RE: Bosch Active-Line motors - a cautionary tale:

Bonky

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RE: Bosch Active-Line motors - a cautionary tale.


Briefly:
  1. They have 2 year warranty. However, there is no ‘goodwill’, one day after the warranty runs out and you’re on your own!
  2. My unit was 2 weeks over before I reported it to Evans (Sheffield, UK- where I bought the bike) as I felt the bearings were ‘crunchy’ (technical term).
  3. Evans wouldn’t touch it — no Bosch-approved tools and they couldn’t get the spare parts .
  4. However, they did recommend someone - and herein lies the Good Part of the story -he’s excellent and I thoroughly recommend him; Details:
Scott at eMTB Bearings. High Peak/Chinley (very easy to get to from the Castleton direction).’Phone: 078880 29522. Usual disclaimers.

(He stripped the unit down - said the bearings were fine but he re-packed it with Bosch-approved green grease.)

  1. He said, and I’ve read this elsewhere, that anyone with these motors should reckon on getting their bearings replaced every 2k miles (Approx.cost is £120 (Oct2021)). My bike had only done 1.1k miles. If one keeps riding with worn bearings one MAY be looking, eventually, at the cost of replacing the motor(£6-700). Now, I know he has a vested interest in all this -but if you Google these motors (servicing and repair) I’m sure you’ll find it to be largely correct.
  2. He has contacts ‘in the trade’ over other parts of the country and can obtain parts like new circuit boards etc that are not available to the public.
Richard
 
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soundwave

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the only part bosch sells is the service kit and no other bearings.


if a bearing is going packing it with grease wont last long and the grinding noise will come back, bosch do not sell any bearings or controller boards not even to a bosch dealer.

 

AndyBike

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They have 2 year warranty. However, there is no ‘goodwill’, one day after the warranty runs out and you’re on your own!
Isn't that the case with just about everything you can buy with a warranty ?.
 

Bonky

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Jul 6, 2019
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the only part bosch sells is the service kit and no other bearings.


if a bearing is going packing it with grease wont last long and the grinding noise will come back, bosch do not sell any bearings or controller boards not even to a bosch dealer.

I will check that my information is correct (or not).
Thanks
 

soundwave

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;)
 
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Nealh

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It may be that the two businesses may be of use to each other ?
 

AndyBike

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Places like this are really going to do very well in the coming years if they work to gain a top notch reputation.
With this new market and the millions being invested in it, any company who makes their mark is destined to be amongst the top Ebike repairers in the coming decades.

I've bookmarked this vid of his, showing complete service breakdown of the performance line cx bearing change. I wonder how much he'd charge for doing the work - its about 100 quid for the service bearing kit, plus his charge.

 
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soundwave

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problem is alot of motors have water damage to the controllers and as such un fixable because bosch wont sell them or any parts and its the same with the batts and the can bus hand shake system that has still not been hacked.

jimmy used to recell theses batts but as bosch now booby trap them if power is cut it is buy a new one or dont use the bike and the new power tube batts you cant even take them apart with no damage due to the cables used and the way they are put together.

 

zakventis

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Aug 28, 2017
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UK - Wales - Monmouth
RE: Bosch Active-Line motors - a cautionary tale.

Briefly:
  1. They have 2 year warranty. However, there is no ‘goodwill’, one day after the warranty runs out and you’re on your own!
  2. My unit was 2 weeks over before I reported it to Evans (Sheffield, UK- where I bought the
Just to balance things...

In my case (Trek with Gen2 Performance CX) the motor, having done 9,117 trouble-free miles, died 10 weeks after the 2 year guarantee period expired. Took it to a Bosch accredited agent who took it up with Bosch. End result... a replacement motor as a 'goodwill gesture', free of charge, and a further 2 years warranty which was just as well as that one developed a fault 1,496 miles later! It was replaced under the guarantee (by then the bike was over 3 years old) and the warranty extended yet again to 2 years.

That one now has 3,868 miles on it and is still running perfectly. So, over the space of 4.5 years - 3 drive units and 14,481 miles thanks to Bosch.
 

Nealh

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You are one of the fortunate ones, not every one will get the same treatment.
 
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AndyBike

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problem is alot of motors have water damage to the controllers and as such un fixable because bosch wont sell them or any parts and its the same with the batts and the can bus hand shake system that has still not been hacked.
I think that will change as the number of bikes sold increases and more specific ebike mechanics increases to meet demand. People what always found ways to fill a niche.
 

soundwave

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I think that will change as the number of bikes sold increases and more specific ebike mechanics increases to meet demand. People what always found ways to fill a niche.
i have never seen a mechanic do smd and bga repair on a circuit board but if you cant buy the chips or use there software to programme them to work your stuffed.

bosch like apple want you to buy a new motor even a bosch dealer cant open a motor under warranty to replace a 5 quid bearing and the hole motor needs to be replaced.

this is only going to get worse and even more locked down esp when it come to chips and there can bus software locks.

i have some genelec speaker and about 20 years old now and the foam on the mid range drivers are starting to go so thought just get a refoam kit for 20 quid and glue some new ones on my self.

i got the kit that will fit the 5inc driver but it then wont fit back in the wave guide.

this driver is custom made buy genelec there are no markings on it what so ever and the foam surround is custom made for this driver.

will genelec sell me the foam nope so what are my options 1 recone kit that they have to fit because they wont give me the instructions cos secret ffs and with postage and labour it is cheaper to buy 2 new drivers at 600 quid each! plus vat.

:rolleyes:
 
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Nealh

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The green initiative and carbon foot print of companies is pretty **** poor with there throw away attitudes.
 
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guerney

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i have never seen a mechanic do smd and bga repair on a circuit board but if you cant buy the chips or use there software to programme them to work your stuffed.

bosch like apple want you to buy a new motor even a bosch dealer cant open a motor under warranty to replace a 5 quid bearing and the hole motor needs to be replaced.

this is only going to get worse and even more locked down esp when it come to chips and there can bus software locks.

i have some genelec speaker and about 20 years old now and the foam on the mid range drivers are starting to go so thought just get a refoam kit for 20 quid and glue some new ones on my self.

i got the kit that will fit the 5inc driver but it then wont fit back in the wave guide.

this driver is custom made buy genelec there are no markings on it what so ever and the foam surround is custom made for this driver.

will genelec sell me the foam nope so what are my options 1 recone kit that they have to fit because they wont give me the instructions cos secret ffs and with postage and labour it is cheaper to buy 2 new drivers at 600 quid each! plus vat.

:rolleyes:
I guess that Bosch could argue that poor repairs done by users could reduce reliability, making their brand look bad, and for speakers in particular this could well be true - the sound might not be perceptively perfect if you repair it ever so slightly wrong - but that doesn't seem to have hurt Bafang. Ewaste is a massive problem - if companies designed products with end-user repairability in mind, they could charge a little more... of course they won't make as much money, as they would by forcing people to throw whole products, or large sections of products away and charging so much in the process, but there would be fewer good (electronics and other) components ending up in landfills, poisoning customer water supplies and food.
 
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soundwave

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The green initiative and carbon foot print of companies is pretty **** poor with there throw away attitudes.

yet they do not support the right to repair and source there pcb ect from china pmsl

 
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guerney

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yet they do not support the right to repair and source there pcb ect from china pmsl

If that happned to me, I'd write a very angry letter to Genelec threatening to write thousands of press releases to SoundonSound and all the other sound technology/high end sound magazines all over the world. I'd also threaten to buy genelecsucks.com to host a forum for people to post similar horror stories ;-) - this sort of has worked for me in the past, though getting Genelec to provide proper repair kits might need a lot more leverage. Maybe post a few thousand Youtube videos compaining about it? They'd all need to be ever so slightly different, or Youtube will reject them automatically as spam.
 
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soundwave

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i did they dont care even got banned from posting on there yt page lmfao.

all i want is 2 bits of foam but i am not capable of doing this feat of repair in there eyes wont give me the service manual if i buy the recone kits so dont have much options left.




i have that surround and it will work just not in the wave guide did not get any glue tho as would have to send it in a box and not going to happen from Germany but was same price in a envelope fkn mission lol
 

guerney

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i did they dont care even got banned from posting on there yt page lmfao.

all i want is 2 bits of foam but i am not capable of doing this feat of repair in there eyes wont give me the service manual if i buy the recone kits so dont have much options left.




i have that surround and it will work just not in the wave guide did not get any glue tho as would have to send it in a box and not going to happen from Germany but was same price in a envelope fkn mission lol
What's stopping it fitting into the waveguide? Is there a pic?

Youtube doesn't make money from commenters, they make money from views and if you upload unique videos, they don't tend to ban you - especially if they get watched a lot, because that makes Youtube money... It'd embarrass Genelec, but they can't get truthful videos removed.