Yamaha with speedchip, warranty issue

[Vlaming]

Hi all,

I own a Giant ebike with a Yamaha PW mid-engine. I installed a speedchip a few months ago to be able to decrease the commuting time from and to my work. The average speed is 33km/h when commuting between cities. I don't use the speedchip when I'm in a city centre. The unit can be switched on and off. The real speeds are shown, so this is not a cut-in-half solution.

In the recent weeks I have encoutered a problem. The odometer stopped working a few weeks ago. This repaired itself overnight. In the next weeks the problem kept returning, and now the odometer completely stopped working. This is with the speedchip both switched on and off. All the other counters work (speed, max, trip, avg). I have tried to switch from km/h to miles, no luck. I tried to keep the system powered off for a few days, no luck. The only thing I have not tried is to take out the speedchip and check if the problem still occurs.

I'm still within the warranty period. After checking with my dealer, without mentioning the speedchip, he said that the problem is within the motor, and the bike is probably returned to the manufacturer. The control system is not in the display, not in the battery(base), but in the motor. If I would return the bike to the dealer, I ofcourse would remove the speedchip.

I'm a bit afraid that the bike is returned to the manufacturer and despite the unit itself being removed, they still can see that I was riding with a speedchip by checking stored data of some kind. They might charge me for the false warranty claim.

- Does any of you know if the manufacturer (Giant in this case) can see that the user was using a speedchip on the bicycle by checking internal data?
- Would you bring in the bike for warranty for such a relatively small error with the risks mentioned?
- How much do you think a manufacturer would charge me for investigation/transport etc. if the warranty claim turned out to be false?
- Is there anything else (besides removing the speedchip) that I can try to get the odometer working again?

Thank you in advance for your feedback!

 

[Izzyekerslike]

The first step has to be removing the chip and see if that cures the problem.

 

[Vlaming]

Hi, thank you for your reply.

I will continue with that this weekend, but for now, lets assume the speedchip is not the problem. Hypothetical

 

[Deleted member 4366]

They can't see that you had a speed chip by analysing the stored data. They can guess that you did when the data is anomolous, like high average battery current or high average battery temperature, but if you said that you always carry a very heavy bag of stuff or ride very hilly terrain, that would be a logical explanation.

That's when everything works normally, but yours isn't so it might have errors relating to the speed signal. You'd have difficulty explaining them. Also, you have to think about the morality of messing up your bike by adding non-tested non-standard equipment, then making the dealer pay to fix it. It would be different if the dealer had supplied the dongle.

My guess is that the problem is caused by the speed chip. Take it out first to see if the problem goes away.