Blown motor on E3 Dash with 29 miles on it

[Charly Banana]

If I was in your position, I would start trying things myself. Since you say sometimes it works or partly works, I would focus on intermittent connections. The first connectors I would check would be the ones at the back of the LCD. Try reseating them and perhaps spraying the contacts with CRC QD Electronic Cleaner or equivalent. Next, I would look at the connectors inside the downtube by the bottom bracket.

 

[HumanitiesHaze]

If I was in your position, I would start trying things myself. Since you say sometimes it works or partly works, I would focus on intermittent connections. The first connectors I would check would be the ones at the back of the LCD. Try reseating them and perhaps spraying the contacts with CRC QD Electronic Cleaner or equivalent. Next, I would look at the connectors inside the downtube by the bottom bracket.

Oh I have. I've checked everything I could. Ran the diagnostics, tightened up everything that I could possibly think of.

 

[Brian(J)]

When you are riding in diagnostic mode 7 and there isn't power assist, it always reads 000?

 

[DashRiprock]

When you are riding in diagnostic mode 7 and there isn't power assist, it always reads 000?

That is the type of (real time) information that Currie can at least take a bite out of. We need to be feeding them (if possible) diagnostic numbers or any other screen abnormalities as problems occur. Thanks for reminding us.

 

[HumanitiesHaze]

When you are riding in diagnostic mode 7 and there isn't power assist, it always reads 000?

Yup 000 only does 001 when I hit the brakes.

 

[Brambor]

dude, return the bike if possible and move on to a totally different brand. It's not in the cards for you and this brand. You are way too patient.

 

[James]

What he said

 

[ChrisD_]

I just had my bottom bracket torque sensor replaced and had a post-repair problem: the level of pedal assist would diminish, drop and resume, and I wasn't at all sure of a repeatable pattern I could describe to help with the repair. Can't tell from your description @HumanitiesHaze if your problem is similar but if it is, it was easy to confirm the cause and easy to fix. When the shop reassembled the bottom bracket, they misaligned the pedals so they were off by 90 degrees.

This picture from the Currie tech site (Link Removed - No Longer Exists) shows the torque sensor. See the silver, hand drawn line on the shoulder just below the "R" (it might be easier to see on the left side of the bike)? When done correctly, with that line up, the drive-side pedal should be forward but on my bike it was pointed down. When it was fixed, a minute's worth of work, the bike worked fine.

 

[Charly Banana]

Good point!
When I went through my BB wire and tightness check, I remember the silver line alignment. After reading your post, I went to my bike to double check the silver line and pedal alignment. Easy to visually check. I guess it has to do with the torque sensor working properly when the pedal is on the power down stroke.

 

[CurrieTech]

Got my bike back from my local bike shop. Still no Pedal Assist (well it works once every 5 minutes or so until I stop pedaling, then nothing for a while)
He lined up the BB in the center (I printed him the TSB), torqued it down, followed the repair instructions still nothing.

Cost me $22 since he wasn't able to get a hold of your dealerline since it was a Saturday. So now I have to make an appointment to drag this bike 2 hours to a dealer that actually works on these bikes to see if they can fix it. And talking to the dealer on the phone they want to order a new part that will take a couple days to get to them. But he can't do that until tomorrow since Curry isn't open on a weekend.

This bike is costing me a fortune between my dealer experience, and having to drive it 4 hours to get it repaired all the time and having to take off work to do it. Now chalk up another $22 for today that didn't work, and $25 in gas that I'm going to have to do for this repair (along with taking the day off). I've only had it a month and it's been down for 2 of those weekends!

Humanities,
Please send an itemized list of your expenses and email it to [email protected] and we will reimburse you.

At this point, having had the original BB move, the wires may have been damaged, so moving them back to center will do nothing. A new BB can be sent to you if you like. The other thing that might be happening is the white line and cranks are not at the correct position. If things are out of alignment the pedal assist will be very odd and random. It may work ok for 10 pedal strokes, then nothing for 5 then great for 20, then nothing for 3 blocks...very strange! As bike shops are very familiar with removing and re-installing cranks, the shop may not have paid much attention to the white line business. You may be able to see it just by looking at the exposed part of the spindle. The line should be up, with the right crank arm forward (left backwards).

 

[CurrieTech]

I should have read ChrisD and Charly Banana! They're right on this. I think they'll confirm my description of the total oddness of the pedal assist, when the cranks are on wrong.

We've found that the line could be up or down, but not forward or backwards when the right crank is forward. As humans can't pedal with equal force in a full circle, the pedaling force is somewhat a wave pattern, so the BB must be sync'd-up (sp?) with this wave to properly work with the electronics. There has been a few reports of the line not being there, or in the wrong place, sadly, but the result is very easy to recognise and fix, if you KNOW you have a new/good BB.

 

[HumanitiesHaze]

I checked out the alignment.

Here's the left with the pedal towards the back. The white line clearly visible and TDC.



Here's the right with the pedal forward. The white line is on top, but not Top Dead Center like the left. But looking at the part there's no way for there to be a twist in the BBTS.

 

[CurrieTech]

These pictures are difficult to see the line, but I'll trust that they are there. I think the best thing would be to have the BB replaced. It's likely the wires were damaged when it rotated in the shell. We can work with you directly, or the shop in your neighborhood. Any way you'd like to take care of it.

 

[DashRiprock]

This picture from the Currie tech site (Link Removed - No Longer Exists) shows the torque sensor. See the silver, hand drawn line on the shoulder just below the "R" (it might be easier to see on the left side of the bike)? When done correctly, with that line up, the drive-side pedal should be forward but on my bike it was pointed down.

I'm assuming that a forward pedal is somewhere between 0 and 90 degrees and that somewhere between 90-180 is down (thanks).

 

[CurrieTech]

The line should be painted across one of the corners of the square, so it can only have on upward location, with the right crank forward. Or White line at 12 o'clock and crank at 3 o'clock, if you're looking directly at the right side of the bike.

https://docs.google.com/a/currietech.com/file/d/0B96dkFgH-zxua1QyYlRqQXJUNTg/edit

 

[Charly Banana]

If the bottom bracket sensors are bad or the BB wire is damaged, shouldn't one be able to see the problem by looking at Onboard Diagnostic tests:

• Test 1 Factory Torque Value
• Test 2 Actual Torque Value
• Test 5 Cadence Sensor Value (1 cycle)
• Test 6 Cadence Sensor Output (Cummulative)

 

[DashRiprock]

Humanities,
At this point, having had the original BB move, the wires may have been damaged, so moving them back to center will do nothing...the result is very easy to recognize and fix, if you KNOW you have a new/good BB.

Is there some kind of wire impedance test that we can perform to determine if the damage is indeed already done?

I'm about to get into this and do what is recommended yet don't want to simply tighten the BB/check the wires/put it back together...and then...(your point above).

 

[CurrieTech]

You may or may not be able to see it on the diagnostics. If a wire is severed, but still connected, intermittently, and breaks connection randomly, due to vibration,.......You get the idea. Electrically speaking, a severed wire that's touching, will allow electrons to flow as if there was no break......until it's broken and stays that way, the diagnostics may not reveal anything.

 

[CurrieTech]

We don't have exacting measurements, but if you do a simple visual inspection and see the BB wires are grossly out of center, and up against the edge of the threaded hole, it likely is damaged due to the cups being loose. If the bike has been ridden days or weeks, and the wires are on center, the cups are likely tight, and you probably have no issues with the intermittency in PAS modes. It has not been reported as of yet that a seemingly good BB was not working well, unless the cranks were installed incorrectly.

 

[DashRiprock]

Fair enough. I would ideally like to stick an ohmmeter at point 'A' while attaching the other probe to point 'B'...yet if that is physically impossible for any of the wires affected here, so be it.