Info on error 500 / Trek Powerfly / Kiox

[SteveTTT]

I have a Trek Powerfly 7 with Bosch CX Performance Line 85Nm motor and Kiox display. Overall I’m very satisfied with it. On Sunday I gave it a serious wash after one of our usual very wet and muddy rides, including slicing out around the clogged up motor housing by removing the shield and squirting water from a plastic drinks bottle - no hosepipes or pressure washers!

When I came to ride the bike to the pub that evening, on reinstalling the battery - taken out to clean contacts and casing - I got error code 500 (internal motor error) on the Kiox display and the motor was dead. The Kiox would still cycle through the drive modes but there was no power assistance whatsoever. I assumed water had got into the motor somehow so sprayed everything with WD40 and hoped for the best, preparing to make a warranty claim when the dealer opened on Monday morning.

Next day the bike powered up as normal and rode perfectly, the error 500 message had gone. Great, I thought, it’s dried out, but as it is still under warranty I rang the dealer and arranged to book it in for diagnostics, just in case of any future issues.

Yesterday I rode it the 14 miles to the Chichester eBike-centre for its checkup. They cleared the fault code and gave it a clean bill of health. There was no sign of water ingress or any kind of motor damage, so my cleaning regime was ok. Their conclusion on the fault was this:

1. I had probably removed the battery while the Kiox was still powered on.
2. The Kiox has an internal battery which then went flat while the main battery was off the bike.
3. On replacing the main battery the Kiox couldn’t talk to the motor so threw up the fault code 500 (internal motor error).
4. The Kiox recharged itself overnight so in the morning all was back to normal. If I’d waited a little longer the previous evening it might well have restored itself then.

So the lesson learned is to make sure you power off the Kiox before taking the battery out!

I also asked the Technician about the value of adding any additional mud shielding to the motor housing, but was advised against it. He said these motors can get very hot internallyand any reduction in airflow that a shield might create would not be helpful.

Hope this might help someone else, sometime.

 

[friendlywrench]

Something doesn't add up. Their explanation was that the "Kiox battery was flat" but you still had no issue getting the Kiox to power up or give you the error code.

I'm also almost positive they did not go through the trouble of unmounting the motor and disassembling it to check for water ingress as:

1. There is no Bosch-approved process for dealers to open Gen4 Drive units.
2. It's an incredible amount of work to do for free. They would not be reimbursed by Bosch, and they would also potentially get slapped for performaning an unapproved procedure.

All that said, I agree that major water ingress is unlikely. At the most there could have been some water that got into the connectors for the wiring, but those are reasonably well sealed as well.

In the future, if you absolutely have to or want to clean the inside of the design housing of the DU, you're better off using a crank puller to remove the left crank, remove the design housing, clean the area gently, and then reverse the order. That way you can actually see what's going on and let it drain quickly as well.