4th Final drive failure.

[madmax]

Only nipped out to get some service parts, and I got that all too familiar stink of final drive oil.
I'm on my 4th F/D unit, just as well I have a spare to rebuild in the garage.
Outer seal has gone on me twice.
Pivot shaft seal once.
Inner seal behind disc carrier this time.
I did notice on stripping down the unit that the large seal does appear to have gone brittle, the centre lip/seal section was totally detached from the main body of the seal, the crown wheel took some persuading from the grasp of the bearing inner race held in by rust.
So is it more a problem with seals not being up to the job allowing water ingress or are the bearings under too much stress?
Or is the unit made of play doh!!
I love the bike, it ticks all the boxes, but this is getting to be an expensive re-occurance that I/we could all do with out.
06 R1200 GSA 29.000mls.

 

[chad]

it does seem to mainly effect the 06 models, lord vader of this parish got through 4 though surely all the replacements were not of that vintage

he gave up and chopped it in for a 09 model 6mnths ago ,so far so good

 

[elefantman]

My 09 GSA ate its FD by the 6000mile service,sorted free,but as much as i love my bike i'll not get another when it goes in for trade on its 2nd birthday,you just don't know what might go next,and it's not through lack of servicing or money being spent,had jap,brit,italian,american and even russian and none have ever let me down or felt like a time bomb,back to the land of the rising sun for me i think

 

[chad]

My 09 GSA ate its FD by the 6000mile service,sorted free,but as much as i love my bike i'll not get another when it goes in for trade on its 2nd birthday,you just don't know what might go next,and it's not through lack of servicing or money being spent,had jap,brit,italian,american and even russian and none have ever let me down or felt like a time bomb,back to the land of the rising sun for me i think

Will Honda cave in And release a new Africa twin

 

[MorayGSer]

Love my GS but beginning to agree about reliability. I have a 2010 with 1400 miles on and streaks of oil appearing on back wheel turns out final drive is leaking going in Monday for repair bit peed off really!

 

[GS TRV]

Love my GS but beginning to agree about reliability. I have a 2010 with 1400 miles on and streaks of oil appearing on back wheel turns out final drive is leaking going in Monday for repair bit peed off really!

after 1400 miles????

 

[madmax]

I'm beggining to feel the same way, how many more f/d failures do we have to suffer before a reliable fix is found, after all the f/d failures there has to be some one at BMW asking questions about build/parts quality.
Or am I hoping for too much....

 

[GSmonkey]

Will be interesting to see how Yamaha get on with the Super Tenere. That said, they've gone with a two sided swinging arm - maybe they're on to something. Doesn't look as nice mind.

 

[chad]

Will be interesting to see how Yamaha get on with the Super Tenere. That said, they've gone with a two sided swinging arm - maybe they're on to something. Doesn't look as nice mind.

that is the simplest answer to BMWs problem the issue is purely and simply down to weight and as such is not fit for purpose even if in real terms the percentage of failures is low ,,,,, to the volume of bikes sold that is

 

[patzx12]

Will be interesting to see how Yamaha get on with the Super Tenere. That said, they've gone with a two sided swinging arm - maybe they're on to something. Doesn't look as nice mind.

A 2 sided swing arm would cure the problem forever, just look at the Diversions. What we pay for fashon.

 

[GS TRV]

If it was all about 2 sided arms then why would there not be loads of 1100/1150 owners telling tales of woe?

Ive 40K miles on my 1150 and not an issue.

 

[John Armstrong]

If it was all about 2 sided arms then why would there not be loads of 1100/1150 owners telling tales of woe?

Ive 40K miles on my 1150 and not an issue.

Maybe it's the sheer number of 1200 owners compared to the oilheads? But it's a bit worrying on the replacements ie some have had 4 on a new bike, seems like a design failure or bad batch of FD's

Keeping my fingers crossed as have had a few BM's including two 1200's without any FD problems.

 

[Packer]

If it was all about 2 sided arms then why would there not be loads of 1100/1150 owners telling tales of woe?

Ive 40K miles on my 1150 and not an issue.

Lots of 1150GS owners have FD problems. I'm on my third output side bearing and second input shaft seal at almost 64,000 miles.

 

[alimey4u2]

I "dress" to the left, that seems to have nullified the problem....

 

[Gabby]

I'am on an 09 now and it seems fine. However I had an 06 and I had to sell it after the 4th FD went.

BMW paid for all of them including the last one that was 18 months out of warranty. (24,000, 48,000, 54,000 and the last one went at around 67,000) The last one had a different part number so perhaps they had mended the problem...

 

[Yellow Peril]

Have a 06 GSA with 27k and no final drive problems at all to date.. So maybe just certain bikes., or riders

 

[BlueBird]

Lack of use

Mines on 52k and its had 2 oil changes in that time (touches wood),

Could it be lack of use?

 

[sanghelli]

Just had mine in for a service at 11 and a bit k, first thing was got a call the bearing was gone (replaced under warranty) couple of days later back wheel was covered in oil. This was also done under the warranty but I have to admit it seems a bit premature for the bearing to be giving up.

Pissed off about the whole thing and worried about what happens after the warranty runs out.

 

[snerkler]

Just had mine in for a service at 11 and a bit k, first thing was got a call the bearing was gone (replaced under warranty) couple of days later back wheel was covered in oil. This was also done under the warranty but I have to admit it seems a bit premature for the bearing to be giving up.

Pissed off about the whole thing and worried about what happens after the warranty runs out.

Is the FD covered with extended warranty?

 

[Rasher]

Is the FD covered with extended warranty?

Yes, I made sure before I bought my bike, although I never realised they were this fragile, my dealer also told the lie about them improving over the years.

I had an 06 and I had to sell it after the 4th FD went.

BMW paid for all of them including the last one that was 18 months out of warranty. (24,000, 48,000, 54,000 and the last one went at around 67,000) The last one had a different part number so perhaps they had mended the problem...

So over @4 years starting in 2006 this bike destoyed four FD's, assuming equal mileage per year this bike would have had an FD changed in 2007 / 2008 and 2009 - yet they all failed again, and if anything the later ones were less relaible with them covering 24k, 24k, 6k and 13k.

It seems the FD's from 2008/9 were much worse than those of 2006/7, and also if the part numbers were the same until the last one then BMW had done nothing (major) between 2006 and 2009 (except maybe fitting even cheaper components) despite claims from more than one dealer I spoke to that they had been revising them constantly to try and cure the problems.

We are also now seeing failures on 2009 and 2010 bikes at very low mileages (under 5k) which again seems to suggest they have in fact got worse! Or perhaps the new lower oil level is in fact making things worse not better

Does BMW not even bother to investigate the failures (i.e. ask owners about the type of use) Is it that off-roading or two-up riding puts extra strain on them, you would think they would be keen to find out, unless they already know the cause and it is cheaper to make them really shite and just pay out a few warranties than make decent ones (Ford Pinto syndrome)

or perhaps the dealers have not been bothering to change the oil as scheduled, or not been getting the levels right

All I know is it seems many owners will never buy another BMW because of these issues, I wonder if the bean counters factor that into their "Financial Analysis", if Ford would not spend $11 per car to save lives I can guess BMW will not do the same to stop your FD exploding:

http://jamesptaylor.wordpress.com/2007/12/15/the-ford-pinto-and-the-price-of-life/