Can I have a great big slice of that humble pie please ?

It does make you think.


My 14 year old 90K R1150GS was fine ?

No problems on mine last year
2004 build
63,000 miles
Never opened up before
Still has grease from factory at Berlin Spandau
When the GS was a quality bike

e813c12a707af35f0ce0d62078c57c57.jpg
 
I have to agree with you. The 1150 really was a fine machine. I've missed mine since the day I sold it.:(
 
I was speaking to my local dealers mechanic. Apparently BMW have changed the lube they use at the factory, but they still don’t use enough and greas8ng the splines is not part of the service schedule.

I shall be doing it myself at least once a year, and every time I have a wet day riding through water, along with the final drive oil.

For how long it takes, it’s a no brainier.
 
I just picked up my 2018 Rallye gsa from Motorrad Glasgow today after BMW replaced the driveshaft, final drive and swing arm. Its only done 6k miles when I bought it in August last year

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I just picked up my 2018 Rallye gsa from Motorrad Glasgow today after BMW replaced the driveshaft, final drive and swing arm. Its only done 6k miles when I bought it in August last year

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Corrosion ?

Mine has done 36K
 
Aye, corrosion. I removed the top bolt and the drive wouldn't budge. Same at the gearbox end too. It was driving fine and as it had not actually failed then they told me it couldn't be exchanged under warranty but BMW Customer service paid for it. £3000 I was told.

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Aye, corrosion. I removed the top bolt and the drive wouldn't budge. Same at the gearbox end too. It was driving fine and as it had not actually failed then they told me it couldn't be exchanged under warranty but BMW Customer service paid for it. £3000 I was told.

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The "Official" warranty is out, however, Im certain under the "fit for use" would kick in ? I'm waiting to get it confirmed it will be done under "Good will"
 
The "Official" warranty is out, however, Im certain under the "fit for use" would kick in ? I'm waiting to get it confirmed it will be done under "Good will"
I'm sure it will. Best of luck.


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I just picked up my 2018 Rallye gsa from Motorrad Glasgow today after BMW replaced the driveshaft, final drive and swing arm. Its only done 6k miles when I bought it in August last year

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Mine had 3.5k and was replaced for corrosion - it didn’t even go in for that.
It did go on for corrosion on the subframe which wasn’t done!
 
My '14 GS started the 4 th gear thrumming at 6000mls. I popped into the dealer when passing and told them. There and then they took it into the workshop and greased the splines. Made no difference though.
The thrumming slowly got worse, at 3yrs and 23000mls I got fed up with it and traded it in for a new one.
My '17 early on started a very slight thrumming in 4th, at 33000mls now and it's no worse, fingers crossed.
 
If I saw it being done once I'd be confident to do it myself going forward, but otherwise it seems a tad daunting

Watch a couple of YouTube videos to get the gist but don’t forget there are some muppets on there !

Here’s what I did:

Pop it on the center stand, remove the spray guard from theFD and take the back wheel off, mine comes off without moving the silencer, I put a bungee from the front wheel to the stand for security

Take the ABS sensor out of the back of the final drive, I think it was a T25, I made a bung out of packing foam to stick in the hole so that the FD oil doesn’t run out when you drop the FD (I had changed mine recently)

Unclip the ABS sensor cable and remove the two bolts holding the rear caliper on, I cable tied the caliper to the panier frame to hold it out of the way

Remove the bolt from the paralever link bar, I supported the FD with an empty box

Gently lower the FD and unclip the front of the boot as you do so, as it opens up you can hold the UJ yolk to make sure you don’t pull the shaft off the gearbox end, this shouldn’t happen normally as it’s circlipped on the output shaft

The yolk should just slide off, it’s not circlipped, and the FD will just hang down

Clean and grease the splines as you wish, I used Facom lithium grease, then lift the FD back up

You can get your fingers in to hold the yolk in position on the end of the splines and wiggle the brake disk to align them if necessary, mine popped on easily in a couple of seconds (some YouTubers use a piece of wire to hold the yolk up but you can’t change the angle that way so I’d recommend using your fingers)

Once the yolk is on the splines close the FD and clip the boot back into position, I put just a light smear of lithium grease on the sealing face

Put the bolt back in the paralever link with a bit of thread locker, blue loctite in my case, torque up to 56 NM

Put the caliper back on, again thread lock on the bolts and torque up to 24 NM (pump your brake pedal in case you’ve pushed the pads back)

Clip the ABS sensor cable back in place and put the sensor back in the FD, torque setting for the screw is 8 NM but I just nipped it up fairly tight by hand

Put the wheel back on, tighten the bolts in diagonally opposite sequence and torque up to 60 NM

Put the spray guard back on, thread lock on the screws and torque up to 8 NM

Job done :thumb2 shouldn’t ever need doing again in reality
 
I did the job myself. The bike is 2021 January. I just wanted to make sure everything is OK in there before it starts rusting.
Well it was not completely dry but factory used so little lube that it would be gone after bike's completed one year of life. The lube on splines was white and it made me wonder if they used Staburags on splines.
Also, rubber gaitors had no Staburags at all. So I cleaned splines at both ends of the shaft and applied a lot of Optimol with small paint brush. I didn't completely remove the shaft from the front, just moved the rubber gaitor and pull out the shaft a little, enough to lubricate it well.
After front and rear were done, I put Staburags (a lot of it) to seal the gators the best I could and cleaned everything well.
I'll do it again in two years but it would be at the rear of the shaft only.
 
No problems on mine last year
2004 build
63,000 miles
Never opened up before
Still has grease from factory at Berlin Spandau
When the GS was a quality bike

I know lots of (former) happy owners of the 1150, but I think the pink cloud is blocking the vision of all the final drives that experienced bearing failure.
To be honest, even as fine as the 1150 was, the rate of failed rear drives due to bearing failure was higher rhan the current drives, even when we include the corrosion issue.

As for BMW picking up the bill, this summer a mate of mine had his bike done, and BMW covered it. it's a -16, and he does his own servicing. The service manager started by saying that since they had not done the service, they would not cover it.
When he replied that this never has been a service item so it made no difference the objection was dropped.


The national BMW owners club that I am a member of has brought the issue up for the BMW mothership through the Scandinavian office, which is in Sweden. This has been the 'Never heard before" story.

A while back one of our board members went to a car show, where he ran into a BMW executive from Munich head office. He took the oportunity to 'Enlighten him'.

Recently the club received a long letter from BMW headquarters in Munich regarding what BMW has done to meet the issue.

Hot air? Remains to be seen. It's still not a service item on the official rep DVD, the dealers are acting upon their own...
 
Just do it once a year in the winter when it is pissing down rain. (bike in garage) I will do it over Xmas break as i am fed up of By boxing day!
Ideal opportunity to clean the rear brake caliper and check rear pads and give the rear of the bike a deep clean.

Put the heater on, make a brew, put the radio on and give yourself 90 minutes. Or ask your dealer to grease once a year.

Credit to you Onahi for sharing your woes.

The WC bikes do have their problems but most are now well known and can be sorted. Just be wary of buying an X pcp bike that has had no love....
 
Watch a couple of YouTube videos to get the gist but don’t forget there are some muppets on there !

Here’s what I did:

Pop it on the center stand, remove the spray guard from theFD and take the back wheel off, mine comes off without moving the silencer, I put a bungee from the front wheel to the stand for security

Take the ABS sensor out of the back of the final drive, I think it was a T25, I made a bung out of packing foam to stick in the hole so that the FD oil doesn’t run out when you drop the FD (I had changed mine recently)

Unclip the ABS sensor cable and remove the two bolts holding the rear caliper on, I cable tied the caliper to the panier frame to hold it out of the way

Remove the bolt from the paralever link bar, I supported the FD with an empty box

Gently lower the FD and unclip the front of the boot as you do so, as it opens up you can hold the UJ yolk to make sure you don’t pull the shaft off the gearbox end, this shouldn’t happen normally as it’s circlipped on the output shaft

The yolk should just slide off, it’s not circlipped, and the FD will just hang down

Clean and grease the splines as you wish, I used Facom lithium grease, then lift the FD back up

You can get your fingers in to hold the yolk in position on the end of the splines and wiggle the brake disk to align them if necessary, mine popped on easily in a couple of seconds (some YouTubers use a piece of wire to hold the yolk up but you can’t change the angle that way so I’d recommend using your fingers)

Once the yolk is on the splines close the FD and clip the boot back into position, I put just a light smear of lithium grease on the sealing face

Put the bolt back in the paralever link with a bit of thread locker, blue loctite in my case, torque up to 56 NM

Put the caliper back on, again thread lock on the bolts and torque up to 24 NM (pump your brake pedal in case you’ve pushed the pads back)

Clip the ABS sensor cable back in place and put the sensor back in the FD, torque setting for the screw is 8 NM but I just nipped it up fairly tight by hand

Put the wheel back on, tighten the bolts in diagonally opposite sequence and torque up to 60 NM

Put the spray guard back on, thread lock on the screws and torque up to 8 NM

Job done :thumb2 shouldn’t ever need doing again in reality

I use a trolley jack on the rear brake disc once wheel removed - makes it easier to maneuver when putting back together
 
Well done Onahi for fessing up, hoping you get your goodwill from BMW

Cheers Snooty:thumb
If i'm wrong, I come clean. and accept it.

It'll be tuesday now I hope ?
Reading the "How to" on this thread makes me confident to do it myself, However, for £40 whilst its in Bi annually for service etc, Id rather just pay that. Lazy I know. I just hope they are liberal with the correct spec lubricants. And to make a point, The bike has never been through any water deeper than the tyre depth. So its all just road water. and never out in the salt. In fact, 99% of all the miles are on European warm roads and trails. So it just shows you.
 


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