Mahle X35 malfunction

[ORR74]

I have a Bianchi Impulso E Gravel Bike with Mahle X35 motor and iWoc controller.
I tried to check battery charge yesterday, by pressing iWoc button once, no light at all, appears to be dead.
I therefore connected the charger, when connected the light comes on solid white and does not go into the normal flashing green orange or red charging status light.
Any advice, or suggestions on what to do next, would be very much appreciated, thanks.

[ORR74]

Further to my post.
I have since read up about the charger, maybe should have done this before now, so, the solid white light means the battery is charged.
I downloaded the phone app from Mahle, I found that when the bike is connected to the charger it will blue tooth connect to my phone, so from there established that the battery is 90%.
The motor still does not power up when pressing the iWoc button.
Once again any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks.

[Airsporter1st]

The first thing I would be checking is the connector (alongside the chain-stay in my case). Thereafter, with a bit more work, I’d be checking all other connections.

[stodd]

Worth asking at on the pedelecs forum:
https://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/forums ... cussion.2/

[watsonpa01]

To ORR74....my APP also showed 100% charged, but showed 0 mileage available. I'm afraid that indicated the failure and led to the battery needing changing (after I took it to a cycle repair store).

[ORR74]

Hi,
Thanks for your comments, bike booked into dealer for check up, should get to bottom of problem.
Will let you know how it goes.

[PeteWebb]

I have exactly the same problem just started on my Ribble SLe with X35 drive system. Can you tell me what was diagnosed and how it was fixed? PeteWebb

[RichardBu]

I have the same problem. Iwoc does not turn bike on. Lights flash as normal when charger or range extender is connected but no sign of charging (pulsing white) just stays solid white and then after 20 secs powers off. App reads 80% charge, no mileage and bat temp = -40. LBS is going to do firmware update - needs usb and gnu cable but I'm not hopeful. Have read that Mahle Panasonic batteries have problem with battery monitoring system pcb? Also wondered about water ingress to Iwoc, there is a small crack in the outer casing. Also had funny thing where it would turn itself on from time to time. Fingers crossed for a good outcome!

[Ade7]

Thanks for posting about this.

I have a Lapierre e Crosshill 5.2 that has the same issue. I have had the bike 2 years and was commuting regularly for a year, but haven't used it for about 10months. I didn't think about charging it until today and have exactly the same issue - app shows 90% charge when connected to the charger and the white ring on the button. When disconnected, it will not switch on. From what I've found it looks like my only option is spending £600+ on a new battery! Has anyone found any alternative options?

[willcee]

I have a machine using a pair of early Gain wheels using a Bafang controller system and a big 22.5 amp battery on a Whyte Gravel Frame..it just works, no issues apart from a failing bottom bracket sensor and none of the invasive electronics that Orbea et all employ,it turns on quickly, goes well over 25kph when asked to, my chum has had 2 of the Gains and with this now carbon version he bought the heralded extra bottle cage battery, nought but bother, took it to the dealer, got it sorted after several weeks waiting a new one appeared back again to have it dialled in, one would think its a M series BMW or any of the other German advanced headache inducing machinery..KISS.. keep it simple stupid is my motto and hey, it works...will

[rjb]

Its often worth resetting the BMS software. On my Tongsheng mid drive it's done by briefly charging the battery at it's output terminals, observing the correct polarity. Cured faults similar to those described up thread.

[Alberto]

Hi everybody! Same issue here! I've a Lapierre E-Sensium 5.2 with Mahle Ebikemotion X35+. Unfortunately since yesterday the bike is not discharging anymore, light is always white. On the app it is at 90% all the time, but when I try to read the battery data the S/N is 4545454545 and there is no other data. Unfortunately, the battery discharged to the point that the motor tries to push but goes into protection (some sort of hiccups). I thought discharging completely the bike would have somehow resetted everything but is not the case.
Clearly the Bluetooth motherboard is not able to read the state data from the BMS but still able to communicate with the motor controller (I can change speed easy). The problem might be software or hardware, can somebody help me, please?

[Mrchristopher]

Hi, did you ever get a reply from you dealer? I am in the same boat with a 2021 orbea vibe. If I connect it to the charger I get a pulsing white light and the controller allows me to put it into all the various modes including walk assist. The app says 90% battery but as soon as I disconnect the charger I get nothing at all. I think I might just need to ride it it connected to the charger! Not particularly good for 600 miles on the clock!

[bikes4two]

Isn't it frustrating when those who come on this forum with problems don't have the common decency to ultimately report back on problem resolution (or not)!

At least then future purchasers of (in this case) Mahle systems can get a better idea of what may lay ahead and what path to take to get a fix.

In my local 'CTC' group there are maybe 6 or so Mahle X35/X20 riders and to my knowledge none have experienced problems so not withstanding that forums attract 'it's broke how do I fix it' style of posts, the system seems reasonably sound - until it isn't of course and then get you wallet ready for some heavy squeezing!

[Lentilbake]

Same problem with my 2019 Ribble CGR AL-e is I think the same age as yours (got mine in 2019) done around 2800 miles. My bike has been stored in our unheated garage since November last year and I haven't used it as I'm riding my eMTB during winter. I've swiched it on occasionally and checked the charge (around 80%). I guess the temperature may have dropped to zero a few times. I came to check it out this morning and charge it fully for a ride and I noticed the iWOC button light wouldn't stay on when I dissconnected the charger and the charge wouldn't increase above 90%. The bike now won't switch on when I press the button and the App (which does connect when the charger is plugged in) It's showing no data for the battery. I took the bike to a local ebike specialist and they said that the battery is 'dead' and a new one will be required at £600 plus. Any thoughts on this? How can a battery just die when it's just being stored? Before I commit to buying a new battery (what elese can I do!) I thought I'd ask if anyone else had similar problems. This is the second X35 battery I've had to replace, my wife's Ribble AL-e battery also also malfunctioned and gave up the ghost a couple of years back and hers had done far fewer miles and had less charge cycles than mine! Real shame because I love my bike and I thought the problems we had with my wife's bike were just bad luck. The dealer said he's had 20 plus X35 sytems brought in that needed replacement batteries some of those bikes were just months old. With my wife's bike I replaced the battery myself which wasn't too difficult and did save me £100 at least. Guarentee on the batteries is just 24 months so it looks like another £600 bill!