Bosch motor after 4 years

[tuniwes]

After 4 years and 15,000 miles, my active line plus has developed a significant but not terminal amount of play in the crank bearings...these are my options:
Send to performance line bearings for a full service circa £275.
Run it do death, I'm thinking another year circa 20,000 miles....buy a new motor around £700.

New motor....information on this is very scarce, as I understand it Bosch have an absolute monopoly and will insist you order it from the original supplier and also send the old motor back.

Also as I understand it although mechanically a CX motor will fit my bike mechanically Bosch will not allow an after market upgrade.....as it happens my motor is super quiet 65Nm and I don't need a very noisy CX 85Nm...it's the principle of Bosch blocking this if I wanted to do it.

Also although Rohloff E14 electical gear change is compatible with my motor....Bosch are blocking an after market refit....even if you bough a top of the range R&M they wouldn't allow you to to it....Rohloff are telling me they will release their own solution at Ebike 2025

There's a lot of protectionism going on between Bosch and OEM's here....you want to upgrade then you'll have to buy a new bike....really poor in terms Bosch of supporting their existing customers.

So should I have the bearing service or buy a new motor?

 

[Az.]

My entire motor costs less than your bearings...

 

[Ghost1951]

Given the super easy access to spares and cost effectiveness of obtaining the parts for my Bafang conversion, i am bemused at the way people throw huge amounts of treasure at Bosch and other companies, only to receive such abusive treatment when they require maintenance and service later.

 

[thelarkbox]

Why so loyal to Bosh and how can they stop you fitting an aftermarket compatible motor on a 4yr old bike?

If the bike suits your needs and the bearing issue is unlikely to spawn countless knock on issues and problems involving further hassle and expense?? £275 spread over the extended life of the bike isnt a huge cost imho..

go on you know you want to.. fit the cx drive you want

 

[Bikes4two]

After 4 years and 15,000 miles, my active line plus has developed a significant but not terminal amount of play in the crank bearings...these are my options:
Send to performance line bearings for a full service circa £275.
Run it do death, I'm thinking another year circa 20,000 miles....buy a new motor around £700.

My pennies worth:
BEARINGS SERVICE

• If you went for a bearing service and from what you say above, around 15,000 miles will get you another 4yrs cycling before you're back to where you are now.
• In that time your bike may develope a different issue or indeed the battery (at £500?) may need replacing (or re-celling if one of the earlier battery models and if you can find someone to do it?).
• However, time will have gone by and other, newer options may be available.

REPLACEMENT MOTOR

• So 20,000 miles/4+ years to 'run it to death' then £700 for a replacement (at today's prices)
• However, time will have gone by and other, newer options may be available.

For no other reason than only wanting to spend the minimum amount to keep me cycling, I'd go for the bearing replacement and see what happens over time.

However, if your budget is running to the likes of Rohloff E14, then you'll not be flinching too much at the replacement motor cost, the choice of which will likely bring more reliability overall?

 

[saneagle]

After 4 years and 15,000 miles, my active line plus has developed a significant but not terminal amount of play in the crank bearings...these are my options:
Send to performance line bearings for a full service circa £275.
Run it do death, I'm thinking another year circa 20,000 miles....buy a new motor around £700.

New motor....information on this is very scarce, as I understand it Bosch have an absolute monopoly and will insist you order it from the original supplier and also send the old motor back.

Also as I understand it although mechanically a CX motor will fit my bike mechanically Bosch will not allow an after market upgrade.....as it happens my motor is super quiet 65Nm and I don't need a very noisy CX 85Nm...it's the principle of Bosch blocking this if I wanted to do it.

Also although Rohloff E14 electical gear change is compatible with my motor....Bosch are blocking an after market refit....even if you bough a top of the range R&M they wouldn't allow you to to it....Rohloff are telling me they will release their own solution at Ebike 2025

There's a lot of protectionism going on between Bosch and OEM's here....you want to upgrade then you'll have to buy a new bike....really poor in terms Bosch of supporting their existing customers.

So should I have the bearing service or buy a new motor?

You will not get another 5000 miles out of it. As soon as you get any play in the bearings, you must get it fixed, otherwise the damage accelerates.

You can also get a bearing and seal kit and repair it yourself, though for the difference in cost, you might as well send the whole motor to https://www.ebikemotorcentre.com/ and let them sort it out.

 

[soundwave]

i have a cx motor on my bike if peter has one he will px ur old motor for a cx one tho on my bike i need a spacer to push out the front chain ring buy 1mm

cant say it makes any more noise than the old performance one and you can feel the extra power.

i also have a kiox display but i had to take it to a bosch dealer as my batts wanted a firmware update.

also the new smart frame batts wont work with the older motors.

 

[matthewslack]

After 3 years and 17,700 miles, my Shimano e5000 is still without any crank play. I have a spare motor which does not need any dealer intervention to fit, and which crop up from time to time on eBay for under £200.

I should be ok for a while yet!

 

[Ghost1951]

After 3 years and 17,700 miles, my Shimano e5000 is still without any crank play. I have a spare motor which does not need any dealer intervention to fit, and which crop up from time to time on eBay for under £200.

I should be ok for a while yet!

That is a good long run Matthew. Have you had to re-grease the motor and its reduction gearbox / gearboxes?

I wonder how long my Bafang BBs will go before I need to intervene with it and put some grease in.

I have nowhere near the mileage that you have built up. Just a couple of thousand miles, but the motor and gearbox/es are completely silent from the riding position, unless being worked very hard on a hot day, and then the sound is only a quiet whirring noise.

Having the spare motor means you will be pretty much insulated from further cost for a long time.

 

[soundwave]

 

[matthewslack]

That is a good long run Matthew. Have you had to re-grease the motor and its reduction gearbox / gearboxes?

I wonder how long my Bafang BBs will go before I need to intervene with it and put some grease in.

I have nowhere near the mileage that you have built up. Just a couple of thousand miles, but the motor and gearbox/es are completely silent from the riding position, unless being worked very hard on a hot day, and then the sound is only a quiet whirring noise.

Having the spare motor means you will be pretty much insulated from further cost for a long time.

I have heard many stories of motors not working after being opened due to deliberate engineering 'safeguards', so it has never been opened. My intention is to ride it until it dies and then have a look inside. I heard of one e5000 that was still going at 67,000km/41,000 miles, so may be a while yet!

I'm sure you know that choice of grease for your motor is important?

 

[tuniwes]

Why so loyal to Bosh and how can they stop you fitting an aftermarket compatible motor on a 4yr old bike?

If the bike suits your needs and the bearing issue is unlikely to spawn countless knock on issues and problems involving further hassle and expense?? £275 spread over the extended life of the bike isnt a huge cost imho..

go on you know you want to.. fit the cx drive you want

No, I don't really want the CX on 2 counts...first it's very noisy IMO compared to what I have, would drive me bonkers, secondly 65Nm is plenty of assisstance, I'm lazy enough and overweight as it is....the performance line + coupled with the Rohloff is a formidable pairing..the lowest speed at 80RPM is under 4MPH, if you find a hill that steep then give up and walk ...It's the principle that although the upgrade is compatible Bosch wont allow it

 

[tuniwes]

Reply from my original supplier e-bikeshop.co.uk.......New Motor £650....Have decided to go for an overhaul service of the original motor

 

[tuniwes]

Will have to huff and puff on this for a couple of weeks while the motor is away...my 1984 CB Reynolds classic 501 steel frame...In a perverse way sort of looking forward to it

 

[soundwave]

the gen 2 performance motor is 63nm and the cx is 75nm both motors are the same but the case for the cx is a bit smaller to save a few grams.