Oil is leaking from a new hub motor

[WCoast]

Hello,
I have about 70 miles on a new e-bike and noticed a small amount of oil leaking from the chain side of the motor. Seems to be coming from one of the screws but I'm not positive. It's a small amount of oil but enough to drip down on the rim. The motor is branded Lecric but I think it may be made by Bafang.
I did a number of searches and it doesn't seem to be a common problem.

 

[WCoast]

Here is a photo of the leak.

 

[amberwolf]

It's more likely that it's not a leak, but is excess grease or oil from a thread-on freewheel (usually these are greased at their threads during installation onto a hub), and ran down the side of the cover to the screw location after it warmed up enough.


If it leaked from the screw location, it shouldn't have gone "uphill" to the cover lip as well as "downhill" toward the axle. If had leaked over time from that point it should be at numerous angles from the screw location over the cover to different points, either during riding (which would spread it everywhere) or when stopped or parked (whcih would be a set of lines radiating out from that point).

If instead it leaked from the bearing / axle, it could have been a one-time thing where some excess oil from the bearings (if the bike factory or bike builder lubed the bearings beyond the bearing-factory-lube for some reason) leaked out while it was sitting somewhere, or was pushed out of the motor when it heated up and the internal air pressure increased and then was stopped or parked, etc.

In either of those events, I don't know what it is that leaked from there; it's not typical. If it's an oil-filled motor (usually used to help with cooling for hotrodded systems using a too-small motor for a bigger job), it could be a number of different fluids, but AFAIK that's pretty much a DIY-only thing.

 

[WCoast]

You are right and it was a one-time thing. I've put about 40 miles since this post and it hasn't occurred again.

Interestingly, before I posted, I couldn't find a similar incident so I asked Google's Bard AI. Bard told me to stop riding immediately or the motor could be damaged, possibly catching fire. Haha

Thank you for responding

 

[amberwolf]

Bard...haha...you should look around at some of the news stories for those things. :lol:

Some links in this thread to one about a lawyer that got what he deserved (or might):

Apparently ChatGPT can help you write code / programs?

I might have to look into this for some "simple" projects...I could probably fix code it came up with whereas creating it from scratch or figuring out how to start doing it I can't really do....

endless-sphere.com

Bwahaha