bang, crunch crunch crunch....

[Gruffalo]

Not happy, sat at the side of the road after the engine appeared to lunch itself,

Called BMW assist and it apparently ran out 3 weeks ago, paid £130 to renew it, bloke turns up 30 mins later, spins the bike up for 2 secs hears the crunching noise and says yea its broken ill call the recoery lorry for you and then drives off

Just got a text saying the lorry will be 30 mins

Need a bike for work as no car so feck knows what I'm gonna do over the weekend as apparently the sercive dept at vines is closed over the wekend, grrrrrr......

 

[Narcoda]

call BMW assist and either get them to arrange a cover car for you.. OR

what I did once...

Arrange a hire bike (as i have no car licence) and get BMW to cover the costs.

I paid up front and they paid the invoice on returns.

Good luck

 

[Account removed]

call BMW assist and either get them to arrange a cover car for you.. OR

what I did once...

Arrange a hire bike (as i have no car licence) and get BMW to cover the costs.

I paid up front and they paid the invoice on returns.

Good luck

yup BMW will hire you a car for up to 2 days or cover your travel costs up to £75.

Have used it many times sorry to say.

 

[Gruffalo]

Unfortunatly I too don't have a car liscence, never needed one, will they do the same with a hire bike?

 

[Narcoda]

Unfortunatly I too don't have a car liscence, never needed one, will they do the same with a hire bike?

Yes... I had to phone the hire bike company though as BMW assist dont hire out bikes from BMW... I spoke to a bike hire company and they spoke with BM to arrange account and payment... it is possible... not sure how often folk do this... but it worked for me.

 

[SMB]

When my bike went in, the BMW Garage (Ocean of Plymouth) arranged a BMW bike for the whole duration of the repair - at no cost what so ever to me.
SMB

 

[Gruffalo]

just got back from what was supposed to be a few hours on the bike to blow away the cobwebs!

the bikes now at vines for them to take a look at next week so fingers crssed it not too major even the assit gut said that it was the cam chain on the R/h cyclinder,

the gut that came with the truck to pick the bike up said it was the second 1200gs he had picked up today!
im sure dome of the 1150 crew will have something to say about that!

as for a curtasy bike, spoke to alex and vines in guildford and hes going to sort a bike out tommorrow for me to have till mines fixed

just going to go look at the vines website to see what theyve got in stock to px mnine for now! i feel a gs adeventure coming on................

 

[John Armstrong]

Might be the RH valves self destructing, which has happened before to the 1200

 

[Account removed]

just going to go look at the vines website to see what theyve got in stock to px mnine for now! i feel a gs adeventure coming on................

GS goes bang so will buy another one that will teach BMW !!

 

[theop]

whats the problem with RHS valve trains? Anyone actually know?

Is it design fault? Anything to do with oil draining towards the LHS whilst on the sidestand?

 

[Gruffalo]

Dunno what the real problem with the r/h cylinder is, but when i was stuck by the side of the road waiting for recovery a bike cop pulled up next to us for a chat and he said that when they got their first batch of 50 1200's within 6 months 35 of them had blown their r/h cyclinders or had some kind of failer on the r/h side

on another note went into vines today and they sorted me out with a 800gs till mine is fixed and told me to go back on tuesday and speak to cathy who apparently has a habit of sweet talking BMW into offering goodwill replacments and repairs, so its all suddenly looking less doom and gloom!

jon

 

[theop]

great to know Jonyb, I hope it gets sorted as painlessly as poss... must be the most annoying thing there is....
All police bikes go for servicing (apparently) at Battersea. I was there the other day and they had a few police RTs in, talking to Jimmy one of the mechanics, he was mentioning that they cost thousands in annual maintenance each they way they are ridden, but are kept in top cond... Pads more than 50% worn are changed etc.. He said that they havent got FPC issues, but final drives and engines go boom like there is no tomorrow.... Reckons 1in 4 police bikes do an engine at least once....

But then those bikes live a hard life.... And the Boxer engine while bulletproof in normal use (which with your story and others I m starting to doubt anyway), certainly doesn't like rev limiters...

 

[Achim]

But then those bikes live a hard life.... And the Boxer engine while bulletproof in normal use (which with your story and others I m starting to doubt anyway), certainly doesn't like rev limiters...

I beg to differ on the hard life of police bikes: They are ridden by the best riders on our roads. They don't do any short runs, they are meticulously maintained to manufacturer's spec, every service part is replaced on schedule. If the police RTs premature engine failures, it's because the BMW bean counters cut corners.

How do I know? One broken brakeline (50p?) lead to a warranty claim of probably £4,000 (engine crankcase, gearbox (cover not available on its own), rear subframe, plus labour).

The build quality of every BMW I've owned since 1997 has been worse than the previous one. I will sell my 08 GS before the warranty expires. FWIW, the first Warranty Direct quote I got for my old 02 R850R was £200. The next year that rose to £450. When I asked why, the reply was, "our claims experience has been much worse than anticipated." Enough said.

Achim

 

[Paul K]

The Left hand cylinder dropped 2 valves on mine!!.8000 on the clock and ended up forking out £2300 for repairs,and that was with 50% goodwill on the parts.
Still running the new engine in,but have lost all faith in the bike and BMW.
Has a 2 year warranty on the engine again,but will sell it when the 2 years is almost up.

 

[Taff]

.... the bikes now at vines ... the gut that came with the truck to pick the bike up said it was the second 1200gs he had picked up today!

Was that a Freudian slip or a genuine typo?

.... im sure dome of the 1150 crew will have something to say about that!

No. There's a time and a place - but not now. Probably a bit too soon to be funny.

 

[Gruffalo]

Taff, was a genuine typo, the guy that picked the bike up was a really nice fella called tony, and if you sneezed to hard in his direction he would fall over!

and as for the 1150 crew, its never to soon to be funny!

anyway, i digress,
spoke to cathy from vines yesterday, at their first evaluation of the bike it appears that the starter moter went which bmw will replace the pasrts under good will and ill have to pay the labour fees, around £150, and ill have the bike back that afternoon, alas this was not to be

got another call from them late afternoon with bad news, they now say that it has dropped a valve on the r/h side and the starter motor and battery have gone kaput, lovely!
BMW are still going to replace the parts under good will and i still have to pay for the labour, now at £400, which is alot but alot less than if bmw had told me where to go,
but the icing on the cake is that they need the loan bike back asap as they have to booked out for the rest of the week to someone else, so no work at the weekend for me! but then hopsfully have the bike back by the weekend and a significantly lighter wallet,

 

[LBL]

oops

Hi Jonyboy,

Is the £400 the costs for all of the labour ? i always thought if you haggled you get away with just paying a % of the labour.

Not had to do it myself but i seem to remember lots of warrentee issues sorted that way.

 

[Gruffalo]

LBL,
yea the £400 is for the labour, as my warrenty ran out about 3 weeks ago bmw arnt prepared to pay for any of the labour, only hte cost of the parts, which is cant complain about, apparently the cost for the parts, labour and the hire bike would be the thick end of £1500!
which is a touch too much for me!

and the dealers where trying to sell me another bike whilst i was in there, cant blame them for trying, and they offered a really tempting deal on a GSA or an RT, guess ounce the beast is fixed, ill give it some serious thought.......

 

[LBL]

dont go back

Jonyboy,

I went to vines on my 08GS 4 months ago ( i think we met at box hill for a run last year, mine was the tricked up GS) well needless to say im now the proud owner of an 09GSA

no regrets tho your only here once

 

[Gruffalo]

Well, very bad news,

went into vines today to take the higher bike back and well, shit.

apparently the valve that did expire was sucked into the cyclinder and promptly destroyed the cylinder, barrel and head...

bmw are still going to pay for the parts all i have to pay for is the stripping of the engine to see if any other damage has been caused, but bmw apparently have no cyclinder heads in stock for a 07 gs so i have a week long wait before the part is even made,
now as bmw have taken the loan bike back as it has to go to someone else for a few days i am now completely bikeless and well fecked off

anyone know of a decent hire company in the south east or surrey area?

or do you think that vines would take the bike as is as p/x for a new one? havnt asked yet but was an idea