Can't get it up

You make a very interesting point about matching of actual and electronic settings. Revs require the shocks to be set on minimum preload AND "Comfort" damping before sending to them.

A stuck motor like that would normally burn out or at least pop fuses. Your strange faults might have been the canbus tripping when it saw an over-current. Opening the motor for a good clean has to be worth a try.

TBH, If you are paying Revs to do the work you might as well pay them for a replacement shock. The OEM shocks are nothing special and prone to letting go.

The shocks are Wilbers ESA. I could take them elsewhere but as this could also be a warranty job then I want Revs to look at them.

The strangest thing is no fault code now. If the Canbus picked up high resistance or current a fault would surely be recorded. When it all went wrong a couple of months back there was a fault saying "front ESA sensor malfunction". That went away after hooking up a good shock and preload motor and doesn't come back, even with the connectors left undone. I think there was originally a sensor fault, then I wound up the preload to max manually and as it won't go back down it is now somehow stuck. So there's two issues to resolve in there. Tractive say don't dismantle (although they would wouldn't they). I am happy to take to Revs and get the good motor fitted to my Wilbers shock and walk away with my bust motor to play with. If I can fix then I have a spare for the shelf or to loan to someone else.
 
As Revs have already done their magic they are the best guys to take a look.

The preload motor might (a pure guess) have jammed the gears at their limit. Taking off the road spring might be enough to free the mechanism and have it working again. If you don't have the spring compressing tools it has to be a job for Revs.
 
As Revs have already done their magic they are the best guys to take a look.

The preload motor might (a pure guess) have jammed the gears at their limit. Taking off the road spring might be enough to free the mechanism and have it working again. If you don't have the spring compressing tools it has to be a job for Revs.

It will be going to Revs when they get back from a week of training with Wilbers. It may be stuck at its limit but there is an underlying problem from when I got the first "sensor malfunction" fault code. Revs were adamant there are no user serviceable parts inside the preload motor - they said they have looked. Also said in 10+ years of dealing with preload motors on shocks this is only the 3rd failure they have come across.
 
All fixed at Revs today. They took the preload motor off the shock I bought from Pathologic and after removing my knackered motor from the WESA shock stripped it right down, rebuilt it and fitted the good motor and reinstalled everything. All is good and in the end not that expensive although I do begrudge the £60 or so I spent at two bmw dealers -one in Spain - who both told me they didn’t really know what was up and sent me off on wild goose chases looking at the loom and ECU.

The guys at Revs we’re great. Lots of hot sweet tea to warm me up a good chat and a very decent price for around 3 1/2 hours work.

The team at Tractive suspension in Holland were also helpful, replying quickly and patiently to my emails (Tractive designed and made the esa system for bmw). They correctly said it sounded more like a preload motor fault than anything else. They also said they were surprised as in their words the motors are very robust and any sort of failure is almost unheard of.

Anyway all is good again
 
Glad you have finally got to the bottom of this fault and found a repair that didn't rape your wallet :D

SteveT

:cool:
 


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