2016 R1200GS LC – intermittent limp mode (4000 rpm cap) and engine light

[YorkyFrog]

Google AI has some pointer for the camshaft sensor fault code, which sounds like your issue https://www.google.com/search?q=bmw...ient=safari&iga=1&utm_campaign=safari_share_1

Thanks.
Gonna clear the error log and see what comes back.
If there's any camshaft related one I will give that a go.

 

[Boxerboy55]

My 2015 R120RS suffered misfiring recently. Local guy found 2 faults. Low Oil and LH Coil pack.
Low Oil surprised me.

These 2 faults were fixed and bike ran OK for a short ride. But now the bike won't start.
So it's heading to an independent BMW pro to try and find what's wrong.

 

[Dezi58]

First of all, thank you all for the replies. I really appreciate the help.

The UniCarScan and Motoscan arrived this morning, so I’ve read the codes. Five stored faults:

• Exhaust flap servomotor (21FA21)
• Exhaust flap mechanism (21FA22)
• Fuse active: component group 1 (21F5F2)
• Camshaft sensor (21FD30)
• Engine oil level too low (21F761)

No throttle body voltage fault showed up, which is what I was half expecting after Malty’s post.

My thoughts so far:

• Exhaust flap: I can hear it moving when I switch on, so it seems to be working. These might be old or historic entries.
• Oil level: the sight glass shows a normal level, so I suspect this is a historic or false reading.
• Fuse active, component group 1: I’m not sure what this one means. Does anyone know?
• Camshaft sensor: this could well be the culprit, and I noticed it was on Santa’s list earlier.

I haven’t cleared anything yet. Does anyone know whether these codes are active or stored, and which are most likely to cause limp mode? Any advice on the camshaft sensor (connector, wiring, or the sensor itself) would be appreciated.
Also, is it worth clearing the codes and seeing which ones come back?

Cheers!

Are you not supposed to clear all error codes first then re run the scan in order to discount the old errors instead of trying to guess whats what

 

[YorkyFrog]

Are you not supposed to clear all error codes first then re run the scan in order to discount the old errors instead of trying to guess whats what

That's the plan.
I've cleared the code and waiting for any error or symptoms to come back.

 

[Dezi58]

That's the plan.
I've cleared the code and waiting for any error or symptoms to come back.

Sorry just to clarify not to be critical but i meant, you run the scan multi times immediately one after the other then ride the bike (depending on the error codes) and carry out further scans for old errors to reoccur or new ones emerge. You’ve purchased the equipment so practice makes perfect. I’ve had diagnostic checks by bike garages and they run multi scans using different settings admittedly I had no idea why but it was a fixed price service so I assume there was a purpose, again not being critical just giving a view, cheers

 

[ShakeyGS]

My 2016 had a failed cam sensor at around 30k. That got fixed and then a couple of thousand miles later, the ECU died.

 

[Santa-2512]

My 2016 had a failed cam sensor at around 30k. That got fixed and then a couple of thousand miles later, the ECU died.

ditto 30k ECU - cam sensor throttle sensor - etc etc

 

[norbsa99]

A friend of mine has a 2016 R1200 RS which also developed an intermittent miss fire shortly after starting. Having checked the bike over for water ingress and loose connectors he took it to a BMW independent service guy who managed to trace the fault to low battery voltage

The battery was changed, and the problem disappeared. He has since ridden it to the isle of Man this year without any further problems. I think these bikes are very sensitive to low voltage when running.

 

[YorkyFrog]

A friend of mine has a 2016 R1200 RS which also developed an intermittent miss fire shortly after starting. Having checked the bike over for water ingress and loose connectors he took it to a BMW independent service guy who managed to trace the fault to low battery voltage

The battery was changed, and the problem disappeared. He has since ridden it to the isle of Man this year without any further problems. I think these bikes are very sensitive to low voltage when running.

Hi Norbsa99,

That’s interesting. I’ve just noticed that MotoScan is reading the battery at 12.1 V, which seems low. If that’s a resting reading, I’d expect a healthy, fully charged battery to be around 12.6–12.8 V.

If I leave the bike for more than a couple of days, the battery hasn’t had enough power to crank it. Connecting it to a Solariser has resolved the starting issue.

I’ve bought an OptiMate and am giving the battery a full charge. I’ll see how it behaves afterwards. I suspect the battery may be past its best.

The fault codes and limp mode haven’t returned, apart from the exhaust-flap code. That seems to be logged when I switch the bike on, before starting, so I’m not sure whether it’s related to the low voltage.

Once the engine is running, the charging system should bring the voltage up; I’m seeing around 14.5 V.

Fingers crossed it’s just a tired battery.

 

[YorkyFrog]

My 2016 had a failed cam sensor at around 30k. That got fixed and then a couple of thousand miles later, the ECU died.

Argh, that’s upsetting. Sorry to hear you had both faults so close together.

 

[YorkyFrog]

So the results are in.
I cleared the codes last week and charged the battery using the optimate.
Errors have not been back.
Idle is stable @ just above1000 rpm.
I still get the servo flap code but the flap works as I can hear it moving on putting the power on.

So that's it. A degraded battery seems to be the fault.
I will replace it next as it still dips to 12.2vdc and that's way too low.

Thanks again everyone for your recommendation and help with this.