DT Swiss 240 EXP - Engagement Problems

[jarm]

Talked with a mech at my local bike shop and they have some EXT hubs returned. As of now they are waiting for instructions from DT Swiss.

My local shop said that the ratchet gets stuck and the spring is not strong enough to push it back, so it does not engage.

EDIT: Sorry for the double post. Please delete last one.

[ryanw]

I have to keep repeat this, it has nothing to do with the grease people.

The unit that happened to one of my customer had super thin original grease.

Well the one I serviced was due to excessive grease, it was rammed with the stuff and was keeping the two ratchets glued together and on the flip slide, once freed, wasn't allowing the teeth to engage due to the spring being restricted.

This could possibly mean that the spring is very sensative to tension and not strong enough for the job when excessive grease is applied. There's only a few moving parts and none I can see would cause any lack of engagement other than the spring / grease combination.

[Rider27]

I ran into this problem on dt180s that came with FarSport wheels that delivered a couple months ago.

I got a response from dtswiss in 12 hrs. They didn't even ask for the serial number etc. Just sent me a label. Told me they'd do a full warranty rebuild. Told me it'd be a 1-2 day turnaround.

Just wondering - did you contact DT Swiss directly or did you go through Farsports first?

I took delivery of a set of Farsports wheels with 240EXP hubs just last month. I've noticed they are very quiet, but the small amount of freewheel noise changes (sometimes almost none, sometimes a bit), and the other day there was a loud clunk just as I started pedalling after freewheeling. I have a bad feeling things are going to get worse, based on the threads elsewhere about this problem

I noticed the same - the changing noises when freewheeling - on the 180.

I pinged the dt swiss service center in Colorado. Used the online form.

I did ping Sandy at FarSport before I'd heard back from dt Swiss. She wasn't aware of the issue. Once she did some research she asked me to take a pic of the batch number and was going to tak to the dt folks they source from.

I've got carbon-ti on my 4.5ARs. Haven't been perfect either. Front hub bearings went after 200 miles. And for some reason (probably bad luck) there's a seemingly impossible to cure harmonic resonance on the front wheel when braking - basically regardless of pad or rotor choice - in an SL7.

I have the same changing noise when freewheeling quiet at the beginning and totally silent after few seconds. When repedalling sound come back and disappear after few seconds.
Did you have any return of farsportwheel or dt on this subject? And also is that the premise of the real no engaging problem?
Thx

[aeroisnteverything]

I ran into this problem on dt180s that came with FarSport wheels that delivered a couple months ago.

I got a response from dtswiss in 12 hrs. They didn't even ask for the serial number etc. Just sent me a label. Told me they'd do a full warranty rebuild. Told me it'd be a 1-2 day turnaround.

Just wondering - did you contact DT Swiss directly or did you go through Farsports first?

I took delivery of a set of Farsports wheels with 240EXP hubs just last month. I've noticed they are very quiet, but the small amount of freewheel noise changes (sometimes almost none, sometimes a bit), and the other day there was a loud clunk just as I started pedalling after freewheeling. I have a bad feeling things are going to get worse, based on the threads elsewhere about this problem

I noticed the same - the changing noises when freewheeling - on the 180.

I pinged the dt swiss service center in Colorado. Used the online form.

I did ping Sandy at FarSport before I'd heard back from dt Swiss. She wasn't aware of the issue. Once she did some research she asked me to take a pic of the batch number and was going to tak to the dt folks they source from.

I've got carbon-ti on my 4.5ARs. Haven't been perfect either. Front hub bearings went after 200 miles. And for some reason (probably bad luck) there's a seemingly impossible to cure harmonic resonance on the front wheel when braking - basically regardless of pad or rotor choice - in an SL7.

I have the same changing noise when freewheeling quiet at the beginning and totally silent after few seconds. When repedalling sound come back and disappear after few seconds.
Did you have any return of farsportwheel or dt on this subject? And also is that the premise of the real no engaging problem?
Thx

I would not use sound as a symptom. Mine is working perfectly so far since last August on the Rapide wheels (over 5000km on this wheelset by now). Grease, amount thereof, and how fresh it is affects the noise. They started off really loud for me, then I added some DT swiss grease (nottoo much!) and they got really quiet. As grease wore off, they got loud again. A couple of weeks ago, I took the hub apart again, cleaned the old grease, added fresh one carefully to each rachet - again, not too much, basically just "painted" a thin layer of it with a pinkie over the rached ridges - and the wheels are quiet again. Working great though.

I have no idea what the fundamental issue is. Maybe it's defective parts in some of the hubs. Maybe in some cases the builders or users are packing them full of off-spec grease which prevents the spring from pushing the ratchet in to engage, especially in cold weather when the grease thickens. Maybe it's a combination of both.

My advice for the concerned citizens with a working hub might be: 1) buy some DT Swiss pink grease; 2) take apart your hub (which is super easy to do), and take a look at your grease situation. If it looks kinda gunky in there, clean the rachets and the inside of the hub where the spring resides thoroughly. Apply a thin even layer of fresh DT swiss grease to the ratchets; 3) put the hub back together. Given how easy the maintenance of these things is, I sort of think repeating this procedure on a fairly regular basis is not a bad idea.

[jas0nt]

I've got carbon-ti on my 4.5ARs. Haven't been perfect either. Front hub bearings went after 200 miles.

That's pretty bad. I've had cheap stock wheels last much longer than that. Have you found out why that happened? Carbon-Ti use SKF bearings which aren't bad by any definition.

[tommyboyo]

Just wondering - did you contact DT Swiss directly or did you go through Farsports first?

I took delivery of a set of Farsports wheels with 240EXP hubs just last month. I've noticed they are very quiet, but the small amount of freewheel noise changes (sometimes almost none, sometimes a bit), and the other day there was a loud clunk just as I started pedalling after freewheeling. I have a bad feeling things are going to get worse, based on the threads elsewhere about this problem

I noticed the same - the changing noises when freewheeling - on the 180.

I pinged the dt swiss service center in Colorado. Used the online form.

I did ping Sandy at FarSport before I'd heard back from dt Swiss. She wasn't aware of the issue. Once she did some research she asked me to take a pic of the batch number and was going to tak to the dt folks they source from.

I've got carbon-ti on my 4.5ARs. Haven't been perfect either. Front hub bearings went after 200 miles. And for some reason (probably bad luck) there's a seemingly impossible to cure harmonic resonance on the front wheel when braking - basically regardless of pad or rotor choice - in an SL7.

I have the same changing noise when freewheeling quiet at the beginning and totally silent after few seconds. When repedalling sound come back and disappear after few seconds.
Did you have any return of farsportwheel or dt on this subject? And also is that the premise of the real no engaging problem?
Thx

I would not use sound as a symptom. Mine is working perfectly so far since last August on the Rapide wheels (over 5000km on this wheelset by now). Grease, amount thereof, and how fresh it is affects the noise. They started off really loud for me, then I added some DT swiss grease (nottoo much!) and they got really quiet. As grease wore off, they got loud again. A couple of weeks ago, I took the hub apart again, cleaned the old grease, added fresh one carefully to each rachet - again, not too much, basically just "painted" a thin layer of it with a pinkie over the rached ridges - and the wheels are quiet again. Working great though.

I have no idea what the fundamental issue is. Maybe it's defective parts in some of the hubs. Maybe in some cases the builders or users are packing them full of off-spec grease which prevents the spring from pushing the ratchet in to engage, especially in cold weather when the grease thickens. Maybe it's a combination of both.

My advice for the concerned citizens with a working hub might be: 1) buy some DT Swiss pink grease; 2) take apart your hub (which is super easy to do), and take a look at your grease situation. If it looks kinda gunky in there, clean the rachets and the inside of the hub where the spring resides thoroughly. Apply a thin even layer of fresh DT swiss grease to the ratchets; 3) put the hub back together. Given how easy the maintenance of these things is, I sort of think repeating this procedure on a fairly regular basis is not a bad idea.

Out of interest, do you actually NEED any special tools other than some generic bearing press and the special exp ratchet tool for servicing these hubs?

DT swiss would have you believe that you need about 20 very specific tools for all the different parts if you go by the manual!!

[GeoffS]

Out of curiosity - are hubs typically delivered to wheel builders pre-packed with DT Swiss special grease, or are they delivered dry and rely on the wheel builder adding the grease?

[BadBoyR]

Just had one in on an XDR Rapide.

Bike was suffering from lack of drive / engagement and freehub was almost silent. Would just ghost pedal (clear sign of too much freehub grease).

Cracked it open to find it was jam packed full of grease (grey/silver, not normal DT Swiss red grease).

Flushed out and inspected all components. All fine. Regreased and was much louder and next to no ghost pedalling. After test ride, all perfect.

In summary, just check for excessive grease and service if nothing broken.

What grease do you recommend?


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[ryanw]

No special tools required. Just use DT Special Grease or DT Universal Grease if you can't source the special.

[WizzyBob]

I'm returning mine to the UK warranty/service centre today, I'll update you with how I get on

[aeroisnteverything]

No special tools required. Just use DT Special Grease or DT Universal Grease if you can't source the special.

I'd say more than that: no tools required at all. You pull off a cassette by hand, and that's that. There are like 4 parts inside that you need to remove, clean and put back in the same order, unless you really want to go deep and replace the bearings.

[BadBoyR]

No special tools required. Just use DT Special Grease or DT Universal Grease if you can't source the special.

I'd say more than that: no tools required at all. You pull off a cassette by hand, and that's that. There are like 4 parts inside that you need to remove, clean and put back in the same order, unless you really want to go deep and replace the bearings.

No special tools required. Just use DT Special Grease or DT Universal Grease if you can't source the special.

Thanks

[Raimundo]

If some of us are having trouble sourcing the DT Swiss ratchet grease, I can vouch for the Shimano freehub grease, it's usually widely available and also high quality. Just beware of it's funky smell...

It's what I have been using on all my freehubs, even in these unreliable EXP hubs.

[sethjs]

I ran into this problem on dt180s that came with FarSport wheels that delivered a couple months ago.

I got a response from dtswiss in 12 hrs. They didn't even ask for the serial number etc. Just sent me a label. Told me they'd do a full warranty rebuild. Told me it'd be a 1-2 day turnaround.

Just wondering - did you contact DT Swiss directly or did you go through Farsports first?

I took delivery of a set of Farsports wheels with 240EXP hubs just last month. I've noticed they are very quiet, but the small amount of freewheel noise changes (sometimes almost none, sometimes a bit), and the other day there was a loud clunk just as I started pedalling after freewheeling. I have a bad feeling things are going to get worse, based on the threads elsewhere about this problem

I noticed the same - the changing noises when freewheeling - on the 180.

I pinged the dt swiss service center in Colorado. Used the online form.

I did ping Sandy at FarSport before I'd heard back from dt Swiss. She wasn't aware of the issue. Once she did some research she asked me to take a pic of the batch number and was going to tak to the dt folks they source from.

I've got carbon-ti on my 4.5ARs. Haven't been perfect either. Front hub bearings went after 200 miles. And for some reason (probably bad luck) there's a seemingly impossible to cure harmonic resonance on the front wheel when braking - basically regardless of pad or rotor choice - in an SL7.

I have the same changing noise when freewheeling quiet at the beginning and totally silent after few seconds. When repedalling sound come back and disappear after few seconds.
Did you have any return of farsportwheel or dt on this subject? And also is that the premise of the real no engaging problem?
Thx

Contacted them. Without even asking for a serial number they sent me a mailing label and told me they’d do a full warranty rebuild in 1-2 days.

Have not received it back.

To help on figuring out the batch, here’s the serial number on it




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[sethjs]

I've got carbon-ti on my 4.5ARs. Haven't been perfect either. Front hub bearings went after 200 miles.

That's pretty bad. I've had cheap stock wheels last much longer than that. Have you found out why that happened? Carbon-Ti use SKF bearings which aren't bad by any definition.

Totally unclear. Fairwheel sent new bearings to my lbs. they replaced them and bearings have been fine for the next 10k miles.

But the damn rotor always ends up noisy, unlike the rear wheel which is totally fine. As is any other wheel on the front of the bike


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