Water inside my hub motor

ferez21 · Jul 5, 2018

So the other day the front wheel of my xiaomi m365 (hub motor) started to get stiff and vibrate during ride. Then in the following rides it started spinning normal, then again stiff in the middle of the ride. Ive opened the hub, and water came out of it as i opened it. The inside was wet, and i could see some corrosion in some spots.

Is there a chance of the hub functioning normally after i completely dry it and assemble it? Or is it doomed?

Thanks

Voltron · Jul 5, 2018

It might recover just fine..

Did you have the little mouth on the axle pointing up catching rain or deep puddles?

dogman dan · Jul 6, 2018

Your motor should be fine once dried. If you live in a very wet climate, you might be better off to ventilate your hub at the cover. About 8 tiny holes near the rim of the cover will not let much water in if riding underwater. More importantly, it will let that tiny bit that gets in down your wire vent out each ride. As the motor heats, it will breathe out, driving out the hot vapor. It will keep rusting if you live in a wet enough climate, so it might be worth it to paint your inner hub, the steel part with the copper wires. High temp paint ideally, there are epoxies, but any decent spray paint better than nothing. The wires are varnished btw, so it doesn't need to be 400F paint, just to about 200F is fine.

ferez21 · Jul 8, 2018

Voltron said:
It might recover just fine..

Did you have the little mouth on the axle pointing up catching rain or deep puddles?

I think it does have, Iv'e attached a photo of the hub motor disassembled below,

dogman dan said:
Your motor should be fine once dried. If you live in a very wet climate, you might be better off to ventilate your hub at the cover. About 8 tiny holes near the rim of the cover will not let much water in if riding underwater. More importantly, it will let that tiny bit that gets in down your wire vent out each ride. As the motor heats, it will breathe out, driving out the hot vapor. It will keep rusting if you live in a wet enough climate, so it might be worth it to paint your inner hub, the steel part with the copper wires. High temp paint ideally, there are epoxies, but any decent spray paint better than nothing. The wires are varnished btw, so it doesn't need to be 400F paint, just to about 200F is fine.

Are you saying that i can just go ahead and cover all the internals with spray paint\epoxy? metals\wires\magnets?
Most of the corrosion can be seen on the metal leaves (not sure how to call them, like these in a transormer), the photo is not an actual photo of my unit since iv'e already assembled it.

teklektik · Jul 8, 2018

ferez21 said:
Are you saying that i can just go ahead and cover all the internals with spray paint\epoxy? metals\wires\magnets?

Please see: RUST: DIY Hub Motor Repair & Restoration by doc bass

Drill your cover like so - ideally with the hole aligned with the inner edge of the case. As Justin has pointed out, difficulties arise because the air in the case expands when heated by normal running and contracts as the motor cools. This draws a vacuum and pulls in moist outer air or water. You cannot seal a motor to prevent this -- so in adverse conditions it is better to provide a means for the water/moisture to escape (on the next heat cycle) than to futilely try to keep it out.

Water inside my hub motor

ferez21

10 mW

Voltron

1 MW

dogman dan

1 PW

ferez21

10 mW

teklektik

100 MW

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