1250GS - zero electric power. Stranded in Holland!

I suspect that if you bought a new battery and fitted it, the bike would be rideable again.

For the relatively inexpensive outlay it would be less hassle than waiting around for BMW to scratch their arses all day and try to find something else to blame it on.

^^^ That

Also you don’t get some gorilla strapping your bike to a low loader to get it home.
 
BMW Assist - the whole thing is garbage. BMW now outsource all assistance to Allianz. Allianz outsource actual assistance to Dutch AA. They’re all blaming each other and no one is really helping. Allianz have said if bike is not fixed today, they will ship it back to the UK and get me a flight home. No loan bike or car allowed anymore due to Brexit apparently. Hopefully I will get home tomorrow as we fly as a family to Mallorca on Saturday.

A total mess quite frankly.

Am now sat in a pretty grotty town, searching for a restaurant that is half decent and failing miserably to do so.

where are you Snelly?
In Utrecht or at one of the other Dealers? The ones i am aware of are MR Motoren in Rotterdam or Houtrust near The Hague. Or BMW Molenaar Motors in Ijsselstein.
There is a Mac around the corner but nothing else. Try and get them to take you into the centre of Utrecht where you'll find food and somewhwere to hang around.They should be able to do that for you.
 
where are you Snelly?
In Utrecht or at one of the other Dealers? The ones i am aware of are MR Motoren in Rotterdam or Houtrust near The Hague. Or BMW Molenaar Motors in Ijsselstein.
There is a Mac around the corner but nothing else. Try and get them to take you into the centre of Utrecht where you'll find food and somewhwere to hang around.They should be able to do that for you.

Thanks man - appreciated.

Bike is at Molenaar Motors being diagnosed and hopefully fixed. I walked into Ijsselstein and have just had a good lunch at a nice brasserie.

Am hoping for some good news before the end of the day as I’m supposed to be in Sluis, near Knokke-Hiest in Belgium tonight. If it’s still up on blocks then I’m going to get a local hotel and catch a flight tomorrow.
 
There is a van der Valk motorway hotel just up the road from the bike shop probably a few KM's away. Typical motorway place but its OK for an emergency night stay. Sluis is a small village on the border with Belgium and Holland about and hour and 3/4 ride from where you are (200km) . If they fix it today you should still be OK. If I was in NL I'd try to help out but I am in London at the moment so cant really be of much use.
 
I love my 1200gs te.
However I will be replacing with a more simpler bike.
When bikes go wrong with complicated electronics it can ruin a trip.

Waiting for the yamaha T900:green gri
 
Confidence.
It is that low I am off to Spain in October and have taken out extended warranty last month just in case.

My biggest fear is a shock absorber or a nasty electrical issue

This is on a bike that has done oy 14k
 
BMW assist is useless. My 2 month old R1250GS broke down in Austria in May 2019. Recovery lifted it onto a flatbed van using a hiab putting the strops on the handlebars, and the grab handles. Once taken away Allianz didn’t give a flying F++k about it. After 2 days of trying to get an update I went 40 miles to the dealer who had it, they hadn’t even looked at it . Apparently it had just been dumped there and no one had been told what the problem was.
They immediately put it on the diagnostic machine and told me it was low fuel pressure, so keep it full of petrol :blast. Eventually the next day I got the bike back.
So 3 days holiday wasted, ALLIANZ IS RUBBISH
 
Update. All a bit of a nightmare. It seems it was just bad luck that everything happened yesterday. A load of engine oil had filled the connector between the alternator and the battery. No idea how and the guy says it must’ve happened over a period of months. This caused a short circuit and destroyed the battery. All cleaned out with a new battery fitted and I was back on the road for 5pm. Have just arrived in Belgium near Knokke-Heist and am at my hotel. All a bit of an ordeal but at least I can get the ferry now.

Awful trip. Bike goes for a service in 3 weeks and guy in Belgium says they need to find out what happened and ensure it doesn’t happen again. He reckons leak somehow from alternator.
 
good news smelly. enjoy the rest of the trip ,forget about what's happened........until you get home ! then let BMW know who you are !!!
 
He actually said dynamo connection to battery and am assuming alternator but it may be something that is lost in translation!
 
I call bullshit. Oil is an insulator, they fill electrical transformers with it.

Your battery was fucked. They fitted a new one.

If it had a “short circuit” on the main feed to the starter motor somewhere as they claim, jump starting the bike would have caused arcing/sparking and all sorts of grief.
 
I don’t really care. It works now. At least so far.
 
Actually oil seeping into electrical conectors from faulty sensors is a problem in a lot of modern cars esp Mercedes and BMW, I counter your bullshit with 40 plus years in the motor trade but hey what do I know.

Sent from my SM-A226B using Tapatalk
 
Actually oil seeping into electrical conectors from faulty sensors is a problem in a lot of modern cars esp Mercedes and BMW, I counter your bullshit with 40 plus years in the motor trade but hey what do I know.

Sent from my SM-A226B using Tapatalk

In that case it would be oil stopping electrical circuits from working, not shorting the out. I say it again, oil is an excellent insulator it would need to be full of metal particles to become a good conductor. If we are going to start waving our cocks about to see who’s is bigger, I have 40 plus years as a Marine Technician working on everything mechanical and electrical including low voltage DC controls through to HV power and distribution, but hey, what do I know.
 
Very sorry to read all this Mr Snelly... what a terrible time you have had for the last 48 hrs :mad:
AND to make it worse the recovery appears to be dog shit too. Hope you get going soon.
 
Update. . He reckons leak somehow from alternator.

The LC vairients dont have a conventional external alternator, it is basically a large reluctor ring arrangement, which sits where the old style hexhead clutch plate sat

So yes its feasible that there could be an oil leak from that area, but the question is where, and where is the harness connector is relation to the leak
 
Actually oil seeping into electrical conectors from faulty sensors is a problem in a lot of modern cars esp Mercedes and BMW, I counter your bullshit with 40 plus years in the motor trade but hey what do I know.

Sent from my SM-A226B using Tapatalk

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 call bullshit. Oil is an insulator, they fill electrical transformers with it.
It’s not quite that straightforward.
Nice new oil, of the right spec has low conductivity and, as you say, is used in transformers.
However, lubricating oil, with its additives and some contamination, is much more conductive.

Pure distilled water is also an insulator but it only needs a tiny amount of contamination to make it conductive.
 
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.
 


Back
Top Bottom