HELP, My Di2 is DEAD!!!
 

I changed my chain on my Shimano Di2 Ultegra 8000 and I jumped on my bike to test out the gears and my Di2 was dead....dum,dum,dum,duuuuummmm. I took it to the bike shop and the mechanics have covid so they can't work on it. Here is what I tried. The plug on my bar end lights up red when I push the button and the flashing red and green works, but no shifts happen on the front or rear derailer.
.
1. Unplug the seatpost connection to the battery and reconnected it.
2. Check the junction box inside the frame to see if a wire came out...they didn't, and I reconnected all the wires to the junction box
3. Put the rear derailer into recovery mode, it did shift during recovery mode, but didn't do anything after that.
4. Charge the battery all the way up
5. Connected my laptop to eTube.

Any other suggestions to try?

OMG!!! NO! Dead Di2!?!?! Calm down, enough with the !!!. If it shifts while in recovery mode everything is obviously plugged in. You say you connected to eTube...did you actually do anything? You can connect to your laptop all you want but if you don't actually do anything (like maybe...firmware updates) nothing will happen.

All updated in eTube.

Does it work now?

It still doesn't work. I took it into the bike shop and they said they won't get to it until next week. They think it must be a bad wire somewhere. I am going to miss out on a 95 miler and the week after I'm doing a 140 miler. I guess I won't be getting in any base miles before my big ride. I'm going to suffer like a dog on the 140 miler.

Being at the mercy of software, errant wiring, firmware updates, and battery charging is either an argument for owning a second bike or against electronic drivetrains, or both.

N+1 time good excuse for a back up bike :) (I hang on C&V, I am a trained n+1 enabler)

Did you check if it's in " Crash Mode" Also try YouTube. You might get lucky and find a solution.

Agreed. I will never have an electronic drivetrain.

Think a minute about how its not typical here for people to post about their Di2 systems being dead and they cannot figure out how to fix. Id say the vast majority are like me with multiple years of use with never an issue. Its like the introduction of auto automatic tranny's and all the nay sayers back then stating they'll never buy a car with one and here we are 70 years later and good luck finding a stick.

I'm not gonna say never -- I'm sure that a lot of his stuff will get worked out eventually -- but I'm unwilling to be an R & D participant in the meantime. I'll check back in 2025 or so.

I think it comes down to balancing one's willingness to futz with new technology with one's desire to enjoy its advantages. I have a low threshold for futzing, but I'm not sure how to measure what's "typical." A quickie search yielded these threads:


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d5ab73dea5.png
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9099fe17aa.png
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...58caad359e.png
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...41bc766220.png
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...07e7f6b898.png
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9170376ab7.png

Once after just charging my bike, the Di2 didn't seem to wake up when pushing the paddles on the right STI. But pushing a paddle on the other side and everything woke up and was normal. Even with the paddle that originally didn't wake it up.

Don't know why and it's never happened since.

When I took it to the bike shop, he said I tried everything he would do at home. He is going to have to test each wire to see what is going on. I've been riding Di2 for 5 years and I've never had a problem until now.

Your shop guy doesn't know what he's doing. When you plug into Shimano's eTube site (current version) it shows all components in a nifty page w/ images of each component. If a component is there, the wire is good. If if doesn't show up, most likely a bad wire or it's unplugged. Very simple.

This is sooooo weird, all my components were there on eTube. All components have been updated. The red light works, the flashing red and green light works, and the flashing red light works. Nothing else works.

If you take the etube off can you reboot it with a wired connection to your computer?

I've read of folks just simply unplugging the battery, wait a few minutes and plug back in.

I did try the unplug the battery trick, but no dice. When I took my bike off etube, the shifters did nothing. Is there a way to reboot in eTube?

Did you use the "Disconnect Bike" function in the etube software BEFORE unplugging the connection to the bike?
Else the bike remains in "Connected to etube" mode and... Nothing will work.

Try this.
1. Charge the bike.
2. Connect to etube and make sure you see all the components.
3. Hit the "Disconnect Bike" button in etube (I suspect it's in the top left corner)
4. Wait for the bike disconnected message.
5. Disconnect wire from bike
6. Try the shifters.

All the best

Barry

I don't disagree. We have two AXS ETap bikes with no problems ever. However, when we travel far from home for months at a time with our travel trailer, I'm kind of uncomfortable with the AXS bikes. I prefer mechanical brakes and shifting because I am more likely to actually fix something and/or easily find replacement parts anywhere. At home, I'm less concerned because..... n+1 baby!

Just because you don't see it here doesn't mean it's not a problem...

https://www.google.com/search?client...q=di2+problems

Automatic tranny's are hydraulic devices. Not even in the same league as the Di2 or AXS devices that are electronic. Apples and Oranges comparison you are trying to make.

The presence of posts here is a microcosm of whats happening in the real world though. Websites like this always get many posts of people asking questions about an issue they are having with their bikes, so I'd state the fact that we just dont see a lot of Di2 "help me fix it" posts is likely representative of whats happening with the systems, real time.

But this is one of those "help me fix it" posts.

So.....

Sojodave have we fixed it yet?
or at least returned the shifters to functional again?
Enquiring minds and all that.

Barry

Still seem to be a minority of all the other threads needing help with the cable pulled stuff.

Don't get me wrong. I don't really prefer one over the other. With the exception that Di2 for me has been the most trouble free with no adjustment needed during the 26 plus months I've had Di2. With my 105 5800, I'd have to adjust it once or twice a year to keep it shifting in the perfect manner that I preferred. And for me that perfect shifting was better than Di2. But only for when front ring changes were involved.

Given the choice of a bike with Di2 or cable, I'd probably pick the Di2.