Be aware - chech your brake pipes!

[Bob Jeffries]

Me and her just did 2 weeks in Ireland to celebrate my 70th. On our last day in Ireland, riding over the Wicklow mountains and down to Rosslare I noticed the brake lever was coming further back than normal. As I have just finished 4,500 miles in Norway and then 1,500 in Ireland I just put it down to the pads getting low. The pads are the original, the bikes only 9 months old.

The following day we got the ferry back to Fishguard to ride home the 125 miles home. Mile by mile the brake lever was coming back further and further, almost to the bars, although the brakes worked fine.

By the time we got home I had no front brakes, but the back was working as normal.

When I checked everything the following day I found all the pads were fine but there was no brake fluid left in the master cylinder. It turned out that the "banjo" joint on the nearside front caliper was leaking. Bikes now with Cheltenham Motorrad to be fixed.

 

[whisperquiet]

So, it is BMW’s new total loss brake fluid system. Not good at all, but should be an easy fix at the dealer.

 

[DrFarkoff]

Me and her just did 2 weeks in Ireland to celebrate my 70th. On our last day in Ireland, riding over the Wicklow mountains and down to Rosslare I noticed the brake lever was coming further back than normal. As I have just finished 4,500 miles in Norway and then 1,500 in Ireland I just put it down to the pads getting low. The pads are the original, the bikes only 9 months old.

The following day we got the ferry back to Fishguard to ride home the 125 miles home. Mile by mile the brake lever was coming back further and further, almost to the bars, although the brakes worked fine.

By the time we got home I had no front brakes, but the back was working as normal.

When I checked everything the following day I found all the pads were fine but there was no brake fluid left in the master cylinder. It turned out that the "banjo" joint on the nearside front caliper was leaking. Bikes now with Cheltenham Motorrad to be fixed.

To be honest a walk around check of the bike (You know, like you are supposed to do before you ride it) would have provided you with an answer a whole lot earlier!

And a £3.00bag of copper washers and an hour would have changed all the copper washers and flushed the fluid

Lucky escape! Glad you made it home safely!

 

[Posh Pete]

A salutary reminder. The IAM Adv course includes bike checks and I religiously cover this with associates. Do I check my own bike over before every every ride? Er ... Well ... Um ...

On a related note, Himalayan riders should check the rubber lines to the oil cooler. One of them runs very close to an engine mount bolt. When I checked yesterday the line had been abraded by the bolt head! An easy fix, I simply cut a slot in a chunk of old rubber pipe and placed it around the oil pipe at that point.

 

[Slipperyeel]

Wow. Really glad that all ended well.
Trying to work out how you wouldn't have spotted the leak sooner? Just thinking that brake fluid is a little bit like oil, in that a little bit goes a long way [to making a mess!]>

Personally I do actually give my bike a once over (visually) quite frequently before rides. I guess I have this idea I don't want to be caught out by something that would have just needed tightening/positioning etc.

Hope you had a big glass of wine to celebrate your escape from the worst

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[Popell]

I'm as lax as the next man but I do think that if I detected longer travel on the lever I would have investigated further. AFAIK the travel should not alter perceptibly due to wear, the fluid taking up the slack - I might be wrong....

 

[Bob Jeffries]

I did take a look around the bike but it seems the pressure was "misting" the fluid and even looking very closely the leak was barely visable on the black caliper.

Brake pad wear shouldn't make any significant difference to the lever travel but at the time I couldn't think of anything else.

I did suggest to BMW assist that I could just "nip" up the banjo joint and top up the brake fluid as a temporary fix but they were adamant that I left it alone so that they could be sure it wasn't a caliper fault.

Thanks for all the good wishes guys, take care and stay safe.

 

[bosnjo]

Since I had a leak on the banjo bolt on brand new Suzuki DL1000, I check my banjo bolts a lot by touching under the threads to see if they were dry.
The leak I've had on Suzuki was just "misting" but gave me a hard time discovering why my brakes had a lot of air every week. Eventually, the brake pads got contaminated with brake fluid and front brake was very weak. At that moment I discovered the leak on the banjo bolt. It didn't need new crash washer or bolt, just a little bit of tightening at the dealer, less then a quarter of a turn. Had to get new brake pads myself as Suzuki denied them on warranty. The problem had never come back.

 

[seahorse]

Aluminium washers are often used these days and they can eventually corrode if exposed to winter salt so this shouldn't be ignored either.

 

[Slipperyeel]

Since I had a leak on the banjo bolt on brand new Suzuki DL1000, I check my banjo bolts a lot by touching under the threads to see if they were dry.
The leak I've had on Suzuki was just "misting" but gave me a hard time discovering why my brakes had a lot of air every week. Eventually, the brake pads got contaminated with brake fluid and front brake was very weak. At that moment I discovered the leak on the banjo bolt. It didn't need new crash washer or bolt, just a little bit of tightening at the dealer, less then a quarter of a turn. Had to get new brake pads myself as Suzuki denied them on warranty. The problem had never come back.

Interested you had similar symptoms and it wasn't easy to notice... I'm going to keep that in mind for the future!

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[TechnoGSA]

Glad it all ended well for you. Out of interest what calipers are on the bike?