Regular maintenance on the UJ will make little or no difference. You can't inspect how the bearings are holding up. I know of one RT that had a full shaft inspection and greasing, less than a 1000 miles the UJ broke. It was high mileage though. We have one bike that had the shaft changed at 61k due to the recall, but the shaft looked fine and there was never any shaft maintenance carried out (as per BMW service schedule). Things break occasionally.
BMW 1250 Technical Recall
- Thread starter hawkeye
- Start date
Regular maintenance on the UJ will make little or no difference. You can't inspect how the bearings are holding up. I know of one RT that had a full shaft inspection and greasing, less than a 1000 miles the UJ broke. It was high mileage though. We have one bike that had the shaft changed at 61k due to the recall, but the shaft looked fine and there was never any shaft maintenance carried out (as per BMW service schedule). Things break occasionally.
Deleted account 250319001
Registered user
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2004
- Messages
- 6,495
- Reaction score
- 566
I know of a 1979 Leyland Bison six cubic meter concrete truck that broke a UJ on the off side rear wheel (six legger)
On my 2018 model the shaft was rusted to f*ck at less than 10,000 miles , this is a picture of a shaft removed from a 2003 r1150rt engine box and final drive unit that I obtained recently, it looked like the whole lot had been stored at the bottom of the Tyne for many years and there was next to no paint left on the casings but all of the fluids were clean .
This is the shaft with zero rust so the fault is the design on the newer bikes seals not the lack of a drain valve
This is the shaft with zero rust so the fault is the design on the newer bikes seals not the lack of a drain valve
Attachments
It was apparently a bike with 24,000 miles on the clock with a full BMW main dealer service history and surely as the drive shaft is part of a safety check BMW should have done more than pay 50% of the bill
They picked up everything except 50% of the labour charge which the dealer paid.
digby
Registered user
Went in to have mine checked today
90 minutes later I took back the bike - with a new drive shaft ……..
2019 bike with 33,000 kms, never ridden in a river
90 minutes later I took back the bike - with a new drive shaft ……..
2019 bike with 33,000 kms, never ridden in a river
Same here. Went in for service and the recall today. 2018GS with 25k miles. Not a spec of corrosion on it….except for the driveshaft as I was told earlier! In fact they said it was one of the worst they’ve seen! Would never have known until it seized I suppose?
Was thinking of trading up but not sure I want to now it’s had all that work done.
Was thinking of trading up but not sure I want to now it’s had all that work done.
Had my drain plug put in last October during its service. This was before the last eat software recall. When I picked it up they told me they’d replaced the shaft too as ‘ we tested it and it was out of the recommended specifications’. Whatever that meant!
I suspect they’ve been checking and changing them for a while and long before the recall for the software came out.
I suspect they’ve been checking and changing them for a while and long before the recall for the software came out.
Well you'd be wrong then, I was relieved of the princely sum of £50.35 to strip & lube my shaft, which was seized to the Cardon drive.
Luckily or unluckily they manage to free it off .... had it been 6 months later, i'd have had a new driveshaft & Cardon drive
Have had another call from the dealer today…gets worse! They had to call BMW as not seen it before but the gearbox at the rear of the driveshaft has seized completely and the special tool they use to remove it bent trying to get it out. BMW said to replace the lot thankfully ….completely corroded. It was all technically above my understanding but what I did understand was the figure of £2.5K he quoted if I was paying for all this myself!!
Mileage doesn't really come into it - my shaft was replaced with just a couple of Ks on the clock, similar with other people to.
Noted, thank you yofi & I'll ask the tech's to check the shaft while they're at it!
My bike is booked in for the recall in a couple of weeks. Had a call from the dealer today, asked if i could take my bike in a day earlier as theyre finding many bikes are taking all day and sometimes over night to carry out the software update.
Hope it went/goes well. Performing a check on the shaft is part of the recall, and no dealer is going to turn down paid work
. It is odd that there appear to be a fair few bikes with very early failures, even if this speaks more to the stringency of the test.
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2015
- Messages
- 13,068
- Reaction score
- 5,032
Had mine checked today, 2016 bike, all good, no replacement needed, the little rubber thing even made it all the way home 
I opened it up a year or two back to grease the splines and it was like new visually
I opened it up a year or two back to grease the splines and it was like new visually
What I don't understand is what this does that the normal method of changing the final drive section oil won't achieve? I may be wrong (please correct me if I misunderstand) but the idea is to allow water that makes its way past the final drive seal to be drained. If I found any water in my final drive, I'd be draining all of the oil and replenishing it as well as the seal. My 2018 RS doesn't have this bung so I guess I can request it at the next service as surely this will affect all boxers not just the GS?
The man drive shaft from the gearbox I understood was due removal/inspection/relubing at 12K mile intervals?
The man drive shaft from the gearbox I understood was due removal/inspection/relubing at 12K mile intervals?
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2015
- Messages
- 13,068
- Reaction score
- 5,032
There is only oil in the final drive, the end bit that your wheel is bolted to
the swing arm is a hollow tube with the drive shaft (cardan) inside, there is no oil in there, the problem is water gets into the hollow swing arm and rusts the drive shaft up and the splines where it slides onto the final drive
there is no greasing of the splines in the standard service schedule but a lot of folks do it at least once as it’s fairly easy if your mechanically inclined
here’s a pic off the internet showing it open
