Dead after 13 miles

[myers830]

No damage out of the box...everything perfect. Nothing loose or damaged. I charged the battery (just took it out of the box 2 days ago). The bike was working fine, then yesterday the bike just shut down while driving. Luckily I was near my house and could pedal back. I checked the cables, took the battery out and popped it back in. Turned the key to the on position and it came to life again and I thought...ok, this is good. I drove it about 100 feet and it shut itself down once again. Now it won't even turn back on and is completely dead. Waiting to hear from Lectric but being a holiday weekend I'm not expecting to hear from them for several days. There goes the weekend and probably a week or two after that since I'm in NY state. Its funny, I did more research on this bike than most people and even waited a year. I figured, be patient and let others work out the kinks for a year. So much for that.

 

[Tars Tarkas]

Bummer, no doubt. I could be something more serious but it might be worth trying to pull connections and put them back together. Sometimes things like this are just bad connections. Are you getting any error code, or do things just go dead?

TT

 

[byunbee]

Yeah...sounds like bad connections. But the bad connections can also be internal within the motor or on the controller circuit board which I don’t recommend you try to fix.

 

[Tars Tarkas]

Yeah...sounds like bad connections. But the bad connections can also be internal within the motor or on the controller circuit board which I don’t recommend you try to fix.

Exactly. Don't do anything that might jeopardize your warranty.

Let us know how this works out.

TT

 

[rich c]

Could be bad charger. Measure the actual voltage of the battery.

 

[myers830]

Update#1...The display powered up this morning briefly and the battery indicator was at 10 bars. Voltage reading was 49.7v. The battery readouts look normal. I then set to PAS 1, raised the rear wheel and turned the throttle. It ran for about 5 seconds and then everything went dead again. It sure acts like something is defective or not making contact. Externally I checked the large cable connector from the controller going back to the rear hub. I disconnected it and reconnected it. I suppose the next logical step is to pull out the controller/wiring and see if something is loose in there.

 

[byunbee]

Will that void the warranty?

 

[Darceman]

Will that void the warranty?

Pulling out the controller to check for loose connections shouldn't void the warranty. That wouldn't make sense. They will probably suggest this when you contact them. Your not taking the controller apart just pulling out of the frame to check the connections. Not a big job or big deal..

 

[Jeff F]

I had this very issue myself. My xp arrived about ten days ago. I charged up the battery, and my first ride was 3 miles, no problems. The next day I went on a 6 mile round trip, but on the way back the display and motor quit. I turned off the key, and back on again, and everything appeared fine, but then it would only go for a little bit and quit. I did the key trick a few more times, but it always quit. So I gave up and pedaled home.
I contacted Lectric customer service, and they had me check to make sure the connections to the controller were all tight. There was no problem with those connections or the ones to the motor or display.

It was determined that it was a battery issue, and after receiving the new battery I have put on over 30 miles with no problems.

Jeff F.

 

[myers830]

Update #2...Jeff, I determined it was the battery even though the display said 10 bars and 48v when it died. I charged the battery full again to 54.9v and everything worked fine again for a while...BUT its obvious the new battery should go more than 13 miles (in my case) on level ground only using PAS 1 and 2. I rarely have used the throttle. Sounds like they had a bad batch of batteries?

 

[Jeff F]

Same with me, I never did see the original battery meter drop off of 10 bars. I tested mine after the second full charge, and failure, and had a reading of 51.6V with a multimeter.
They never said anything about a bad batch of batteries, but we know of two of them now.

 

[AHicks]

Those "bad" batteries may just need some quality battery balancing time. There could be several cells that are not fully charged, along with many more that are fully charged. The batter charger, or BMS (whatever) is reading those fully charged cells and shutting down early. To have a shot at getting them ALL up to snuff, ride for a few miles, then charge fully, waiting for the charger to shut down. Do that several times and see what that does for your mileage. You could be in for a pleasant surprise....

 

[myers830]

That makes a lot of sense and could explain why the charger and computer were showing a full charge (but several cells were NOT actually charged). Either way, I want a new battery replacement.

 

[Jeff F]

That makes a lot of sense and could explain why the charger and computer were showing a full charge (but several cells were NOT actually charged). Either way, I want a new battery replacement.

I just added another ten miles today with no issues. The new battery definitely did the trick.

 

[AHicks]

Don't throw those old batteries out without trying as I suggested. They might be perfectly good batteries that just need some TLC.

 

[Jeff F]

Don't throw those old batteries out without trying as I suggested. They might be perfectly good batteries that just need some TLC.

Lectric wants the old battery back as an exchange for the new one they sent to me.

 

[AHicks]

That would leave me wondering how they expect you to return that battery (hazardous waste) legally? If you check, I'm pretty sure you cannot just box it up and ship it on your own. Not without a lot of (legal) risk anyway. If that battery is damaged in transit and causes a fire, I wouldn't want MY name on that shipment for sure!

 

[Jeff F]

That would leave me wondering how they expect you to return that battery (hazardous waste) legally? If you check, I'm pretty sure you cannot just box it up and ship it on your own. Not without a lot of (legal) risk anyway. If that battery is damaged in transit and causes a fire, I wouldn't want MY name on that shipment for sure!

The box has the customary lithium ion warning label on the box

 

[AHicks]

So you are returning it in a box they sent to you? Whose name is used for "shipper"? You or them?

 

[Tars Tarkas]

The box has the customary lithium ion warning label on the box

It takes a lot more than having the right label on the box to ship hazmat materials. We do a lot of shipping at work but we don't ship hazmat because of the issues involved. Don't make assumptions about this. Check with Lectric.

TT