No power after a wash??? Turbo Levo Comp.

[Explosivo]

Hose and brush wash (no real water pressure) and an hour later no power. This was 4 days ago and still no power.
Have tried charging to see if that would encourage it back to life, but nothing - no life whatsoever.

Help/advice much appreciated please.

 

[Funkeydunk]

Take out the battery, dry the power plug, take out the tcu on the top tube and put on a radiator, dry for a few hours, reassemble and see if that helps.

 

[Chris2]

I agree with Funkeydunk. I learned the hard way as well. Use only a damp cloth for cleaning. Also, once the TCU is completely dry, use tape and wrap it to protect the connectors from water ingress. Since I did this, no more problems.

 

[Kiwi in Wales]

How old is the bike?
You may have to take the non drive side cover off and clean all the crap and water out.
After you have done this unplug the cable going into the motor as moisture gets in there too and corrodes the contacts.
Dry everything as much as possible, if you have a compressor and an air hose it makes this task a lot easier. If you haven’t, then lots of paper towels (although these should be saved for wiping your arse due to the global shortage of toilet paper..... however, this is obviously an essential high priority job )
Remove the battery out of the TCU before you put it on the radiator. Removing the battery can be a really fiddly task to do. I find a knocking motion on a semi soft surface pops it out.
Make sure you take note of the orientation of the TCU battery as you remove it as it not 100% obvious. Again, if you have an air hose you can blast the water out of the TCU. I would still put it on the radiator afterwards though.
For me and the conditions I ride in tape does not work for me, it unfortunately still get in. If you don’t live in a very wet climate you will probably be fine using tape. Horses for courses

 

[KennyB]

Can't an air hose also blast the water into things?

 

[Kiwi in Wales]

Not if you are careful and use common sense where you point the air jet.
Obviously avoid blowing any dampness into the motor via the plug connection, and don’t point it at the openings around both sides of the crank shaft and avoid pointing at any plug connection sockets and blind plug sockets

Like I said, hopefully a bit of common sense will prevail.

 

[Explosivo]

How old is the bike?
You may have to take the non drive side cover off and clean all the crap and water out.
After you have done this unplug the cable going into the motor as moisture gets in there too and corrodes the contacts.
Dry everything as much as possible, if you have a compressor and an air hose it makes this task a lot easier. If you haven’t, then lots of paper towels (although these should be saved for wiping your arse due to the global shortage of toilet paper..... however, this is obviously an essential high priority job )
Remove the battery out of the TCU before you put it on the radiator. Removing the battery can be a really fiddly task to do. I find a knocking motion on a semi soft surface pops it out.
Make sure you take note of the orientation of the TCU battery as you remove it as it not 100% obvious. Again, if you have an air hose you can blast the water out of the TCU. I would still put it on the radiator afterwards though.
For me and the conditions I ride in tape does not work for me, it unfortunately still get in. If you don’t live in a very wet climate you will probably be fine using tape. Horses for courses

I bought it 5 weeks ago!

 

[Kiwi in Wales]

I bought it 5 weeks ago!

Have you been riding in a lot of wet conditions?

 

[James_C]

Check the battery charge point cover is fully closed once the charger is disconnected. Needs a hard click. I'd give the terminals on both sides of that a good rub with a dry cloth too.

 

[KennyB]

Hard click doesn't sound right. It is fixed by a magnet which always seems to draw it in nicely with no force. I like to smear a little silicone grease on the seal on the connector.

 

[Beezerk]

Should have bought British

 

[Mikerb]

If you are getting no signs of life at all as opposed to a fault code or a start up that then fails, it sounds like the connection to the battery is not being made. Assuming that is the case the most probably cause is the connection at either end of the power cable ( short cable beneath the non drive side cover that connects the battery to the motor). Starting with the battery connection end of that cable if you connect the charger and the green lights show that the battery is charging then the battery end of the terminal is OK. If there are no green lights your fault lies on the battery connection. If it is OK next heck the plug that connects to the battery terminal. Check for debris etc. clean and dry. If that does not help I suggest you check the other end of the cable that connects to the motor. The plug on that end maybe split if the cable has not been changed for the latest version.

 

[galaga187]

Mine has just gone like this again. I’d removed the TCU and completely dried it which seemed to work. Left the bike for two weeks then again today no lights on TCU but green lights on battery.

 

[Funkeydunk]

Hose and brush wash (no real water pressure) and an hour later no power. This was 4 days ago and still no power.
Have tried charging to see if that would encourage it back to life, but nothing - no life whatsoever.

Help/advice much appreciated please.

Did you fix it?

 

[Cannikin]

I had a similar issue, although I never directly linked it to a wash. I would have to flip the battery door on/off several times before one would “work” and I could turn the bike on. Eventually it got bad enough that I did some searching on the forums here and found that the cable going from the battery to the motor goes bad on a lot of bikes, either breaking completely or allowing water ingress. I ordered a new one from my bike shop and it worked like a charm (although it’s only been 1 day).

 

[Will Hesch]

I've got a 2019 Expert and after a wash (hose and sponge) it wouldn't start up.

Took it to my LBS, they had it overnight and it started for them so they updated the thing-a-ma-bob so it was up to date.

A month later, no water at all, it starts making this amazing loud screeching noise and lost all power. Still turned on and off and switched power modes but no power and incredible noise!

Again, took it to my LBS and 7 days later had a new motor at no cost from Specialized or my LBS.

Funny thing, I had nothing to compare my bike to until 6 months ago when I bought my wife a 2019 Comp Carbon. Her's was always so quiet compared to mine. Now mine's as quiet as hers which is almost silent except in Turbo.

I think I had one of the noisy ones like Rob's (and probably lots of others!)

I hope you get your bike running again!

 

[Wizwam]

I have a 2019 Turbo Levo FSR which has had this issue since new. If I wash the bike with mild water pressure from a hose it will not power up, even if I strip, clean and dry everything fully. If I leave it for about 3 days it will restart again and is then fine until next wash. It’s been into my local Specialized dealer 4 times who can’t find the fault (it’s always been working ok by the time they get to see it) with no error codes stored. Today I removed the tcu and sealed the connector plugs and frame aperture with insulation tape. Still the same issue after washing so definitely not a tcu issue. The main battery power cable was replaced back in 2019 for another issue. Will get in touch with dealer this week and possibly Specialized uk can get involved. Had enough now.

 

[Mikerb]

Main suspect will be the power cable. If yours was replaced in 2019 it would have been replaced with the original version of the cable which is prone to cracking. Not heard of anyone having issues with the v3 cable which became available early 2020. Search on the forum and you will find loads of info on the cable problem.