Turbo Levo Gen 3 Brose warranty and or preventative repairs.

[2niner]

As an avid supporter of Turbo Levo can anyone shed some light on the warranty and replacement cost of Brose motor, during and after warranty period. While my current Gen 3 has performed faultlessly for approximately 8500 km the motor has become noticeable noisy especially on slow steep climbs. My concerns are should the motor fail after warranty what happens then? Secondly, if I ask my LBS to have my motor checked as preventive measure because I feel it’s noisy the motor has to go to Specialized in Stellenbosch - why can’t this be carried out at our local and very supportive LBS? If there’s an issue with the motor, who is liable for costs? Lastly one does not want to wait while your motor is away for x amount of days being checked out with possible unsuspected costs. Given that there have been numerous Brose issues on previous gen motors, this topic may have been answered elsewhere on forum's.

Would be interested to hear your comments 

 

[DuncanDoughnuts]

If your motor is still under warranty and it fails, it will be replaced very quickly. I think the longest had to wait for a new motor was 2 hours. 

However, if the warranty is over you have two options. Purchase a new motor with a specialized assist option which reduces the new motor price (about 22k) to lower amount (a fair offer savings from specialized) .

Or send it to PE to refurbished with better seals, stronger sprag clutch and thicker more robust belt for about 12k  - this is the company https://www.ebikemotorcentre.com/brose-motor-upgrade-service/

And this is the SA representative- www.ebiketechservices.co.za

Either way it's going to cost. I would personally go with the second option as the motor will come back better than a new one from specialized,  but you won't have the new warranty that comes with a new motor.

That just how my mind works. other people might have different options

 

Edited January 3 by DuncanDoughnuts

[2niner]

Hi and thank you for your reply.  Will pursue warranty option once I’m back in PE. I have a definite rougher noise coming from spray clutch. Let’s see outcome. Thank for your help. Best regards Dean.

[WazCPT]

It is interesting how things fail just outside of warranty. My ebike motor failed a couple of weeks back. I was off the bike for basicall four months with a bad injury, of which three of those months were the last months of the warranty period. To add to that, I took the bike in twice during last year complaining of issues and being told on both occasions that there is nothing wrong.

Now I am expected to cough up R***** to get a new raplacement with warranty.

I guess that if I went back to the same Spez dealer that turned me away it should at least be on their records. Props to the new Spez store that I am dealing with who have been super helpful and even sorted out a loan bike for a race during this period.

Does anyone have any experiences with this and potentially claiming from insurance?

[BuffsVintageBikes]

I watched a GCN show a little while ago on the servicing of ebike motors and the one thing that became very apparent is that you need to keep water as far away from those motors as possible.
So no washing with a high pressure hose and no river crossing where part of the motor can be submerged otherwise the water ingress will eventually destroy your bearings.
Once the bearings go (and you don't always feel or hear it because of the motor assist), then the motor just works so much harder and sooner or later it cries enough. According to the owner/mechanic interviewed, most of the failures are bearing related.

[Paul Ruinaard]

1 hour ago, WazCPT said:

It is interesting how things fail just outside of warranty. My ebike motor failed a couple of weeks back. I was off the bike for basically four months with a bad injury, of which three of those months were the last months of the warranty period. To add to that, I took the bike in twice during last year complaining of issues and being told on both occasions that there is nothing wrong.

Now I am expected to cough up R***** to get a new replacement with warranty.

I guess that if I went back to the same Spez dealer that turned me away it should at least be on their records. Props to the new Spez store that I am dealing with who have been super helpful and even sorted out a loan bike for a race during this period.

Does anyone have any experiences with this and potentially claiming from insurance?

Yep agreed. I have been through 2 x motors and 2 x batteries on a Specialized levo - one was during lockdown so replacement batteries were like hens teeth. I had the original invoices so got a discount on the motor.

Batteries - good luck. And when they fail they are catastrophic. I have tried to get them repaired but no one can reset the Battery Management Software (BMS) that Specialized uses  so good luck with repairs.

Having said that at least with Specialized you can get spares and repairs done. Some bikes are so niche i dont know how to source spares. In general with ebikes there is a need to stick to known brands as the motors fail and so do the batteries.

FYI the last thing i had that popped was the Specialized range extender i so dearly love as it removes range anxiety on my Turbo Levo SL - i have a R 11k paper weight right now as no one can repair it.

[WazCPT]

So, apparently it is just my torque sensor that failed.

I have spoken to the guy in PE and am awaiting a quotation. Then I will weigh up the pros and cons of doing the new replacement with two years of warranty or to repair and do the upgrade to have better water ingress protection along with the other mechanical upgrades.

Once I have an idea of pricing on each option I will decide. For now it is just regular pedal power.

[RobynE]

Wouldn’t water ingress on your e-MTB be covered by your insurance? Like coffee spillage on a laptop keyboard is covered but keyboard failure in the absence of liquid ingress is considered wear and tear and not covered. 

[2niner]

Not answering your question directly but my motor bearings failed due to a bearing issue on the crank. Most likely affected by moisture ingress (not confirmed by Specialized) over the 10000 km/18mths ridden. Specialized replaced the motor no problem. 
My concern is these motors should be waterproof and last the lifetime of our Levo’s and once warranty expires we’re in for a cost to replace/repair the motor. I would expect Specialized to cover these motors until they find a solution to prevent water ingress. Due to the rising cost of new E-Bikes some of us will keep ours until we can’t repair them anymore - cost of new Levo until then wouldn’t be affordable for the average rider.