Loss of power and juddering under acceleration

11 posts / 0 new
Last post
snail
Offline
Last seen: 12 years 1 week ago
Joined: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 - 14:15
Points: 79
Loss of power and juddering under acceleration

I had my first real scare whilst riding home today. Not bad after three years, but here's the story.

After a full recharge and four miles into my journey home (during a left turn), there was a big clonk noise from the motor. Not a problem, I've had this before, usually soon followed by a yellow spanner that disappears after 30 seconds or so. This time, no spanner. I pressed on.

After about half a mile, I tried to accelerate reasonably hard, to be rewarded with a loss of power and big vibration from the motor. Backing off the throttle restored power and I was able to accelerate gently up to 50 mph. At the next road junction, I tried to use the regen to stop, but couldn't... same vibration from the motor. Fortunately, my reactions are good and I stopped safely with the brakes. Now though, it wouldn't accelerate at all and I had to push it to the side of the road.

Following a soft reset (Ignition off, then on again - I knew that IT helpline response "Have you rebooted your machine?" would come in handy one day!), everything returned to normal: Strong acceleration and regen, almost like nothing had happened.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? Any clues gratefully received!

Cheers,

Brian

Magendanz
Magendanz's picture
Offline
Last seen: 9 months 2 days ago
Joined: Sunday, July 13, 2008 - 00:21
Points: 155
Re: Loss of power and juddering under acceleration

It sounds a lot like the problem that put my bike out of commission two months ago, but I wasn't lucky enough to be restored after a soft reset.

eyeinthesky
eyeinthesky's picture
Offline
Last seen: 4 years 2 months ago
Joined: Saturday, January 5, 2008 - 03:06
Points: 128
Re: Loss of power and juddering under acceleration

Sounds like dust/dirt on the encoder at the rear wheels
which puts the motor phase out of sync.
If you get the accasional clunk on Accel.
might be time for a clean and/or re-calerbrate

Buzby
Buzby's picture
Offline
Last seen: 5 years 5 months ago
Joined: Saturday, April 26, 2008 - 08:13
Points: 318
Re: Loss of power and juddering under acceleration

Yes - I've had this happen twice in broadly similar circumstances. The loss of regen was the bigger worry for me, but after a restart things went back to normal, and during a service nothing untoward was noticed on the diagnostics PC. It's been nearly 11 months since the last time, so I wonder if it is an annual event? ;)

- Raymond

Mik
Mik's picture
Offline
Last seen: 8 years 1 week ago
Joined: Tuesday, December 11, 2007 - 15:27
Points: 3739
Re: Loss of power and juddering under acceleration

This has never happened to my Vectrix.

The only similar event I get is that - only during the first acceleration after booting up - there is a kind of bang from the rear end and the motor stops and needs a reboot. It happens probably every time I give full throttle within two seconds of booting up, maybe also later, but only if I give sudden full throttle when I first turn the throttle after booting up. Once I have managed to restrain myself for the first throttle turn, I can do whatever I want on the following accelerations.

This information may be used entirely at your own risk.

There is always a way if there is no other way!

snail
Offline
Last seen: 12 years 1 week ago
Joined: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 - 14:15
Points: 79
Re: Loss of power and juddering under acceleration

Thanks for the feedback guys!

The ride to work this morning was uneventful, maybe just a one-off (fingers crossed...)

It's about due for a routine service anyway, I'll add it to the list of things to look at.

Brian

RaDy
RaDy's picture
Offline
Last seen: 7 years 6 months ago
Joined: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 03:16
Points: 334
Re: Loss of power and juddering under acceleration

Yes, these exact symptoms happened to me once. I also was used to the clunk and then the spanner, but that 1 time it lost power and i had to stop and reboot.
Never happened again.

RaDy

X Vectrix
Offline
Last seen: 1 year 3 weeks ago
Joined: Tuesday, August 4, 2009 - 05:20
Points: 298
Re: Loss of power and juddering under acceleration

Mik
This is caused by the headlite coming on while accelerating hard just after power up. The headlite delays about 3 seconds before turning on and when you accelerate hard the MC fan also turns full on. The surge in demand on the 12V causes it to dip and resets the processor.

Mik
Mik's picture
Offline
Last seen: 8 years 1 week ago
Joined: Tuesday, December 11, 2007 - 15:27
Points: 3739
Re: Loss of power and juddering under acceleration

Mik
This is caused by the headlite coming on while accelerating hard just after power up. The headlite delays about 3 seconds before turning on and when you accelerate hard the MC fan also turns full on. The surge in demand on the 12V causes it to dip and resets the processor.

Aha! Thanks!

All made worse by the my HID light's inrush current, no doubt!

This information may be used entirely at your own risk.

There is always a way if there is no other way!

mrottinger
Offline
Last seen: 12 years 8 months ago
Joined: Monday, August 31, 2009 - 09:45
Points: 20
Re: Loss of power and juddering under acceleration

This happened to me today for the first time. I've got over 4000 miles on my 2008. 15 miles into my commute, thud and loss of power. Applying throttle felt like I was lightly braking. No problem lights. Since I read this forum I knew to try and pull over and do a power reset. I then drove another 7 problem-free miles to work.

oobflyer
oobflyer's picture
Offline
Last seen: 6 years 1 month ago
Joined: Friday, August 8, 2008 - 09:12
Points: 383
Re: Loss of power and juddering under acceleration

I experienced this twice, once while in town, riding at about 50 MPH (clunk, loss of power, yellow wrench light), and once while riding on the freeway about 60 MPH. Both times I pulled over, turned the bike off and on -- and back to normal, like nothing ever happened. It's probably been a year since it happened -- I had just about forgotten about it until I read your post!

Log in or register to post comments

Use code"Solar22" and enjoy 12% off for all solar Kits.


Who's online

There are currently 0 users online.

Who's new

  • Juli76
  • xovacharging
  • stuuno
  • marce002
  • Heiwarsot

Support V is for Voltage