but mainly when riding on rough stuff or jumps. My question is has anyone had a shock to do this? I really think it’s in the shock but don’t have a way to know for sure at the moment. Love the bike but the noise is driving me crazy.

 

[Pukmeister]

If it’s only two weeks old, surely a Giant dealer should be fixing it ??

 

[Fast Willy]

I had a annoying creak. I chased it for a couple weeks. It ended up being the rear suspension linkage. I found it by soaking different areas with wd40. After I found creak I took all rear linkage bolts out & regressed. 580 miles later & it's still perfect

 

[Fast Willy]

 

[Crawford919]

Thanks Willy, I have the exact bike you do. I took everything apart again today and put a different type grease on everything, linkage bolts, bearings, seat post, head set, crank arms, etc. it hasn’t changed at all. Still clicking and popping. Oh well I still like the bike, hopefully I’ll figure it out soon.

 

[Rusty]

Still clicking and popping.

A friend had similar issues and ended up having his shock replaced under warranty. As this is a new bike I would be talking to my dealer.

 

[poppy]

Did you check your seat itself, battery area? I found a funny creak sound the other afternoon, only happened when the rear suspension was compressing. Looked all over and found a cable tie had snapped that holds the rear brake cable as it comes out of the back motor area and attaches to the swingarm.

 

[Crawford919]

Yes the first day we had it the seat itself was creaking at the rails and I put a dab of grease on them where they mounted and fixed that and it hasn’t returned. I did have to replace the zip ties that hold the rear brake cable and speed sensor. The speed sensor wire would move out when the bike would go to full travel on jumps and would be out so far it would hit the pedals when rotated. Lucky we caught it before it did damage. I tried several things to fix that but ended up taping the cable and speed sensor wire together about 3 inches and running bigger ties but loose so the cable didn’t pull rearward at full travel. See attached photos. The noise I have is not from the cables, I’m going to ride it today without the battery installed and see if it makes the same noises.

 

[Evolution Stu]

Did you ever trace it mate?
Mine was the main suspension pivots.

 

[Crawford919]

No I put a stethoscope on the shock body and it’s in there somewhere. I greased every pivot and it made no difference. I’m going to get my bike shop to hopefully replace the shock soon. I did have a noise that sounded just like cable slap at the front. Could tighten and grease the head set and it would stop for about a day. I put a Cane Creek fourty head set in it and fixed that issue all together.

 

[Evolution Stu]

I imagine that, like myself, you are pretty disappointed in the quality of “engineering” in these damn bikes! ?

 

[Crawford919]

I do really like the bike but all manufacturers could spend just a few more dollars on decent bearings and such and have so much less problems. Also there’s little or no grease on anything and the dealer doesn’t do it either pre sale. They just wait to see if any body complains and then do something at the first service. Don’t think I’ve ever had a bike that the head set or bottom bracket didn’t go out in a year or less.

 

[Rusty]

My dealer always strips my bikes down and greases everything before I take delivery as he knows I will be back and back until things are right. Not certain they do that with most bikes but I know he does it with all the high end stuff.

One of the reasons everything is under-lubed is the old hold-over from cups & cones. Back then they would wash all the lube out of a new bearing set and just lube it minimally with the lightest available to reduce any drag to a minimum. That is OK for racing but crap for the average punter. Sadly, that train of thought still rules in the industry.

 

[LeeBoy]

Having owned a Giant E for two years I think I know your problem. Mine was also making an annoying crunchy click . Well....it was the motor mount bolts. I believe there are three and at least two are under the side covers. I took them off one at a time and cleaned, regreased and tightened them down good. Wala, problem solved. Good luck !

 

[Evolution Stu]

On mine it’s always these two.

 

[Crawford919]

Ok I finally fixed it and it was the shock. It popped and cracked so bad lately I thought it would have a major failure at the worst time so I found a Fox factory on close out that was a 185x55mm and measured the maximum travel and found it would work.The stock Fox performance is 185x82.5mm. My local dealer is going to send the stock shock off for a warranty repair. Installed with no issues and rode it. The bike is now dead silent and the shock is super plush. Still working on settings and will report back with what I end up with.

 

[GrandPaBrogan]

My Trance e+ 3Pro developed a creaking noise that seemed to be suspension related. The areas it could’ve come from were the headset, the stem, one of the internal cables next to the battery, suspension linkage pivot bearings.

Regarding the Maestro pivots points, the nature of the creaking would rule out the bottom pivots because they hardly move relative to the creaking. The ones that move most are the top shock pivots and the main rocker link pivot on the seat tube.

Checked all of that... still CREAKING!

The culprit as it turned out was the Dropper Post. Not related to how it works but rather how it was installed on the bike. I had mine all the way down as far as it will go. So I loosened the Seat Tube Clamp and raised the Dropper main body (not the shaft that goes up and down) by about 5mm - and the creaking stopped.

 

[Clausguld]

everytime i Got the Creak sound on my giant e I just have to loosen the seat clamp and tighten it again then it will be silent for the 100km or so. Don’t know why but just learned to live with it

 

[GrandPaBrogan]

everytime i Got the Creak sound on my giant e I just have to loosen the seat clamp and tighten it again then it will be silent for the 100km or so. Don’t know why but just learned to live with it

THIS!

Anyone else out there that has a Giant Trance e+ that has developed a creaking sound... I suggest that the Seat Clamp/Seat Post is the first place you look - before dismantling your bike or taking it in to your dealer/LBS.

 

[The Flying Dutchman]

Creak hunting is probably the most frustrating part of the MTB experience.

I developed the 'creak' after 1 year of ownership and took the bike to bits and greased everything, found a few dry bearings/pivots and thought they would be it.....no the case. rebuilt the bike and still creaking like an old rocking chair. I have however located the creak is coming from the motor/BB. I think I'll wait for a rainy weekend before pulling it to bits.

 

[The Flying Dutchman]

Ok I finally fixed it and it was the shock. It popped and cracked so bad lately I thought it would have a major failure at the worst time so I found a Fox factory on close out that was a 185x55mm and measured the maximum travel and found it would work.The stock Fox performance is 185x82.5mm. My local dealer is going to send the stock shock off for a warranty repair. Installed with no issues and rode it. The bike is now dead silent and the shock is super plush. Still working on settings and will report back with what I end up with.

View attachment 20577

I was contemplating a new shock myself and seen there are more options at 185/55 which by my calculations would also give another 6.66mm of rear travel.

I'd be curious to know how the progression feels on the shock. I understand the OEM shock was tuned specifically Giant to have progression that matches the Maestro movement.

 

[Wernher]

I had a creak that wouldn't go away. I checked and cleaned all the bearings and motor mounts even the head tube bearings. Eventually I picked up when I completely remove the left rear motor mount bolt that the creak was gone, so I removed the motor again completely and noticed that the left side had two floating mounts and the left rear was stuck. I removed that and cleaned thoroughly and sprayed some Q20 inside the sleeve (same as WD40). When I pressed it in again it went in smooth. After tightening the bolts again the noise was gone. It is something that might occur again so it would be one of the places I'd check. It's fairly easy to find a creak in the head tube or dropper. The rear hub is also a potential culprit and can be isolated by applying sideways force on the rear wheel. Loose bearings is an issue on these bikes and terms to come back time and again and they cause creaking. The motor mounts is also easy to identify. Push down hard on the bottom crank from the side then repeat on the other side. If it's very bad you might even be able to use your arms to hear the creak when you apply sideways force on the cranks. Luckily the motor creak is easily fixed and takes very little time. Just make sure you don't pinch any cables when you re-assemble.

 

[Wernher]

Creak hunting is probably the most frustrating part of the MTB experience.

I developed the 'creak' after 1 year of ownership and took the bike to bits and greased everything, found a few dry bearings/pivots and thought they would be it.....no the case. rebuilt the bike and still creaking like an old rocking chair. I have however located the creak is coming from the motor/BB. I think I'll wait for a rainy weekend before pulling it to bits.

Check the two motor mounts on the left side of the motor. They're floating mounts and when they become dry and becomes sticky they creak like hell. Take the motor out, gently pull the mounts out of the motor. You may have to use Q20/WD40 penetrating oil to get it out if it is stuck. I lubricated with Q20 prior to putting it back but I guess a light grease will also work. That'll take care of the terrible creak.

 

[Herder000]

I have this creak as well now . I can reproduce it with my hands.
Where are these two left motor mounts? Does anyone have a pic they can share? I think I know which ones you mean but I'd like to check.
I presume I don't need to take the motor off? Just undo, grease and put these bolts back in?

 

[Crawford919]

I have this creak as well now . I can reproduce it with my hands.
Where are these two left motor mounts? Does anyone have a pic they can share? I think I know which ones you mean but I'd like to check.
I presume I don't need to take the motor off? Just undo, grease and put these bolts back in?

Mine wasn’t the motor mounts. A new shock fixed it. Took it completely apart and greased every pivot and mount. Still creaking. Sent the shock back to Fox. Got it back and creaking after 10 minutes. I bought a new shock and it hasn’t made noise since. But motor mounts are a solid place to start then move on if that doesn’t work.

 

[GrandPaBrogan]

I have this creak as well now . I can reproduce it with my hands.
Where are these two left motor mounts? Does anyone have a pic they can share? I think I know which ones you mean but I'd like to check.
I presume I don't need to take the motor off? Just undo, grease and put these bolts back in?

If you haven’t already, check the seat post first and foremost (as previously suggested)... before you attempt anything more complex in nature. I’ve had creaking noises that I was sure was coming from the front handlebar/stem/headset area only to discover it’s the seatpost/seat clamp/seat tube interface (not the dropper post portion).

What I do is loosen the seat clamp, raise the seat post by about 2-3mm and then tighten again. Don’t pull the seat post all the way out as it’s connected to a cable internally for the dropper mechanism.

If the culprit is there, then the creak should be gone immediately. Don’t over tighten as it could ruin the dropper post movement. Tighten the opposing seat clamp bolts gradually and alternate often until the tension between the two bolts evens out.

All the best

 

[Herder000]

Unfortunately it's definitely the motor/crank area. If I turn the bike upside down I can reproduce the creak by putting alternating sideways pressure on the pedals with my hands alone (granted a lot of pressure) so its definitely that area.

I did check the seat clamp and the other covers earlier as I was hoping it would be that.

 

[Herder000]

Is it the two bolts circled here?

 

[Crawford919]

Here’s what the mounts look like when the motor is dropped. The best way to get them to press out it to thread a long 6mm 1.0 bolt in the back side of the collar and tap it out. They can be in pretty tight and especially if they are dry from the factory.

 

[federic0]

So dropping the Engine is matter or unscrew four bolts? I’ve tried but not successfully, two bolts on the left and two on the right but engine didn’t move at all!