Is my bosch motor dead?

[mastakilla]

2.5 year old motor 4k miles. Got lost and road through some snowy and wet trails. System shut off a couple times, then gave a 550 code. Wont turn on now. Battery is out and is fine charges normally. Have the fan blowing on my motor now going to give that a couple days.

Will my motor come back or is it done?

 

[RustyIron]

550: An improper load was detected.
Remove the load. Restart the system. If the problem persists, contact your Bosch eBike dealer.

Too much load? How much winter weight did you put on? Time to lay off the Big Mac's, brah!

Sorry... I couldn't help it. An error code is one thing, failing to boot up is another problem altogether. I've dealt with more water damaged systems than I can count--sometimes you get lucky and everything works after it dries out, sometimes not. Blowing air on a sealed system probably won't help to dry it out. Pointing your halogen work light at it would probably have better effect. Give it a couple days, put it all back together, and keep your fingers crossed.

 

[mastakilla]

550: An improper load was detected.
Remove the load. Restart the system. If the problem persists, contact your Bosch eBike dealer.

Too much load? How much winter weight did you put on? Time to lay off the Big Mac's, brah!

Sorry... I couldn't help it. An error code is one thing, failing to boot up is another problem

altogether. I've dealt with more water damaged systems than I can count--sometimes you get lucky and everything works after it dries out, sometimes not. Blowing air on a sealed system probably won't help to dry it out. Pointing your halogen work light at it would probably have better effect. Give it a couple days, put it all back together, and keep your fingers crossed.

What percentage come back to life in your experience?

 

[Gareth]

Any play in the NDE and DE bearings? Is the clutch still nice and free?

If you are the original purchaser you should contact your retailer.

 

[mastakilla]

Any play in the NDE and DE bearings? Is the clutch still nice and free?

If you are the original purchaser you should contact your retailer.

its all tight and nice. just wont power on. past the warranty period though

what does a new motor cost in us?

 

[Gareth]

If it is not powering up, has only covered 4000 miles, and is only 6 months outside of warranty then I'd contact your bike shop.

 

[Ark]

what does a new motor cost in us?

probably close to 1k if it anything like the UK
i think its 700-800 here
check all the connections to the remote and any display are plugged in properly?
with a 550 your probably out of luck though.

 

[mastakilla]

550: An improper load was detected.
Remove the load. Restart the system. If the problem persists, contact your Bosch eBike dealer.

Too much load? How much winter weight did you put on? Time to lay off the Big Mac's, brah!

Sorry... I couldn't help it. An error code is one thing, failing to boot up is another problem altogether. I've dealt with more water damaged systems than I can count--sometimes you get lucky and everything works after it dries out, sometimes not. Blowing air on a sealed system probably won't help to dry it out. Pointing your halogen work light at it would probably have better effect. Give it a couple days, put it all back together, and keep your fingers crossed.

BIG THANKS for your post saved my motor. So the first night I ran a fan in my cool garage and would not power on the next day. Saw you post about needing heat so I ran hair dryer for 15 hours on night 2 and it works again now. I thought it was done for sure.

 

[JimBo]

BIG THANKS for your post saved my motor. So the first night I ran a fan in my cool garage and would not power on the next day. Saw you post about needing heat so I ran hair dryer for 15 hours on night 2 and it works again now. I thought it was done for sure.

You could have had some water ingress into any of the electrical contact points on/in the bike - battery or motor - and when fully dried you were back in business. If the blowdrying helped accelerate, it was likely an external connection not inside the motor.

You may also have had some ingress into the motor, which generally won't cause immediate failure but more gradual. When water mixes with grease in the motor, all the moving parts get less and less protection and the motor starts to get louder.

If this happens, stop using the bike and contact eBike Motor Repair (EMR) in TN, USA. If you've able to remove the motor yourself, they'll likely be able to rebuild it for roughly half the cost of a new motor. If you need a Bosch-certified shop to remove and reinstall the motor, that will obviously increase repair costs, but you'd have to pay their labor for a new motor swap anyway.

I'm pretty sure that EMR still wants to expand their business with local shops nationally, so if your local shop wants to, they can send motors directly to TN themselves and get shop rates while saving you the minor hassle of shipping as well as the time-consuming job of removal and installation.

According to Google Maps reviews, EMR's turnaround time appears to remain as swift as they were when I sent my Gen 3 CX to them a couple of years ago - they had my motor back to me 10 days after I shipped it to them- still going strong plus it has a better water seal than the original.

 

[fasterjason]

With 4k on the motor it might be a good idea to pull the cranks and install a seal kit (BDU4XX) if water ingress occurred. Save some headache in the future.

 

[mastakilla]

ok new update on the motor. after it started working again from the 550 code and not powering on I took it up the mountain to ride. when i got up there it powered on and then had a 500 code instead and would not run.

so i brought it back home and used the hair dryer for 48 hours straight. now it is working again and i took it around the neighborhood and all is good. this weekend will be the final test when i do a full ride but i do believe it is fixed again. and the motor sounds fine, no loud noises.

i wonder if bosch extends extra courtesy period on the motors or if they will discount a replacement? hopefully i wont need it

 

[mastakilla]

update on the motor. electrically it totally recovered. but bearings were indeed damaged by water ingress i believe and motor developed a loud clicking within a couple rides. about 8 months out of warranty took it in and bosch sent out a replacement motor at no charge. lot better than paying to send motor off to service! new motor reads 0 miles now. only annoying part was the lbs is run by a bunch of disorganized kids so it took them couple weeks to the process done

in almost 3 years i never worried about water never even crossed my mind. but now i know these motors should only be used in dry conditions

 

[Bones]

ok new update on the motor. after it started working again from the 550 code and not powering on I took it up the mountain to ride. when i got up there it powered on and then had a 500 code instead and would not run.

so i brought it back home and used the hair dryer for 48 hours straight. now it is working again and i took it around the neighborhood and all is good. this weekend will be the final test when i do a full ride but i do believe it is fixed again. and the motor sounds fine, no loud noises.

i wonder if bosch extends extra courtesy period on the motors or if they will discount a replacement? hopefully i wont need it

Not for me they haven't with similar time and miles.£750 is what they want now for a new motor.
I've told them to fuck right off and picking my bike up tomorrow and going to send the motor off to an independent specialist for possible repair

 

[Gareth]

Was looking at a possible new ebike the other day.

Mondraker with a Bosch motor. I asked, do you have many issues with the Bosch motor? No they said, pretty much never have any issues. Then I told them mine lasted 3450 miles before it went pop. They said – that’s pretty good for an ebike motor.

Bones, can I ask how many miles your motor covered, how old the bike is and did you buy new? And is your motor powering up?