Giant E Bike Motor Official Maintenance?

[Tom Clancy's eBike]

A guy from a Giant pro motor maintenance video on YouTube says "Normally check and replace grease every 4000-5000km would be the official recommended."

But I cannot find the official recommendation from Giant website or anywhere that's official.

My Giant Dirt E+ Pro motor has been used since October 2020 and it went through over 19,000 miles in a year, winter and rain mostly. Though I don't use it for mountains quite often as I ride it on smooth 26mph flat with BASIC mode most of the time.

The motor works fine except it is getting louder every day. The oil probably dries out.

I know the motor will die soon just like an engine out of engine oil. So I want my motor oiled up again.

But with the current 2-year warranty at hand Giant says nothing about motor maintenance unless it has an issue and loudness isn't one of them so neither the LBS nor Giant accept the request.

 

[LimboJim]

This fascinates me. The only "mainstream" ebike motor company (Bosch, Yamaha, Brose etc.) I've heard of suggesting "regular" motor maintenance is Brose, who suggest changing their drive belts around 10k miles or so. Or it coulda been 10km, I don't recall exactly. But I just checked Brose's Service page, and there's nothing there about belt-change intervals, or anything maintenance related. Tomorrow I'll ask my Specialized service guru, since their ebikes use Brose motors...

But anyway, you certainly put on some serious miles in a year! No doubt, cracking the motor yourself to grease things up will void your warranty, and I'm 99% certain that Giant and their shops won't perform such services. None of the mainstream motor brands/shops do, which astonishes me. If it were me, I'd do the service now despite it voiding my warranty.

Ebike Motor Repair will open out-of-warranty motors by Yamaha (including Giant SyncDrives), Bosch, Brose, Panasonic and Impulse. They check and re-grease bearings etc., and replace whatever's needed for a very reasonable fee. They also sell DIY motor service items, but I do a lot of my own bike maintenance, and cracking a motor is something I want someone who does it for a living doing...

 

[tammin]

I'm with LimboJim on this one, I think - if it were me I'd want someone to do it who does it for a living. And will stand behind their work if they mess it up.

This looks like a pretty major undertaking for anyone who is not pretty handy in the shop. I do all of my own motorcycle maintenance and have done some pretty major wrenching, and after watching that video I was feeling like this would be something I'd want to "write the check" to have done. Guessing 2-4 hour job for someone who really knows what they're doing.

If getting a shop to do the rebuild is prohibitively expensive, you could just keep on riding it for another 10 months and hope it craters itself before your warranty is up. Or have you investigated what a new motor costs? The other way is to ride it until it dies and have a spare ready to go. Dunno.

(BTW, that's some serious mileage you're putting down. Wow!).

 

[LimboJim]

I'm with LimboJim on this one, I think - if it were me I'd want someone to do it who does it for a living. And will stand behind their work if they mess it up.

This looks like a pretty major undertaking for anyone who is not pretty handy in the shop. I do all of my own motorcycle maintenance and have done some pretty major wrenching, and after watching that video I was feeling like this would be something I'd want to "write the check" to have done. Guessing 2-4 hour job for someone who really knows what they're doing.

If getting a shop to do the rebuild is prohibitively expensive, you could just keep on riding it for another 10 months and hope it craters itself before your warranty is up. Or have you investigated what a new motor costs? The other way is to ride it until it dies and have a spare ready to go. Dunno.

(BTW, that's some serious mileage you're putting down. Wow!).

What tammin said! Seriously, I was typing up some of the same sentiments to add...

What I'll add now is that removing and reinstalling motors is a moderately skilled job, unlike taking motors apart, cleaning and inspecting their innards, and reassembling them. I've removed Bosch, Brose and Yamaha mid-drives for various reasons, and it's pretty straightforward for anyone who can change brakes pads and the like. Wiring is plug-n-play, and there are plenty of YouTube vids (though I can't vouch for any of them).

 

[RabH]

That is some serious mileage in a year!

My Giant Road E+1 Pro started to get a bit rough at the pedals around 14,000 miles, it turned out to be 2 bearings needing replaced! As my bike was out of warranty I sent my motor to a specialist in the south of England, Performance line Bearings! I'm not sure of your location but they have partners worldwide who might be able to help you! https://www.ebikemotorcentre.com/where-to-buy/

They also have a Youtube site where you can see them performing overhauls! I highly recommend them, my bike has now covered almost 18,000 miles and the motor is like new!

https://www.youtube.com/user/1200Pete

 

[LimboJim]

That is some serious mileage in a year!

My Giant Road E+1 Pro started to get a bit rough at the pedals around 14,000 miles, it turned out to be 2 bearings needing replaced! As my bike was out of warranty I sent my motor to a specialist in the south of England, Performance line Bearings! I'm not sure of your location but they have partners worldwide who might be able to help you! https://www.ebikemotorcentre.com/where-to-buy/

They also have a Youtube site where you can see them performing overhauls! I highly recommend them, my bike has now covered almost 18,000 miles and the motor is like new!

https://www.youtube.com/user/1200Pete

Ebike Motor Repair (EMR) is in fact the USA partner of Performance Line Bearings, which is now called Ebike Motor Centre.

This past Summer, I also had a noisy (Bosch) motor issue, but with no loss in performance. Using my rarely good sense caution, I sent it to EMR - no bearing or gear issues, but a deeper dive found a broken armature (pic below) that would've caused failure eventually. Knowing my luck, it would've happened when I was 10+ miles from the trailhead!

For about 1/3 the cost of a new motor, EMR not only replaced the armature, but also cleaned, greased and sealed everything inside.

The motor's as smooth as silk now!

 

[Tom Clancy's eBike]

After some back and forth with Giant, as the warranty goes, I need to break the motor before an available official repair request is issued.
So I have to level up the switch from 175% BASIC to 360% Turbo. The motor should be broken quite easily since it already sounds like a tractor with Turbo mode. I can easily even hear the gears ramps up and down from the motor.

It is disappointing there is no official motor maintenance from bike manufacturer of any kind.
The cost of an eBike is equivalent of a car with an easy mileage over 500,000 miles if maintained properly.
But almost all eBike manufacturer are nope out about warranties of maintenance like these because they want sell more not repair more.
With the current trend and warranty there is no way an eBike is made to last.