Question about mud/Water exposure

[Theocatic]

So I recently went on a camping trip and was riding around/off-roading and kind of just exploring the area and didn't notice that an area I was riding into turned into a small marsh with heavy and wet mud. I jumped off ankles deep into the mud, and my EUC fell over on its side into the mud for a couple of seconds. I quickly pulled it back up where I saw the entire side get pretty wet. My main worry here is that my EUCs shell has a good crack on the front from a previous crash that I've tried to seal up but definitely isn't water proof and I want to know what I should do to make sure no water got into the internals from this.

EUC still seems to run just fine, I've only ridden it around at low speeds, and haven't tried charging it again yet. 

I've seen a number of posts on here about dealing with EUCs being submerged or partially submerged in water, and I honestly don't know how much/ how deep I should be checking with this. The mud was fairly watery, soaking my socks and shoes when I jumped off, but I don't know to what degree this should be treated as a 'submersion'.
I'm mainly looking for advice on exactly what I should do/look for.
I plan to take it apart later this week to inspect the internals for water entry. I would suspect that areas where water got in would be fairly obvious as muddy water always tends to leave some residue when it dries. 
Other posts dealing with water suggest taking apart the motor to inspect for water that may have gotten inside, and I've even seen some people saying to remove the shrink wrap on the battery. I'd be mostly worried that my poor attempt at properly replacing shrink wrap would cause more problems than I hope to find.

Understanding that water damage often happens over time, and that water damage to the battery or other parts could send me flying if present and ignored does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do here?

Or just any general advice for heavy/wet mud would be appreciated.
 

[atdlzpae]

1 hour ago, Theocatic said:

Other posts dealing with water suggest taking apart the motor to inspect for water that may have gotten inside, and I've even seen some people saying to remove the shrink wrap on the battery.

Opening a wheel is a very good idea. However, BE CAREFUL. 100V is not a toy, if you short the battery you'll get a nice fireball.

Disconnect the batteries and then wrap the connectors, so you don't short anything by accident.
Search for any video "Inmotion V12 HT disassembly" and watch it so you know what you're in for.

Do NOT open the motor, opening the motor is a huge PITA on any unicycle. If water ingressed there, too bad. Still, it's not likely to have.
Do NOT open any batteries, unless you like fireballs. If you believe the water ingressed into the battery, find someone skillful in this area near you.

I wouldn't wait until "later this week", but ASAP TBH. The biggest problem with water is corrosion and the longer you leave water on metal, the more it corrodes. Just take the panels off, disconnect the batteries and let it dry out.

####

As for the crack, IMO it's best to stuff the inside of the wheel with some baby-grade water absorbers, available for $3 in every store. This way if a water droplet somehow gets inside, it will be absorbed instead of sloshing around forever.

####

Your EUC will be fine. Just make sure it's dry inside.

Edited Monday at 10:15 PM by atdlzpae

[Theocatic]

Ok. I'll take it apart when I get back from work then.
Thankfully I've deconstructed this wheel before so I'm pretty familiar with the process for it.
Assuming everything looks good inside I'll honestly probably just replace the front cover, costs like 30$ and saves me the headache/worry.

knowing what I know about Lithium batteries was one of the reasons I figured I'd ask around on here, want to be thorough to be safe, but also don't want to mess with things that aren't worth it.

I know exactly what hitting pavement at 30mph feels like and am not too keen to do it again lol.

[Punxatawneyjoe]

2 hours ago, Theocatic said:

I plan to take it apart later this week to inspect the internals for water entry. I would suspect that areas where water got in would be fairly obvious as muddy water always tends to leave some residue when it dries. 

Good idea however the v12 HT  has an IP rating of x5 which is water jets from any direction, i wouldn't be to worried about water intrusion unless ofc the crack was in one of the battery cases and you said it was in the front so i wouldn't be to worried. Inmotion has been taking waterproofing seriously for quite a few years now.

[techyiam]

7 hours ago, Theocatic said:

I jumped off ankles deep into the mud, and my EUC fell over on its side into the mud for a couple of seconds.

The good news is that according to the official Inmotion website, the V12 HT has an IP rating of IPx5 for the whole wheel, and IPx7 for the battery packs. 

Never mind mud, even if the battery packs were submerged for 30 seconds in shallow water, there would be no water ingress. IPx7 test submerges the device in 1 meter deep water for 30 minutes. So most likely the battery packs are fine.

The controller is fairly well weather sealed.

My main concern would be the wheel bearings. Perhaps spray some WD40 or other penetrating oil on the bearings with a long spray-tube, or pull out the wheel to gain access to the bearings. I would say the former is a lot easier to do.

[Punxatawneyjoe]

5 hours ago, techyiam said:

Perhaps spray some WD40 or other penetrating oil on the bearings with a long spray-tube

Not sure i would do that. Wd40 and penetrating oil act like a solvent to grease. you could wash the grease out of the bearing doing that.

[techyiam]

1 hour ago, Punxatawneyjoe said:

Not sure i would do that. Wd40 and penetrating oil act like a solvent to grease. you could wash the grease out of the bearing doing that.

Not easily because of the bearing seal. Only a minute amount seep through the seal. You are not soaking the bearings in penetrating oil. Also, the penetrating oil that I use are also lubricants.

If enough moisture gets through, the bearings will rust and you would have to replace the bearings altogether.

I ride year round in a the Pacific Northwest where it rains a lot, based on my experience, I observed that I can prolong my bearings way longer and smoother.

There is nothing stopping someone from taking out the whole wheel and clean and relube the bearings.

But that is a lot of work. Based on what the OP description, I would spray some WD40 as quickly as possible to at least displace some moisture.

 

[atdlzpae]

10 minutes ago, techyiam said:

If enough moisture gets through, the bearings will rust and you would have to replace the bearings altogether.

Let's not scare @Theocatic without any reason.
Don't open the engine, don't "force" WD-40 into the bearings, you're more likely to do damage than to help.

New bearings are cheap. Not a problem. Time to think about bearings is after they actually fail, not before.

[techyiam]

17 minutes ago, atdlzpae said:

New bearings are cheap. Not a problem. Time to think about bearings is after they actually fail, not before.

Actually, I own a V12 and have ridden it for well over 10,000 kilometres. And it is still on its original bearings. I ride year round, basically every day. And it is always raining and wet. And the bearings are still smooth with no play. All I have done to it is to apply some penetrating oil on it.

Just curious, have you replace wheel bearings before on an euc?

 

[atdlzpae]

8 minutes ago, techyiam said:

Just curious, have you replace wheel bearings before on an euc?

Yes, on a 10k km MSX. Opening the engine was a horrible experience, I'm scarred for life.
Ultimately I didn't because after opening the engine it turned out that the real problem weren't bearings, it was a broken axle.

[Theocatic]

taking the wheel apart showed that the water had gotten in a bit, but all of the areas with electronics seemed very clean with no signs of leftover water, or any staining from the dirty water.
Was a little weirded out though because the top portion that covers the electronics did look like it had some dried water, but absolutely no surface under that top portion showed any of the same splotchyness and using a bright flashlight, and black light to look at the electronics portion itself didn't show any signs of water ingress that I could see. The contact points I was able to check looked clean, and no electronic parts have failed, or even shown unusual behavior.
I'm completely leaving the battery alone for a few reasons but mainly because the battery on the v12 HT is rated IPX7 which means that it's rated for up to 30 minutes of full submersion in 1 meter water, and considering that the base shell has holes near the speakers that create a through line for water to enter into every portion that water already got into I believe it is pretty safe to assume that the battery itself is perfectly fine.

I haven't removed the Silicone to directly check into the Motherboard/Control board because
1. I don't want to open that up and make it more vulnerable to future water damage and
2. it's an absolute pain to get into those on the v12
That being said if there is good cause to double check inside there I could get some silicon sealant and take a deeper look.

I'm perfectly fine just seeing what the motor on the Wheel does over the next month tbh. If water got into the motor from what I understand the problems caused happen over time and are fairly noticeable. I'm not super keen on tearing it apart and having to worry about re-sealing it if I don't have to. Especially when replacement bearings are as cheap as they are.

My main worries were damage that would cause me to take a crash without warning later on (funny given it's a v12 lol), and anything related to a situation with a compromised battery.

Thanks for the suggestions, any further suggestions are very appreciated!
I've already ordered a few replacement parts so that I can get this thing properly sealed back up, and will likely be monitoring the wheel's status through the app a good bit looking for any kind of hall sensor error, or any other errors.
 

Edited Wednesday at 03:52 PM by Theocatic

[Punxatawneyjoe]

8 hours ago, Theocatic said:

taking the wheel apart showed that the water had gotten in a bit, but all of the areas with electronics seemed very clean with no signs of leftover water, or any staining from the dirty water.

Not uncommon for water/mud to inside some of the exterior panels on an Inmotion wheel. They do a great job at waterproofing the electronics though.

 

8 hours ago, Theocatic said:

My main worries were damage that would cause me to take a crash without warning later on (funny given it's a v12 lol), and anything related to a situation with a compromised battery.

I wouldn't worry at all If anything goes wrong with the batteries you will get a warning on the screen. I think you have nothing to worry about, go out and enjoy your wheel....