2020 Allant 9.9S Grinding Noise from motor or is it?

[usdmattiphone]

I was also experiencing the "metal scraping" sound on my 9.9s rear hub. I also didn't enjoy the random freewheel buzzing. I replaced my 9.9S rear hub with the Onyx hub. It is completely silent now.

The part on the invoice is:
103802 MFU REAR MTB CL MS - 142/12mm thru (BLACK)

I just called Onyx and they knew what to order.

What was the price for this hub?

 

[usdmattiphone]

The latest from my LBS is that Shimano has no parts, and Trek wants to replace my whole wheel but there is no stock til December, so their solution is to just have my bring it in and re-grease my wheel every time it starts to make the noise again until they have stock on the wheel.

I decided to just buy the Onyx hub myself and have my LBS install it so i don't have to worry anymore.

 

[Deacon Blues]

I used my Hero7 Black to record a video of the noise. Is the clicking noise similar to what you guys experienced?

 

[Alaskan]

it is similar. I described the noise on mine as scratchy. The noise was in synch with the bike speed/rotation of the rear wheel, not the cadence or pedaling.

 

[Deacon Blues]

So mine problem might be motor related then.

 

[Alaskan]

if the noise is in synch with the pedal cadence it might be in the motor. The guys at the LBS Trek store made the mistake of thinking my noise was coming from the motor and got Bosch involved to the point where they replaced the motor but that did nothing to solve the problem. They finally figured out it was in the hub, rebuilt the hub with all new innards only to have it crap out within 200 miles. That is when I insisted they replace the hub. They suggested the Onyx which was a major upgrade. I only had to pay $80 to have it laced into my wheel and they paid for the hub retail $425.

 

[usdmattiphone]

mine was in sync with the pedaling and today my LBS called me and said that there was a broken piece inside the rear hub, something about a broken gear tooth or something inside. This is the noise from mine:

 

[Mulezen]

Noise similar to mine...after responding recently that despite the addition of the Onyx hubs I still had a bit of it. Now that I have really listened it is gone. I guess I was conditioned like a Russian dog

 

[Alaskan]

The item that fails is the spring on the pawl the is part of the ratchet mechanism that allows the hub to rotate in one direction, The parts of it get into the clutch mechanism and chew up the bits and parts cascading into a hub failure.

 

[Deacon Blues]

usdmattiphon e, after looking at both videos (yours and mine) a number of times I don't think we have the same problem. Mine sounds like there is something failing in the motor.
When I pedal with little force on the pedal there isn't any noise, but when I put some force into the pedalling, like going up a hill, the noise occurs.

 

[Alaskan]

usdmattiphon e, after looking at both videos (yours and mine) a number of times I don't think we have the same problem. Mine sounds like there is something failing in the motor.
When I pedal with little force on the pedal there isn't any noise, but when I put some force into the pedalling, like going up a hill, the noise occurs.

that was exactly the same pattern with my hub failure. Sound travels through the aluminum frame such that it is really hard to pin down the source. I would be willing to bet your hub is failing, based on your video and my experience having two of them puke on me.

 

[Deacon Blues]

I have a sinking feeling I'm going to either be making the 120km drive to the bike store where I purchased the bike, or I'm going to have my local bike store install a new Onyx hub.
Time to contact the bike store where I purchased the bike.

 

[usdmattiphone]

I have a sinking feeling I'm going to either be making the 120km drive to the bike store where I purchased the bike, or I'm going to have my local bike store install a new Onyx hub.
Time to contact the bike store where I purchased the bike.

Yeah the bummer part is that my LBS said that Trek didn't have any of the parts, and wouldn't until December at the soonest. Although I guess they were able to find one for my bike in some spares that they were using to train new techs to service Trek bikes. Although I still placed the order for an Onyx hub because there's no way I want to be stuck without my bike for nearly a month again.

 

[Rob NJ]

I bought my 9.9 last year in early December. Alaskan, and several other of us have be commiserating on the failing hubs. Instead of installing an Onyx (which is a good option), I decided to try and work with Trek/Shimano on a solution. My first hub started making noise at 118 miles, and basically failed at 400 miles. The second hub lasted only another few hundred miles. In early September the Trek tech team said that Shimano had a fix. They sent new parts to my LBS, and the hub was rebuilt about 150 miles ago. The mechanic at my LBS says that the hubs are finicky, and that most do not now how to properly rebuild the hub. So far the new one has been quiet, and seems fine. We will see. The Trek team has been responsive and helpful. However, if this one goes bad, it will be a different discussion on what next steps are. Let’s see, but so far they have been great.

 

[Deacon Blues]

Rob, did you hear the noise all the time when you were pedalling, or was it when you were applying more force on the pedals, as you would when going up a hill?

 

[Rob NJ]

Rob, did you hear the noise all the time when you were pedalling, or was it when you were applying more force on the pedals, as you would when going up a hill?

Always when applying force. The sound would get worse the harder you pedaled. That is why it get's initially diagnosed as a motor issue. Hard to tell where the sound is coming from, and you first think it must be a bearing in the motor. It starts intermittently, and then eventually gets to a constant sound when you pedal. I spent several hundred miles trying to figure it out, and you eventually know it not the motor as the rhythm of the sound is linked to the speed of the back wheel, not the cadence at which you pedal. I could shift, and the rhythm of the sound would stay the same.

 

[Rob NJ]

Rob, did you hear the noise all the time when you were pedalling, or was it when you were applying more force on the pedals, as you would when going up a hill?

Oh, and one other thing.

This new hub is totally silent when not pedaling. My first hub sounded like a swarm of angry bees when freewheeling, right from the start. Then the creaking/grinding started at 110 miles.

The second hub started silent, and then buzzed intermittently, until it finally buzzed all the time. The creaking/grinding started a few hundred miles later.

This third hub is totally silent when freewheeling. If it starts buzzing again, I will get concerned.

 

[Deacon Blues]

I'm pretty sure my rear hub didn't make any coasting noise when new, but it sure does now. Mind you, my road bike has always made a lot of noise when coasting.

 

[Deacon Blues]

Went for another ride today and at a set speed, going up a hill, I rode in one gear, listened to the noise cadence and then dropped a couple of gears, keeping the same speed, and listened to the noise cadence again.
The noise cadence changed with the gear change, so I'm now leaning towards thinking it's a problem with the motor.

 

[Alaskan]

It is highly unlikely to be the motor and highly likely to be the hub. I have not heard of a single motor failure on an Allant but lots of microspline hub failures. The Trek LBS replaced my motor only to then figure out it was the hub. If it is the original or a replacement Shimano hub, you can be nearly certain that is the problem. The noise you have described is the same that all of us have experienced. You had the right idea on Tuesday. Quit messing around with it and just let your Trek store sort it out. That is what you paid a premium price for.