Thule electric step

[badger123]

Should my thule electric step go right back mine goes within a 1" But looking at it there looks to be a switch which it should touch you can rock the step that bit it does not seem tight back

WHEN I START THE ENGINE YOU CAN HEAR THE STEP CLICKING SO IF YOU SWICH OFF AND TRY AGAIN IT WILL MORE THAN LIKEY WORK

 

[Snoopy]

May be worth giving it a clean underneath, could have dirt particles trapped , we just use a soft brush to clean it down..hope you manage to sort it

 

[Gaston aires]

Thule electric steps are a pain, they are always failing. The muck gets in them and jams up the works. Manual versions are better long term.
Phil

 

[ukdw]

My one jammed about a year ago and finally got round to looking at it this week.
Took me quite a while to get it off, party due to the fact that some of the bolts were bent due to impact, plus were coach bolts that were slipping in the track they were slotted into.

I then spent ages trying to get the arms out of their connections to the step as I wasn't sure what was ssized up. Eventually got them out by bending the metal in the step. Step was a bit stiff but not the problem.

Motor seemed completely seized up, so started taking it apart, ended up breaking the plastic on the motor before I worked out that it was actually a cog on the output shaft to the motor that is supposed to spin around on some plastic teeth on the output of the motor unit.

So dilemma was then, do I buy a new motor from Thule for £150, a new manual step for about £180, a whole new step for about £250. Or just put the step back together without the motor and effectively convert it to manual - perhaps with some sort of retaining mechanism to stop it swinging out on sharp bends,

The biggest problem with getting a new one was whether the fixings would be the same.

After some cleaning off of gunk eventually found a Bosch part number on the motor, and found it is a fairly standard electric window motor, but lots of ads still showed a replacement as being over £100, plus I wasn't sure if Thule had made some changes to the motor.

Spotted a listing on Amazon for a motor for £5.51 with free postage, which I thought was too good to be true, and would probably end up being just a picture of a motor. But decided to take the risk, and amazingly the next day a brand new motor turned up. Tested the motor and it seemed to spin up ok, and after several more hours work yesterday putting it back together and back onto the van, amazingly it all works - so I am well pleased.

I agree with earlier comments about the step design. There was masses of dirt in every part of the mechanism, partly due to the fact that the whole bottom and half of the top is just some sort of corrugated cardboard type plastic stuff that just slots in. Not sure how long the repaired version will last, but it will be really nice to have the step working again for when we eventually start going away again.

Also I now know a lot more about how it fits together and what screws and bolts need undoing first - so if it does go wrong again should be easier to fix.

 

[RobbyMClark]

Thinking of getting one for Smileo, but will go for a manual one after reading this and other threads.
That's what this forum's all about, Fun, help and advise.

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[irnbru]

Thinking of getting one for Smileo, but will go for a manual one after reading this and other threads.
That's what this forum's all about, Fun, help and advise.

Smileo? Benimar Mileo maybe? If so I would be interested to know how you get on with adding a step.

 

[ukdw]

Should my thule electric step go right back mine goes within a 1" But looking at it there looks to be a switch which it should touch you can rock the step that bit it does not seem tight back

WHEN I START THE ENGINE YOU CAN HEAR THE STEP CLICKING SO IF YOU SWICH OFF AND TRY AGAIN IT WILL MORE THAN LIKEY WORK

Yes there is a switch that the arm hits when the step is fully retracted. My one also leaves about an inch stuck outl

Not sure how the mechanism knows when it is fully deployed as there is no switch on the other end to tell whether the step is fully out.

I think there must be some other sort of current sensing or timing happening too as when the retraction got stuck on mine about half way out (due to the bottom corrugated stuff arching up inside) the motor still stopped even though the switch hadn't been reached.

So it is possible that your step is stopping before the switch due to some sort of blockage or stiffness - so a good clean out and lubrication might help it retract fully back to the switch.

 

[gus-lopez]

on Amazon for a motor for £5.51 with fre

I'd buy 2 more at thst price. Then you'll never need one again.