EP8 motor won’t turn on

[Hugh74]

Hi I’ve just been on the trails and had been climbing for about 25 mins. battery had only used 1 bar at this stage. Was going up a fire road when my cranks suddenly stopped. I looked down and a stone had lodged between the crank and the motor case. I removed it but the bike had turned itself off. Tried to turn it back on but nothing. Removed battery and checked connections and all looked good. Reconnected battery but nothing. display dead too. Checked wire into display and it’s connected properly. Bike is a Merida e140 500. Any ideas? struggling to work out the connection between a stone getting jammed and my bikes battery now buggered?

 

[Hugh74]

Now that I’m home I’ve had a chance to look more closely and the plastic motor cover is dented where the stone got caught. I tried removing the motor cover but the 3 Philips screws are made of chocolate and got threaded. Possibly due to the impact too. Bugger. Not sure what damage lies beneath, any tips on removing small threaded Philips screws?

 

[Spiff]

If you have DI2 derailleur, there is a "Crash Protection", it is named "RD" and it may turn off your bike after a crash. You can see it in one of the display menus, I am attaching how to reset it.

 

[Hugh74]

If you have DI2 derailleur, there is a "Crash Protection", it is named "RD" and may be it turned off your bike after the crash. You can see it in one of the display menus, I am attaching how to reset it. View attachment 71433

Thanks but don’t have DI2.

 

[Hugh74]

The dent! What are the chances of that.

 

[Spiff]

It is a plastic cover, 15€

 

[Hugh74]

It is a plastic cover, 15€

It’s the damage underneath I’m worried about. Motor won’t turn on. Bike is dead.

 

[flash]

Your connections are under that cover. Get an extraction bit and remove/replace those screws. Likely a connector is dislodged/damaged.

Gordon

 

[Rich-EMTB-UK]

It is a plastic cover, 15€

I like your optimisum on the 15 Euro's for the cover

 

[Spiff]

I like your optimisum on the 15 Euro's for the cover

That was my optimistic opinion: remove damaged cover, plug the loose connector and buy a new cover for 15€.

The pessimistic opinion would have been that the 0,2€ motor connector is badly damaged and it is required to replace the whole motor to fix it at a cost of 1000€, but prior to that let's be optimistic.

Anyway, that was almost two months ago and there is no feedback, I wonder what happened.

 

[Rich-EMTB-UK]

That was my optimistic opinion: remove damaged cover, plug the loose connector and buy a new cover for 15€.

The pessimistic opinion would have been that the 0,2€ motor connector is badly damaged and it is required to replace the whole motor to fix it at a cost of 1000€, but prior to that let's be optimistic.

Anyway, that was almost two months ago and there is no feedback, I wonder what happened.

Yes be interesting to know if he got the motor sorted out. EP8 coming on my next bike was my point of interest.

 

[Rod B.]

Hugh74,

Yes....the screws used by Shimano are made of chocolate. Actually, mine were more the consistency of butter. Shimano uses a thread locker on the screws which guarantee's the screws will get damaged when you try to back them out. I don't own a Merida, I had issue with the plastic case which protects the bottom of the motor on my Orbea Rise. Shimano uses the same tiny screws to secure the plastic cover.

To avoid dealing with the screws stripping again, I replaced all the screws with Hex style, socket head metric machine screws.

Amazon has a screw extractor kit that helps with the removal of small stripped screws. You place the extractor bit in the stripped screw head and it will grab onto the screw and you'll be able to remove the screw.

 

[Hugh74]

Sorry forgot to update on this. Took it to my local bike shop to remove as I'd messed up the screws. There are 3 electrical connections behind that plastic panel. The cable from the battery was undamaged thankfully as they cost about £140 to replace. The next one is the cable from the display to the motor. This has been completely severed. Thankfully they are not too expensive to replace about £17? The last cable goes to the speed sensor and this was undamaged. So all in not too pricey to fix, majority of costs was on labour as replacing that cable was a bit of a faff just how its routed. All sorted and back on the road again.

 

[Rod B.]

Awesome news...

 

[Rich-EMTB-UK]

thanks for the update. Glad you got it sorted.

 

[Hugh74]

...................... EP8 coming on my next bike was my point of interest.

The EP8 is bloody brilliant btw. My first choice was actually to go for a gen 4 Bosch but struggled to get stock but there was a Merida available local to me and I love it. No regrets at all.