STEALTH CLONE MOTOR FAIL

[RZStealth]

Hi guys!!

I'm new on here. I bought a stealth clone enduro ebike from China bout a year ago.. it's a 3000w rear wheel motor with 48V batt..

I was recently riding at relatively high speeds when one of the electric parts in the body (pos batt or controller) gave a violent shake and motor shutdown.. The bike still had power to the LCD just no response to the throttle.. I turned it off for a minute and back on that seem to do the trick to get it going again only for it to happen several more times on the way hm. Mainly when I throttled past a certain point.

Anyhow the next day I turn her on lifted the back Wheel and wrapped on full throttle there was a pop and a big spark come out from under the body somewhere and the motor powered down.. Haven't been able to get power to motor/throttle since..

There is a ERR 009 on the LCD and I also disconnected the batt and put a multi meter on it and it was reading 25V

My question is how do can i tell whether it's my Batt, controller or motor that is fuked? And how do i go about fixing the problem.. TBH I would prefer to just take it to a shop for them to fix but I'm in Perth, Western Australia and e bikes are a relatively new thing here.. I can't seem to find anyone who wants work on it.. most ebike shops here will only work on the bikes they bring in..

Anyhow any help u can throw my way would be greatly appreciated.. I'd love to get her back on the road ASAP.. TIA

 

[HK12K]

This thread would probably be better suited to the Ebike Technical forum, but from my rookie eyes you're in rough shape.

Unless I'm mistaken that 48v battery is likely a 13s pack which at 25v would put it at 1.92 volts per cell on average, far below the maximum safe discharge rating for any lithium battery that I'm aware of. Does this pack have a bms or access to any balance leads? As it stands I believe this pack has experienced a failure and needs to be thoroughly examined before it can be deemed safe to use or even store indoors.

But again I'm a rookie, so take it with a grain until someone more seasoned steps in.

I'd probably move the battery outdoors in the meantime though, and wouldn't suggest attempting to charge it unless your insurance is paid up.

 

[neptronix]

This is why we build our own rides. If you put it together yourself, you learn intimately how the machine comes together, so that when it breaks, you're not completely in the dark.
It's also never a good idea to trust a China bike either. I've seen those "enduro bikes" from China at trade shows. The engineering deficits had me holding in laughter. The good news is that many of these errors are correctable after the fact.

Without pictures, we can only make guesses. My guess is that you have a shorted wire in your hub motor and it caused the controller to go bang. My guess is that the bike had improper wire management or maybe even improper torque arms. But a picture is worth 1000 words, so let's see the insides of the controller and motor.

 

[Drunkskunk]

Welcome to the forum.

Yep, that sucks. 25 volts from that battery is a big problem. Get it out of the bike and someplace safe to have big fires very soon. Inside a BBQ grill is a good place for the moment.

Because you saw a spark from the underside of the bike, I would first suspect one of the phase wires had shorted out. That would be one of the 3 thick wires from the motor to the control box. A short there might be correctable without further damage. the controller will reset and need to be power cycled when there is a problem. However, a short can also destroy the controller. it sounds like it was fine the first time this happened, but it may not be now. Or the problem might have been the battery, and the spark was visible through some hole or vent at the bottom of the bike.

25 volts on your battery means it's finished. Once an individual Lithium cell falls below 2.5 volts, it's no longer safe to charge. But there's a chance it was also the source of the sparks due to a failing cell. if that's the case, there is still a danger of self ignition and a catastrophic fire. get it out of the bike and someplace safe fast, just to be safe. Then you can inspect it and see if there's something else going on.

Pics would help. If you can't post get them uploaded here, post them to https://imgur.com/ and link to them here.

 

[neptronix]

Some chemistries go down to 2 volts, so who knows what China special battery is inside this thing.
It could be a death metal pyrotechnic show or it could be a slightly distressed lifepo4 battery. :lol:

Way too many unknowns. Only way to get some 'knowns' is to start tearing things apart.

 

[RZStealth]

Thanks for the prompt reply guys

I was in the process of ripping her apart when I wrote this.. I'll be back on it this arvo and I will take a bunch of pics and send them thru..

Here's a pic of the bike in its current state lol I'll send detailed pic ASAP

TIA

 

[RZStealth]

Hmmm seems like the photo didn't upload.. all g I'll upload and send via the other link u sent

 

[amberwolf]

I was recently riding at relatively high speeds when one of the electric parts in the body (pos batt or controller) gave a violent shake and motor shutdown..

Most likely either a hall or phase connection between the controller and motor has a poor connection or wire break. Vibration likely caused it to disconnect just for an instant, and the controller couldn't get the timing correct, causing what you experienced.

Anyhow the next day I turn her on lifted the back Wheel and wrapped on full throttle there was a pop and a big spark come out from under the body somewhere and the motor powered down.. Haven't been able to get power to motor/throttle since..

That indicates the problem could even be broken insulation between two phase wires on the motor/controller cabling, rather than just a connection issue. This could arc like that, and would probably blow up FETs in the controller. The controller might still "work" in that it's brain would still operate and talk ot it's LCD, but it couldn't do anything with the motor anymore.

But it could still be just a connection, and the arc could've been between the two halves of a phase connector. This could still blow FETs in teh controller, but only on the one phase, rather than on two like in the shorting case above.

It coudl also just be that arcing burned the connector contacts so they cant' connect anymore, and that is usually obvious (melting, burning, etc) when you examine the wiring harness.


If you go to http://ebikes.ca and the Learn tab, then Troulbeshooting, there are various documents to show you how to test various things.

I also disconnected the batt and put a multi meter on it and it was reading 25V

Leave the battery disconnected from bike, and plug it's charger into the wall and then it, and see what the output reads just before you plug it in, and just after. The BMS may simply have shutdown the battery to protect the cells from overload.

If the battery voltage doesn't go up to normal, and/or the charger acts differently than usual, unplug it; you'll have to do more testing on the battery itself.

If the battery voltage goes back to normal, then unplug the charger and see if it stays that way.

If it does, the battery is probably fine, and just protected itself.

If it drops down again, you may need to open it up and check the individual cell group voltages at teh BMS wires, as a cell group may be too low, or the BMS itself may be damaged from whatever happened.

 

[RZStealth]

Thx Amberwolf for that detailed breakdown

I'm going to try all that and comeback with the result as well as with some pictures

Thank you