1250GS - zero electric power. Stranded in Holland!

I'm glad you're on your way again but the explanation of battery failure seems a bit sketchy.

I could understand oil in a connector could affect the charging system and other people's anecdotal evidence is of low current wiring examples but if you short circuit a battery things start smoking, melting and burning very quickly.

My money's on misdiagnosis of battery failure and a face saving exercise by the garage.

Sounds about right. I wasn't suggesting that the oil in the harness/connector was the OP's issue, or that the garage's diagnosis was correct, more that (engine) oil can cause electrical problems if it gets where it shouldn't be.
 
I'm glad you're on your way again but the explanation of battery failure seems a bit sketchy.

I could understand oil in a connector could affect the charging system and other people's anecdotal evidence is of low current wiring examples but if you short circuit a battery things start smoking, melting and burning very quickly.

My money's on misdiagnosis of battery failure and a face saving exercise by the garage.

My point exactly Geoff:

(I'd reckon an internal cell failure within the battery, perhaps the garage meant a short-circuit within the battery as the root cause?.)

Battery goes open circuit with total death of the bike. A jump start gets it started/running on alternator output.

Garage finally get around to looking at the bike amongst their daily business, swap battery and all good. Makes up a BS reason to justify the delay.
 
Interesting read and glad to hear you're on the move again.

Safe & enjoyable travels bud!
 
The BMW Insured Warranty were a nightmare for me last year, luckily I had got the bike to a local BMW dealer and was sitting back in my hotel but it still took bloody hours and £40 odd of mobile phone calls to get them to authorise repairs ( so I could claim the money back in the UK).

A warning if you pay by monthly direct debit and the payment is due off over that weekend the call centre computer shows it as not covered and the UK has to be contacted.

God forbid the breakdown occured on a Sunday afternoon at the side of an Autobahn
 
Came out of my office in Utrecht today to start my bike tour of the Netherlands and bike won’t start, TFT won’t come on, totally dead.

It’s been fine for the past 300 miles since Monday and is now knackered, completely without warning.

Am in a local hotel now, as for the past 3 hours since I logged the case with BMW international roadside assistance, they have done precisely nothing to sort the situation so my plans to travel today are goosed.

Bike is in an office car park, steering lock won’t power on obviously and frankly, any scrote could wheel it away.

Tour largely screwed. Additional hotel room cost tonight. An absolute shitshow.

Is it time for a Multistrada? I think it might be.

If you think your bm is troublesome wait till you buy a multistrada
 
I don't quite get the hostillity towards the shop that helped the OP.

We are talking summer season, where the MC activity is at its highest level. The shop has to stay allive all year around, and this puts a limit to how many techs they will hire. Additionally, the tech's also want their vacation during the summer season. All this boils down to a less than maximum capacity in the shop at a time where the demand may be at it's highest.

Not being there, the short circuit may well be BS, but I fail to see the need for the shop to make up a story in order to explain a delay.

Further, a short circuit may be anything from a full blast short circuit with sparks flying to a creeping current type where in this case the battery may be drained in a periode of several hours. Of course, it seems strange if the bike previously has not shown any sign of draining the battery to a sudden problem that drains the battery in a few hours.

Anyway, happy for the OP that it all got sorted and that he is on the road again. And I hope the alleged oil leake is investigated in due time...
 
Not just modern cars. I am a LandRover buff of some 25 years and have built several from the ground up. Oil is the injector wiring harness on the TD5 was a problem that caused misfiring and rough running. I’m not a mechanic with certificates, but I know engines. I also holiday in Elevenariffe.

I can attest to that problem with the LR TD5 ....had me and a local indy L Rover specialist scratching our collective heads for a while until someone else who had suffered the problem came into the workshop by chance and told us straight away what the problem was.:blast
 
If you think your bm is troublesome wait till you buy a multistrada

A friend of mine called his multifailure, stranded him abroad....twice. Mind you nearly every bike he has had lets him down............
 
A suitable oil with a high dielectric strength you mean, no engine oil in transformers��
 
A friend of mine called his multifailure, stranded him abroad....twice. Mind you nearly every bike he has had lets him down............

I think sometimes it just bad luck. My mate has a 2010 multi and we’ve done two Euro tours this year covering over 5500 miles.
I’m on a 2021 GSA and neither of us have had a problem. He did however address every single known Multistrad issue known to man before our first trip. I did cook my brakes in the Picos and they got a little squeaky, but that was it.
 
If I could be arsed, I could grab my megger and inject a thousand volts across a sample of engine oil to find out it’s insulating qualities, but I really can’t be bothered.

It’s not important anyway, the OP is back on the road which is all that matters. I’m not into forum cock waving.
 
Not just modern cars. I am a LandRover buff of some 25 years and have built several from the ground up. Oil is the injector wiring harness on the TD5 was a problem that caused misfiring and rough running. I’m not a mechanic with certificates, but I know engines. I also holiday in Elevenariffe.

same with vw pd diesels.
 
Not just modern cars. I am a LandRover buff of some 25 years and have built several from the ground up. Oil is the injector wiring harness on the TD5 was a problem that caused misfiring and rough running. I’m not a mechanic with certificates, but I know engines. I also holiday in Elevenariffe.

But are you Spartacus
 


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