ElectricMotorcycleForum.com
Makes And Models => Zero Motorcycles Forum | 2013+ => Topic started by: pacificcricket on September 29, 2016, 09:43:56 AM
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Just happened. Came home, plugged my '14 DS to charge, went upstairs to change. Came down - lights are out. Went into garage to check the breaker - smell of burned plastic... Sure enough, onboard charger went out.
2.5 years, 18 thousand miles. Standard warranty seems to be 2 years only. Anyone replaced it via a dealer out of pocket ? What's the damage like ?
July 2017 update: replacement charger burned out, just 8 months after replacement.
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pacificcricket - Another charger failure? Fascinating. I just posted an update to my 'Not Charging' thread. San Jose BMW has it right now awaiting a replacement charger. When I get the bike back, I'll post an update. I'm also extremely curious as to what my out-of-pocket expenses will be. Good luck.
Note on shops, I've been to SF Moto, Contra Costa Powersports and now San Jose BMW. On SF Moto, Richard230 commented not long ago about no parking being available as well as a few other things that I also experienced. Contra Costa Powersports I don't care for them because they had my 14SR for nearly 6 months for a rear-end collision. San Jose BMW has been good, thus maybe that's a good choice for you as well.
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pacificcricket - Another charger failure? Fascinating. I just posted an update to my 'Not Charging' thread. San Jose BMW has it right now awaiting a replacement charger. When I get the bike back, I'll post an update. I'm also extremely curious as to what my out-of-pocket expenses will be. Good luck.
Note on shops, I've been to SF Moto, Contra Costa Powersports and now San Jose BMW. On SF Moto, Richard230 commented not long ago about no parking being available as well as a few other things that I also experienced. Contra Costa Powersports I don't care for them because they had my 14SR for nearly 6 months for a rear-end collision. San Jose BMW has been good, thus maybe that's a good choice for you as well.
Yeah, just noticed your thread as well. Thanks for reply!
Well, I'm in Portland, OR... only one dealer here doing service (two selling the bikes?), and it's on the other side of town from me. NOT FUN AT ALL.
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I just noticed something surprising: Calex manufacturing's address is in Concord, less than a mile away from Contra Costa Powersports.
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Known fault, especially with 2014 models many bought the police model on sale, and had chargers fail and even replacements fail. Contact zero or aaronmoto, think it reasonable charger should last as long as the power train. What the point of 5 year warranty power pack if you can't charge it!
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Known fault, especially with 2014 models many bought the police model on sale, and had chargers fail and even replacements fail. Contact zero or aaronmoto, think it reasonable charger should last as long as the power train. What the point of 5 year warranty power pack if you can't charge it!
I agree with you. I am going to the dealer today. Bad thing is they will probably keep the bike in the shop for 2-3 weeks. That's how long it took when I took the bike for motor replacement due to recall.
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Where are you taking it? I recommend SJ BMW if you're in South Bay.
Charger failures is known issue, I got mine replaced too (in warranty). They said it is an $840 part, but there's a good chance Zero will replace yours for free (you're just barely out of warranty).
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Where are you taking it?
I'm in Oregon, not much of a choice where to take it - Sports Plaza in east Portland is one of the two dealers in Portland Metro (3 dealers in Oregon altogether), and the only one that services them.
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Took the bike to the dealer. Told them what happened. The guy wasn't enthusiastic at all. "We can take it for diagnostics, it's going to be 90 dollars, but we don't have the tool, it's at another dealer. You can go there..." Dude! The charger is blown! And it's not like they have chargers in stock. Finally he agreed to take the bike for service.
It has been a bit over 2 years, and second time I am screwed. Makes me really worried thinking about what will happen when the power pack is out of warranty.
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They can't perform basic diagnostics on site? How far is the other dealer?
If your SoC isn't terrible, at least get the logs off with a mobile app, send them to Zero, and also decode them for yourself (or post them for decoding) just in case. That technically could give them enough reason to order a part.
I wish I could point somewhere to buy a Calex as an end user, or a diagnostic setup. I wondered idly whether the 2013 configuration of 2x2 Meanwell chargers could be set up for a 2014+. If you look on the forum, Meanwell builds seem reasonably achievable, e.g. http://electricmotorcycleforum.com/boards/index.php?topic=3949.0 (http://electricmotorcycleforum.com/boards/index.php?topic=3949.0)
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They can't perform basic diagnostics on site? How far is the other dealer?
If your SoC isn't terrible, at least get the logs off with a mobile app, send them to Zero, and also decode them for yourself (or post them for decoding) just in case. That technically could give them enough reason to order a part.
I wish I could point somewhere to buy a Calex as an end user, or a diagnostic setup. I wondered idly whether the 2013 configuration of 2x2 Meanwell chargers could be set up for a 2014+. If you look on the forum, Meanwell builds seem reasonably achievable, e.g. http://electricmotorcycleforum.com/boards/index.php?topic=3949.0 (http://electricmotorcycleforum.com/boards/index.php?topic=3949.0)
First one is 15 miles away, with acceptable public transportation (took me 45 mins to get to work from there). Second one is 25 miles away, and I'm not sure how to commute from there. But the point is, even if they can run the diagnostics sooner, they don't have replacement chargers in stock either. That is totally on Zero, not ensuring that scarce dealers they have provide a decent service. Anyway, I left the bike with the first dealer, will update the thread once I know anything.
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Got a call from a dealer. Apparently the first dealer I took my bike to decided not to bother with it, and took it to the second dealer. Second dealer confirmed that the charger is blown, and they also
determined that my rear shock is defective. I felt the shock was weird, but I didn't realize how serious it was. Either way, the charger would be $800, and they confirmed that the bike is out of warranty.
I then made a call to Zero customer service, and suggested that they should take care of these repairs, since there are way too many major problems with this bike caused by defective manufacturing creating a major inconvenience for me. Customer service manager agreed that charger is something they could take care of, though the shock they would need to look into a bit further, since that is a new one.
Few minutes later I got a follow up call from the dealer, informing me that Zero called them and instructed to do all the repairs at no cost to me. I guess that's what was needed to restore my faith in Zero :)
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That's great news!
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Yeah, that's certainly better than I expected. Zero owes us that much - good warranty service, if they can't ensure defect free manufacturing.
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As a prospective buyer I'm glad Zero did the right thing!
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That is good news. Good job Zero.
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Got a call from the dealer today, bike is fixed and ready for pickup. So 2 weeks since I took it there. Unfortunately it's still at the other location
where I can't pick it up, they said they will take it to the first dealership for me, so will have it next week.
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Any time you get jerked around by a dealership, always call the manufacturer. You might be surprised by the response.
I am on my 4th charger. The first three were crap, one didn't even last through the first charge. This current charger has nearly 7000 miles on it and works great. I have had excellent customer service from both Zero and Hap's Honda, including when some old hag ran over the bike in a parking lot.
Over 9,000 miles now on the SR, even did some light off roading today.
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I am on my 4th charger. The first three were crap, one didn't even last through the first charge. This current charger has nearly 7000 miles on it and works great.
Were you under warranty with those 3 chargers ?
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I am on my 4th charger. The first three were crap, one didn't even last through the first charge. This current charger has nearly 7000 miles on it and works great.
Were you under warranty with those 3 chargers ?
Yes, everything was under warranty and the dealer was really good, gave me two different loaner bikes.
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Yes, everything was under warranty
Yeah, that's all cool while the stuff is under warranty, but there is no guarantee they won't start burning out
again when the warranty is out.
and the dealer was really good, gave me two different loaner bikes.
Now that's the kind of service I can only dream of. Instead, I was without my bike for 3 weeks when there
was a motor recall, and another 2 weeks this time when the charger went out. I use that bike for my daily
commute, year round, so needless to say that was a major inconvenience. My biggest worry is that troubles
aren't over, and there will be more of this in the nearest future.
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Yes, everything was under warranty
Yeah, that's all cool while the stuff is under warranty, but there is no guarantee they won't start burning out
again when the warranty is out.
and the dealer was really good, gave me two different loaner bikes.
Now that's the kind of service I can only dream of. Instead, I was without my bike for 3 weeks when there
was a motor recall, and another 2 weeks this time when the charger went out. I use that bike for my daily
commute, year round, so needless to say that was a major inconvenience. My biggest worry is that troubles
aren't over, and there will be more of this in the nearest future.
True, it could happen again, but it's now been a year and a half and 12,000 trouble free miles since my last problem. I'm pretty confident in the current charger.
And yes, I can't praise Haps Honda in Sarasota enough. Their customer service is above and beyond. If I didn't love my SR so much, I'd go back and buy another bike from them. It's a keeper though. Anyone within 100 miles of them who hasn't stopped by and had their insurance inspected by the "momma" of the whole place is also crazy. That lady saved me a ton of money and increased my coverage at the same time.
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Here it goes again... replacement charger got fried after just 8 months or so :( Luckily it blew out at 94%, as I was 50 miles away from home with 34% remaining...
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You could just get a diginow supercharger and forget about installing any more calex chargers. Both myself and LiveforPhysics acutally removed our stock Calex and have the Diginows custom mounted in the skidpan (requires modification) but you can put them in the tank, or a top case, or mount them on the side crash bar mounts. Call Hollywood Electrics and ask them what they recommend.
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You could just get a diginow supercharger and forget about installing any more calex chargers. Both myself and LiveforPhysics acutally removed our stock Calex and have the Diginows custom mounted in the skidpan (requires modification) but you can put them in the tank, or a top case, or mount them on the side crash bar mounts. Call Hollywood Electrics and ask them what they recommend.
My worry is that there is something wrong with the bike which causes for the chargers to go out. Unless of course those calex chargers are indeed very low quality. Your suggestion sounds interesting otherwise, though I just lost my job and can't really spend money on trying that out :)
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yes I had 2 Calex's die and decided it wasn't worth it to replace with another, because I could fit 13,200 watts of charging in the same spot as 1300 watts of Calex.
But yes the calex chargers get very hot and fail often. They don't have any cooling fins or fans. It's the most common item to fail on the new generation Zero's.
Good news is you don't need it with a fast charger anyway. As you can run the fast charger off 110 at home just the same. It enables the bike and the bike performs cell balancing. The Calex is better served as a paperweight and not worth carrying the weight of it around on the bike anyway. Lol can you tell I'm not a fan?
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Unless of course those calex chargers are indeed very low quality.
That seems to be the general consensus.
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Unless of course those calex chargers are indeed very low quality.
That seems to be the general consensus.
Which brings up the question. ??? Why does Zero still use them? It appears that they have been using Calex chargers since at least when my bike was built in December 2013.
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Unless of course those calex chargers are indeed very low quality.
That seems to be the general consensus.
Which brings up the question. ??? Why does Zero still use them? It appears that they have been using Calex chargers since at least when my bike was built in December 2013.
well, lets pretend we're them.
we just contracted a company to supply the UL/EU/etc approved chargers with custom canbus firmware at the low volume we sell. yay!
1yr later.. eh.. they have highish return rates on them, but they say they can fix it.
1 year later... the return rates have really dropped, but they're not gone. lets look for other suppliers that fit all our needs.
...
crap.
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Would be great if zero offered the diginow as an optional replacement instead of Calex for new bikes and as replacement part for faulty chargers. Would be win win for both companies.
Diginow should also look at selling a mount for replacing original charger location.
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Would be great if zero offered the diginow as an optional replacement instead of Calex for new bikes and as replacement part for faulty chargers. Would be win win for both companies.
Diginow should also look at selling a mount for replacing original charger location.
The Diginow SCv2 does not have certification for worldwide sales by a motorcycle manufacturer, and doing so is very very expensive in money and time. Not going to happen from Zero Motorcycles. The best that Zero Motorcycles can do as a company is to improve their bike design in battery, cooling, and mounting options to make it easier for aftermarket.
There's a few people who hacked up their Zero bikes (S, SR, and FX) with mounts for the SCv2 systems in place of the onboard charging system; This involves necessarily to void the SCv2 warranty with Diginow because of size and thermal limitations.
TL;DR we're not likely to see any bolt-on charger replacement for at least a few years. Meanwhile you can get a two-module Diginow or Evtricity setup that is compact and travels well.
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I've heard that Evtricity chargers don't deal with shock and dirt well. Keep them at home for a quick charge external station. SCv2, that's the travel charger.