Bike ran out of fuel, now it doesn't know when I'm in neutral

[Coppertop]

Up until yesterday my 08 GS has been perfect. However on my way to the petrol station yesterday it ran out of petrol (showing 100 miles range but that's another issue). Immediately after putting fuel in and riding the bike my gear display was all over the shop. Many gears not showing and no neutral light. Could only start the bike with the side stand up and clutch in.

I tried a thing I read on a forum from 2008 about unplugging the gear position sensor and plugging it back in to reset it or what have you and that immediately worked, neutral light showing the lot. However after going on a ride today I don't have a neutral light showing again. I can get 1-6 no problem. If I have the ignition off and push down on the gear lever the neutral light will come on but if I return it back to default position it will go back to a blank box.

I checked and the attached fault code was present. I have read about a function to relearn the gear position sensor but I can't find this on Motoscan. Other than this the bikes rides totally fine. Any ideas?

 

[botus]

the senors can go wrong - absolutely nothing to do with running out of fuel

the voltages you see (and then vanish) when you reset things is nothing to do with the gear indicator functionality

I do think it provides the info for the display and likely the neutral light - but that will still work even when the gear voltages are showing nothing - clearing these and then riding off and going through all the gears for at least 10 seconds then turning the bike off with the key and waiting 30 seconds to save the info - is all about engine DME adaptions

wiping theses stored voltages goes hand in hand with the engine DME short term trims resetting to zero and the long term trims resetting to a value of one - riding the bike after this, starts the process of saving each individual gear's minor tweaks / and enhancements to the engine map - to work around minor wear and tear or manufacturing peculiarities on each individual bike... Note: if you ever fit a new fuel pump - you should reset the adaptions as the pressures and spray patterns resulting from the change of pump can be significant different

after 12 years Motoscan just brought this engine adaption reset to his tool in his Feb 2026 update - its been part of the GS 911 way of doing things for years and years...

 

[theoneandonly]

i know nothing about your bike ,

go back to the plug you opened up , spray some contact cleaner into both sides , and make and break it 5 times . that is 5 ... not 1 or 2 or 3 ...5 .
are all the pins clean ? is what I'm thinking .
I'm thinking corrosion ( do not tell me it is a superseal plug it can't get wet) and making/breaking will remake the contacts inside . you could put a small amount of twist on the male pins to help achieve this.
i'm thinking heat ( while you filled up ) has dried out a contact point, pushing up the resistance making it mess about .

 

[Coppertop]

i know nothing about your bike ,

go back to the plug you opened up , spray some contact cleaner into both sides , and make and break it 5 times . that is 5 ... not 1 or 2 or 3 ...5 .
are all the pins clean ? is what I'm thinking .
I'm thinking corrosion ( do not tell me it is a superseal plug it can't get wet) and making/breaking will remake the contacts inside . you could put a small amount of twist on the male pins to help achieve this.
i'm thinking heat ( while you filled up ) has dried out a contact point, pushing up the resistance making it mess about .

I will try this tomorrow. If no luck I'm going to take the sensor out and clean it up and refit it.
It's just throwing me that it was totally fine before I ran out and now it's having a mare. I'd only ran the bike for about a minute tops before it died going up a hill near mine so it wasn't even up to temp.

 

[Coppertop]

the senors can go wrong - absolutely nothing to do with running out of fuel

the voltages you see (and then vanish) when you reset things is nothing to do with the gear indicator functionality

I do think it provides the info for the display and likely the neutral light - but that will still work even when the gear voltages are showing nothing - clearing these and then riding off and going through all the gears for at least 10 seconds then turning the bike off with the key and waiting 30 seconds to save the info - is all about engine DME adaptions

wiping theses stored voltages goes hand in hand with the engine DME short term trims resetting to zero and the long term trims resetting to a value of one - riding the bike after this, starts the process of saving each individual gear's minor tweaks / and enhancements to the engine map - to work around minor wear and tear or manufacturing peculiarities on each individual bike... Note: if you ever fit a new fuel pump - you should reset the adaptions as the pressures and spray patterns resulting from the change of pump can be significant different

after 12 years Motoscan just brought this engine adaption reset to his tool in his Feb 2026 update - its been part of the GS 911 way of doing things for years and years...

Now trying to find out how to get in the Beta so I can unlock this feature. Would be a massive help.

 

[SBD]

i know nothing about your bike ,

go back to the plug you opened up , spray some contact cleaner into both sides , and make and break it 5 times . that is 5 ... not 1 or 2 or 3 ...5 .
are all the pins clean ? is what I'm thinking .
I'm thinking corrosion ( do not tell me it is a superseal plug it can't get wet) and making/breaking will remake the contacts inside . you could put a small amount of twist on the male pins to help achieve this.
i'm thinking heat ( while you filled up ) has dried out a contact point, pushing up the resistance making it mess about .

In addition, disconnect the battery for a good ten minutes, and then reconnect it. If you can do a capacity/health check on the battery, it wouldn’t hurt.

 

[theoneandonly]

there is always the old fallback fix .





















FIRE !

 

[Coppertop]

In addition, disconnect the battery for a good ten minutes, and then reconnect it. If you can do a capacity/health check on the battery, it wouldn’t hurt.

I'll try disconnecting it for longer, I've only tried a few minutes. The battery is tip top, month old motobatt so no issues there. Didn't get anywhere with Motoscan beta so unless I can get a GS-911 I'm going to have to try other methods to affect the gear position sensor.

 

[SBD]

I'll try disconnecting it for longer, I've only tried a few minutes. The battery is tip top, month old motobatt so no issues there. Didn't get anywhere with Motoscan beta so unless I can get a GS-911 I'm going to have to try other methods to affect the gear position sensor.

Just ‘cause it’s new, doesn’t mean it’s good..

 

[Engineer]

Faulty gear position sensors on these bikes was a known issue, many replaced, including on my 2010 bike years ago.

 

[botus]

resetting the gear voltages - should not be done without full knowledge of the mess it can make

resetting gear voltages does this in your engine DME

Additive Trim bank 1 : 0.00 %
Additive Trim bank 2 : 0.00 %
Multiplicative Trim bank 1 : 1.00
Multiplicative Trim bank 2 : 1.00

the engine adaptions are built up over thousands of miles to try and get the bike to behave as well as this bike (mess of muddled, badly made and poorly assembled parts) can achieve - any mass produced engine can be anywhere from a bag of nails, all the way to nearly matching a blueprinted engine... its luck of the draw and what happened during break in. Then add in random Bosch sensor quality some giving great values, and some a bit nasty and we get the need for the engine DME to tidy up the mess... It can also make small tweaks for fuel quality, and servicing conditions etc.

The bike is designed to make rapid changes early in life (in case its required) and then clam down as they get about right for the current set up. So long as the bike was operated correctly, and nothing untoward was experienced during a given run and the bike turned off using the key and allowed to save. So long as no error codes, short term tweaks its made x times, may be written to the long term adaptions to save as the start point from then on.

This slowly evolves in to a better running bike - wipe these out when the bike is in a poor service condition - nasty fuel, valves and carb balance out of spec, clogged air filter etc, will start the rebuild of a sub optimal set up. And if running a power commander everything will go wrong etc. As the base it was working from is now different

the new Motoscan version has one page that it states its just showing these gear voltages - and another page to reset - on my bike the gear voltages show no values - but they are there when looking using the GS911 tool

 

[Coppertop]

resetting the gear voltages - should not be done without full knowledge of the mess it can make

resetting gear voltages does this in your engine DME

Additive Trim bank 1 : 0.00 %
Additive Trim bank 2 : 0.00 %
Multiplicative Trim bank 1 : 1.00
Multiplicative Trim bank 2 : 1.00

the engine adaptions are built up over thousands of miles to try and get the bike to behave as well as this bike (mess of muddled, badly made and poorly assembled parts) can achieve - any mass produced engine can be anywhere from a bag of nails, all the way to nearly matching a blueprinted engine... its luck of the draw and what happened during break in. Then add in random Bosch sensor quality some giving great values, and some a bit nasty and we get the need for the engine DME to tidy up the mess... It can also make small tweaks for fuel quality, and servicing conditions etc.

The bike is designed to make rapid changes early in life (in case its required) and then clam down as they get about right for the current set up. So long as the bike was operated correctly, and nothing untoward was experienced during a given run and the bike turned off using the key and allowed to save. So long as no error codes, short term tweaks its made x times, may be written to the long term adaptions to save as the start point from then on.

This slowly evolves in to a better running bike - wipe these out when the bike is in a poor service condition - nasty fuel, valves and carb balance out of spec, clogged air filter etc, will start the rebuild of a sub optimal set up. And if running a power commander everything will go wrong etc. As the base it was working from is now different

the new Motoscan version has one page that it states its just showing these gear voltages - and another page to reset - on my bike the gear voltages show no values - but they are there when looking using the GS911 tool

Hi, thanks for the comprehensive reply. Is that the beta version as I can't see that on mine? I've currently got the battery unplugged so fingers crossed that helps when it's all back together.

 

[Coppertop]

Had a bit of a thought. My bike sometimes will cut out when idling at random times as if I've put the side stand down. Starting to think this sensor has been playing up before but now it's showing it's properly knackered...

 

[Joca]

They are known for failing. I've replaced mine a few years ago and now occasionally it loses the gears on display.

 

[Coppertop]

Trust BMW to use E-torx M6 screws on a really annoying place. Off to Halfords...

 

[botus]

Hi, thanks for the comprehensive reply. Is that the beta version as I can't see that on mine? I've currently got the battery unplugged so fingers crossed that helps when it's all back together.

yep beta version - but it should be out for all soon

v1.108 (10.02.2026) – currently only available to users registered for beta testing.​

• Extensive coding on the newer models, including adjustment of the TFT display.
• Adaptation reset and learning of the throttle position sensor and gearbox sensor on BMSK, BMSKP and BMSKP2 engine control units. K2x, K7x and other models of the same generation.
• All models and control units up to and including model year 2026 have been integrated.

v1.106 (05.08.2025)​

• Windshield calibration on most models
• Service reset for R12 and other newer models with the ZGM/BDC control unit
• ESA calibration on K1600GT

and many other adjustments and improvements

 

[botus]

note big boy play time will need the Ultimate license

 

[Coppertop]

note big boy play time will need the Ultimate license

I've got that already thankfully. Also emailed the developer to see if I can get the beta.

 

[Coppertop]

Fixed itself on the way to pick up the spanners I need. Classic. Though I suppose it's only a matter of time before it happens ahain

 

[landmarkjohn]

I had similar on my 08 GS, had a little wiggle on the connecter back of gearbox and it went away and stayed away.