Realistic Self Service Tasks

As some of you may have read, I have recently bought a 1150GS: my first first forray into Beemerdom...

It has a FBMWSH and low miles and I have grand plans for this bike, so I want to keep it reliable. With 1 year's 2nd hand warranty from BMW, I also need to get this seen to by dealerships. However, what are the straight forward tasks that I can have a go at on my own without cocking up the bike?

Essentially, I still want to get personal with my bike once in a while but despite knowing piston from brake disc, I'm going to leave most adjustments to the professionals. I have previously done Valve adjustements, clutch replacement, brake overhaul etc on jap bikes, but they weren't worth as much, nor in such good nick so I think a lot of these I may leave to the mechanics. I am also used to seeing oil changes at 3-4000miles rather than the 6000 the service book recommends. Would an oil change every 3000 between services be an added bonus or a waste of money? Semi or Fully synthetic? Is bleeding the brakes and changing the pads any different when dealing with ABS?

All makes are different, and I know all I've learnt on Jap bikes may not really help me with the GS.

Regarding your oil changing question,any machine will be the better for fresh,clean oil,so I change mine every 3,000 miles....and filters at the standard 6,000 mile interval.
Due to this,I use mineral oil...Castrol GP.

Buy a workshop manual - for your model of bike .

tarka said:

Regarding your oil changing question,any machine will be the better for fresh,clean oil,so I change mine every 3,000 miles....and filters at the standard 6,000 mile interval.
Due to this,I use mineral oil...Castrol GP.

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Is it worth changing the oil so often, until the engine really beds in @ about 20000 miles you will be adding something like 1/2 a litre of oil every 1000 miles. so at 6000 mile changes you would have put 3 litres of fresh oil

Keith Chapman said:

Is it worth changing the oil so often, until the engine really beds in @ about 20000 miles you will be adding something like 1/2 a litre of oil every 1000 miles. so at 6000 mile changes you would have put 3 litres of fresh oil

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Mine hardly use any oil,nor did they significantly in the early days,and both are now more than fully bedded in anyway.

Regardless of that,in the earlier miles,as the engine does bed in,all sorts of nasties will be inside...and not all will be filtered out.
I`d rather spend a bit more on fresh oil and,by using mineral oil,I`m not in any way hindering the bedding in process,which synthetics would.

My gut feeling is that oil changes every 3000 miles would be a waste of money.

There is one sure way to find out, but it'll cost money - have the oil analysed. Take a sample of new oil, a sample after 3000 miles of use and after 6000 miles. Have all three analysed and compare the levels of the various additives etc to see how fast they are being used up.

Probably over the top though

As far as easy service work goes, here's a list of suggestions:

- Change oil + filter
- Change air filter
- Keep brakes clean, if you don't clean them between services you may have problems
- Changing brake pads is easy, but be careful when pushing pistons back in if you have ABS
- Changing brake fluid is less easy on a servo equipped bike, you don't say which yours is
- Gearbox oil doesn't need doing often but is easy enough
- Same goes for final drive oil

That's all I can think of right now

tarka said:

Mine hardly use any oil,nor did they significantly in the early days,and both are now more than fully bedded in anyway.

Regardless of that,in the earlier miles,as the engine does bed in,all sorts of nasties will be inside...and not all will be filtered out.
I`d rather spend a bit more on fresh oil and,by using mineral oil,I`m not in any way hindering the bedding in process,which synthetics would.

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By mineral oil, do you mean Semi Synthetic? I have used Motul 3100 so far on my bikes and I've been very pleased with it.

tarka said:

Regardless of that,in the earlier miles,as the engine does bed in,all sorts of nasties will be inside...and not all will be filtered out.
I`d rather spend a bit more on fresh oil and,by using mineral oil,I`m not in any way hindering the bedding in process,which synthetics would.

Click to expand...

An extra oil change or two on young engines could well be worthwhile for the reasons tarka gives above. Maybe a one-off change at 3000 miles ...

More frequent oil changes of course can never be a bad thing, and it's true that you can change mineral oil every 3k for the same price as synthetic every 6k

Mouse said:

As far as easy service work goes, here's a list of suggestions:

- Change oil + filter
- Change air filter
- Keep brakes clean, if you don't clean them between services you may have problems
- Changing brake pads is easy, but be careful when pushing pistons back in if you have ABS
- Changing brake fluid is less easy on a servo equipped bike, you don't say which yours is
- Gearbox oil doesn't need doing often but is easy enough
- Same goes for final drive oil

That's all I can think of right now

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Fuel filter is quite straightforward, if a bit on the fiddly side. Change your poly v-belt at 24k instead of at 36k, also straightforward. I also do my valves and the throttle bodies just take a little bit of time to get balanced. I don't do brake fluid because I'm a wuss

When it comes to tyres I save a few quid on rears by taking in a loose wheel rather than incur the extra labour for removal & refitting.

Dark Horse 73 said:

By mineral oil, do you mean Semi Synthetic? I have used Motul 3100 so far on my bikes and I've been very pleased with it.

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No...I mean mineral oil.
Semi synthetic is semi synthetic,and fully synthetic is fully synthetic.