Wahoo Silent Kickr/Kickr Core Faults

[CXRAndy]

CXRAndy - you said you might have more/updated information to post, is that still true?

I have photos of damage andwhat to check for. I will post eventually, when Wahoo sort out design issues

 

[Bliquid]

If you have any doubts regarding noise, vibration etc. just record a video and send it to Wahoo. If they think there’s something wrong with it they’ll send you a replacement unit within 10 days (my experience in the UK)
Don’t bother trying to fix it.
Ben

 

[Freelanderuk]

My new Core was delivered today ,will unbox and try it out in the morning, will also compare serial numbers

 

[Mike Den]

All noises removed today on my Kickr Core :-)
There were quite a lot of different ones, and with different sources.
Was very easy to solve.
Belt, ease off the tension, as per Andy's description.
Woodruff key, twist 1/4 of a turn, and lightly coat with copper grease. (standard copper grease, normally used on car brake components)
2mm set screw for flywheel pulley, remove and throw away.
Remove flywheel, and ensure all accessible screws that holds the plastic covers are well tightened. (you will find all of them are loose)
Tap the plastic covers and listen for rattling noises. If any, sort them out before assembling.
2 sources of rattling noise are the light diodes ! They are rattling around in the cutouts where they are installed.
You can observe them rattling around when you tap the plastic cover with your fingers.
If you want a completely silent kickr core, get 2 toothpicks.
Jam them into the upper RH corner of the light diode cutouts, to ensure the diodes are no longer rattling.
Trim off the excess toothpicks with a knife.
Toothpick repair is nearly invisible after the trimming. If you are sensitive, take a black marker, and color the wood ends.
Assemble all items, except for the 2mm setscrew. Throw that away.
And enjoy a VERY silent Kickr Core :-)

 

[CXRAndy]

Kickr no 2 is now setup ready to use, probably at the weekend- suffering head/earache currently

 

[Freelanderuk]

I am still waiting to hear back from Wahoo support about the replacement kicker core I received, as that is making noises straight out of the box as soon as I but my bike on it ,emailed them Sunday and still not heard anything from them

 

[ProjectYeti]

New to CycleChat here and wanted to share my Kickr experience. Thank you CXRAndy and everyone for your contributions to this thread! There's a wealth of information here.

I have a Kickr V4 that started exhibiting a vibration similar to the Bliquid's initial Core and slightly elevated vibration at higher speeds (at least compared to new). This led me to dig deeper, pull the cover, and get a good listen to the unit while spinning the cranks by hand. There is bearing noise (drone-ish, reminiscent of flat spotted bearings) matching the revolution of the flywheel. Not as pronounced as what some users have documented, but still present.

I will add that upon reception of my unit, prior to riding, I did back off the tension per Andy's recommendation. Also, for what it's worth, my unit did not have the updated screw/woodruff kit installed, but I have not experienced any knocking from the belt pulley whatsoever. I have about 450 miles on the unit and plan to keep riding it for now and see how it progresses.

@CXRAndy , being a newbie I'm not able to PM you. I'm interested in your discovery/process regarding the flywheel vibration. Would you be able to send me a PM please? Thanks!

 

[Freelanderuk]

Just spoke with Wahoo support and another Kickr core is on its way , fingers crossed 3rd time lucky

 

[Sweetman]

Hi all, first time poster. A shout out to Wahoo for bringing me to this site. So I stopped by the LBS to demo a Kickr on display. Rode it for a bit on zwift and was really impressed with how quiet it was. The smoothness was so nice, light years ahead of my old fluid trainer. I ended up purchasing a couple of Cores from them (they had a slight discount , how could I refuse!) for the missus and myself.

I took the first one out of the box and lets just say I was less than thrilled with the QC at wahoo. It was nothing like the machine I demo'd. Just spinning the flywheel by hand resulted in this annoying, grating sound. Closer inspection revealed the belt was rubbing on the cover. You could gently flex the cover and it would fix the issue but it would just return and continue to rub. Being the tinkerer I am, off came the belt cover and a small square of haevy poster paper was added between the frame and cover. It was the perfect spacer to have the cover clear the belt. Its a half arse fix but whatever, no one can see it and only I know it's there.

That's when I noticed the belt was tightened to banjo string tight. It seemed completely unnecessary for the belt to be that tight being that we're just puny humans with puny human strength. A little google searching about Wahoo Core issues and here I am. There is a whole wealth of good info here for sure. I ended up taking everything apart. I pulled off the flywheel off so I could check that there were no issues with the bearings, both spun smooth with my fingers with no roughness. There was debris on the electromagnets and inside of the flywheel that I cleaned up. Looks like I have the old style bolt and key as well. Oh, and I know they're very close in size but I'm pretty sure it's a 14mm, not 9/16 bolt. Just for fun I left the bolt finger tight and it knocks like a champ when the pulley is spun. I tightened the bolt to about 8 ft/lbs with some blue locktite and I used a 2mm allen to tighten the set screw on the flywheel pulley which wasn't even tightened to begin with. My guess is tightening the set screw locks the pulley to the key and prevents it from moving.

After all that, the Core is mostly silent at speed. I spun it up in the 53-11 to what I would say is 35 mph and there is some whining noise but it's mostly obscured by the freewheel noise. The balance isn't perfect but I guess it's not too bad. At ludicrous speeds there's some slight buzzing in the seat but at 20-25mph it's minimal. Another noise that I would notice at speeds was this frump, frump, frump sound that seemed to follow the diameter of the pulley. After searching around, I believe the noise comes from the ever so slight raises on the back off the belt where it's fused when it rolls across the idler pulley. The sound pretty much goes away when you take all the tension off the belt.

So after all that with the first Kickr, I unbox the second one. It's just about perfect. No rubbing belt, no clunks, no whirring noises, bolts tight, and the belt was what I would say to be properly tensioned. Really makes me question the disparity of QC of the two machines. I have to laugh at what I read above about "properly tensioned belt" from the factory. I'm just a backyard hack with mechanics but simply plucking the belts tells you that in no way were those belts even remotely close in tension.

Well I spoke too soon. I now have an issue with the second Kickr Core.

So I was using the first Core since it had a myriad of problems to start with and i didn't need the missus to experience any more potential snafus. Its been great so far. Her Core had been sitting mostly idle since she is still recovering from an injury (maybe 5mi so far) but just this morning she was determined to get some time on it while I went out mtb'ing. I had it set up for her before I left and everything was working fine with the wahoo app. Calibrated it and it was ready to go for her. I get home and she says she wasn't able to get the wahoo app to control the trainer. It wouldn't vary the resistance with any of the settings. She ended up just freewheeling for a half hour with no resistance.

I tried pairing the app to the trainer and it would recognize the trainer and let you pair with it but there wasn't any speed reading. I swapped power supplies since I had the other one right there but same problem. I remembered seeing the optical sensor behind the flywheel in the other trainer so I pulled this one apart to give it a look-see. I see the black and white grid sticker on the inside of the flywheel and I see the small board with the optic sensors attached as well. It is securely mounted and I don't see any issues with the wiring. It's hardwired to the main board which doesn't make for an easy swap if this is indeed the problem. When plugging it in I don't see any light emitting from the led's, if you are even able to see any light.

I was hoping for an easy fix but it seems like this will require warranty work and lots of down time. This makes me sad.

 

[Freelanderuk]

There are a few posts on the Zwift forums with people suffering the same symptoms, Wahoo have sent new boards out
https://forums.zwift.com/t/wahoo-kickr-core-not-reading-power/14083

All. So make sure that the core is only connected to on device and app

 

[CXRAndy]

It's hardwired to the main board which doesn't make for an easy swap if this is indeed the problem. When plugging it in I don't see any light emitting from the led's, if you are even able to see any light

Optical sensors are usually near infrared, so you cannot see the glow. Have you tried to connect it to Zwift or another training platform?

 

[JhnBssll]

I caved and ordered a kickr core today. Hopefully it will be ok out of the box

 

[Sweetman]

Thanks Freelanderuk and CXRAndy for the suggestions.
I went through that zwift thread and it looks like that might be my problem. I see where it posted that wahoo acknowledges there are some bad boards out there and that they will send a replacement, I'm not sure if they mean a board or a whole replacement unit. That would be great if they send a board as it would make it much less of a headache.

I did go through shutting down all devices and then only syncing up the Core but it still wouldn't register speed. And unfortunately my avatar just stands on the side of the road wuth zwift.

I filed a warranty claim with Wahoo. Lets hope for a quick reply.

 

[Freelanderuk]

You will be pleased with it either way as you already know that there are a few issues but Wahoo are sorting this out . I have no regrets in buying mine and I am on the 3rd one when it turns up

 

[JhnBssll]

You will be pleased with it either way as you already know that there are a few issues but Wahoo are sorting this out . I have no regrets in buying mine and I am on the 3rd one when it turns up

That was my thinking. They seem to be dealing with the problems quite well so it was worth the risk