BRAKE FAILURE

[ELIMINATOR]

Hi,
It's me again. Does anyone out there know who to contact officially regarding these lethal brakes? Is there a ministry of transport, what is their address?
If we scream long & publicly enough, and publish any incidence of brake failure on this site, and God forbid, one of us dies. Then let's see BMW wriggle out of it. Perhaps their callous attitude in the event of a death may be corporate manslaughter. Any lawyers out there for a proffessional opinion?

Remember only a fool breaks the two second rule, or if you ride an integral braked BMW, Only a fool breaks the ten second rule.

 

[Dr.ABS Brake]

Logged Date: 7th December 2004
Logged Time: 09:49

I informed the german authority, that BMW managing director is informed about the problems since 20th September 2004.

Dr. ABS Brake

 

[Dr.ABS Brake]

Hi,

do you have protocols from brake failure?

in some cases, there are no errors logged at all!!! in cases of irregular, sporadic failure. it' weird. you just feel no brake, i mean - nothing, no residual brake. this happend to me in italy during my holiday at low speed. i swiched the abs in italy off, because it was dangerous. we have BMW K1200LT drives, and they reported same weird errors, some had accidents. BMW refuses the occurrence of any phenomenon reported.

and - they found no error in the garage! if you crash, if you die, they will not lead back to any failure on the brakes.

and in my last case of failure of the main pump on highway, the don't give me the protocols. you can only proof the failure of the main pump.

you cannot prove weird failures!

these engineer guys from BMW, they really Fuc*ed up. and - they fuc*ed with the wrong dude.

today I a had contact with a german motorcycle magazine. there will be reports in german magazines, too. it's difficult to report errors in germany in the press, since BMW marketing budget and advertising has consequences on the independence of the magazines.

in case of dead bodys i will call for the state attorney. i do have the names.

Dr. ABS Brake

 

[Gilson]

Your attitude is perfectly acceptable. Good luck and keep us informed. I am sure you can get some support from people on this forum...

Martyn

 

[Twotter]

Dodgy brakes eh ? Nasty. How have your dealers reacted ?

 

[Dr.ABS Brake]

How have your dealers reacted ?

I do not negotiate with any dealer. I negotiate with the manager of BMW.

No recall is initiated, and there will no recall be initiated.

Now I negotiate with the manager of the authority and some engineer of the ADAC (major german automobiclub), i do not ever again f*ck around with the help.

If I fail, and I may fail, I have done my part for the security of people on the streets.

Since 6th of August 2004 I try to avoid, that any biker will ever get injured by failing anti-lock brakes with brake booster.

Dr. ABS Bike

 

[Dr.ABS Brake]

Contact BMW Germany

Hi,

if you like to contact BMW Germany, do not hesitate to write to the right staff that wants to know immediately about your complaints.

You can be sure that they are fluent in englisch, as most german staff in industry management.

BMW MOTORRAD CEO Dr. Dipl. Ing. Herbert Diess

[email protected]

BMW MOTORRAD QUALITY MANAGEMENT Dr. Robert Kahlenberg

[email protected]

They will take your complaints seriously. Don't hesitate to write immediatety about your concern in security.

You will never ever get happy by corresponding with some service-guys. Never. Been there done that!

Dr. ABS Brake

 

[Finbarr]

Dr. ABS,
On behalf of all of us - thank you for taking the time to raise awareness of this issue and to try and pressure the manufacturer into taking action.

I have never suffered any failure of the brakes on my 2002 1150GS but I'm obviously concerned that it may happen.

Do you (or anyone else) have any technical information which might give clues to the component which fails and the circumstances where this failure happens?

Some random thoughts in no particular order:-

I know of a friend who has noticed that his brakes behave "strangely" if he starts the engine on a hill with the brake engaged. You might like to try this yourself.

Sit on the bike, with the key in the "off" position, grab the front brake and squeeze hard - now turn on the key - during the motronic diagnostics test on power-up the brake system fails to set it self correctly. With the brake still held on, start the engine. Then select first gear and move off as you release the front brake. It doesn't always happen - in fact on my bike the brake system copes with this without problems - but my friends bike will result in warning lights and residual (ie, none) braking only about 50% of the time.

I wonder if this is actually a design issue or a faulty component problem?
I remember reading somewhere on this board recently that somebody thought the servo actuator switch on the front brake lever was to blame - does anyone have any information to confirm this?

On the awareness side, I know from problems I had with my Ducati that MCN was very helpful in focussing attention of the manufacturer after our UK based Ducati forum raised it officially with MCN. Perhaps we could band together as UKGSers and prompt MCN to get involved in this?

Certainly this is a great time as bike mags and MCN are scratching for news - the racing season is over and the 2005 bikes have already been pre-viewed. They generally like to take on things like this - especially where safety and the possibility of death are involved.

I'm certainly nervous now and keen to find out more about this problem.

Kind regards,
John.

 

[Dr.ABS Brake]

Do you (or anyone else) have any technical information which might give clues to the component which fails and the circumstances where this failure happens?

There are treee types of failures.

1. hydraulic pump kaputt

2. intermittent fault

3. specific system behavior (design)


The first failure is very expensive if not under warranty, ask your dealer! The second failure you cannot prove and you cannot reproduce, this is scary as hell, the brake opens! The third failure is known as the problem on 'bumpy roads'.

I suffered every failure. This is a lethal brake system, it's design from some mentally deranged german engineer's that are jerking off - instead of just imitating the HONDA ABS Brakes. I do think that people are all the same, but in in some specific behavior german's are outstandingly foolish. I am ashamed!

It's worse. We have at least one Motorbike Magazine that supports BMW no matter how important the subject is. If you blame BMW and the booster-brakes, they blame you to undermine the goal of bringing abs to every bike, they blame you to discredit ABS at motorbikes at all.

I do have no problem with ABS-Brakes or with BMW. I loved my GS Adventure, really, and as a Krauth I bought it also for the reason it was equipped with ABS! But in case of the integral abs brakes it's like Motorcyclist Magazine writes:

“BMW’s servo-assisted system is, we believe, a prime example of misguided technology creating more problems than it solves, muddling the connection between rider and road . . . All semblance of feel and feedback are gone, with no gain to compensate. Motorcycles do not need power brakes, at least not these power brakes.”

There's nothing more to add. I fight for recall, i fight for replacing all integral brake intallations in the world for free with something you can trust in every situation! They could just ask HONDA.

It's all a matter of money. It's not a matter of lives.

Perfect statement from Arch here

And: I admire Eliminator for his straight words, I think nobody can understand how he reacts and why he is writing like on speed and calls for justice on some website - but I think he knows exactly what fear is, fear of death!


Dr. ABS Brake

 

[andysdad]

FINBARR - You wrote.....

"I know of a friend who has noticed that his brakes behave "strangely" if he starts the engine on a hill with the brake engaged. You might like to try this yourself."

You will experience problems here because you have not RTFM (Read The F*cking Manual) - you cannot have a brake engaged during the start-up.

In a good. logical, efficient German manner, you are supposed to

1. Ignition off, put the bike in gear (to hold it on the hill without brakes)
2. Switch on the ignition
3. Let the ABS run the self-test
4. ONLY THEN start the bike with the clutch in.

Of course, by then you are rolling backwards down said hill, but if you're quick you'll live!

I've just got a 'GS and I was very happy until I read the Sunday Times article - now I am very afraid.

Brakes (and steering) are essential..........................

As the man said - what kind of brake system is it, when you have to RTFM before riding!

 

[Dr.ABS Brake]

RTFM - that's right andysdad,

we have in germany a discussion about the article in the sunday times. some people ask, if kevin ash and the other's (like TWO WHEELS) did RTFM. Obviously, TWO WHEELS did not, als noted in their discussion board on their web site. BMW owners blame TWO WHEELS for that.

And - some ask, if the red light was blinking before they started to take their ride...

There is a press release in this manner (how to start your bike) on a german website directly from BMW, since everybody in the world (including the germans) hav problems with starting a modern BMW:

http://www.boxer-forum.de/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=7&topic_id=45387&mesg_id=45387&page=

Dr. ABS

 

[Spanish Bob]

Dr

thanks for what you are doing, but despite my 4 weeks of an intensive German course I can understand a single thing in those letter and posts. Perhaps I could suggest you post the links and YOU ver briefly summarize the article in question.

not a criticism, just a suggestion.

Dr. bob

 

[Dr.ABS Brake]

Translation?

I can understand a single thing in those letter and posts. Perhaps I could suggest you post the links and YOU ver briefly summarize the article in question. not a criticism, just a suggestion. Dr. bob

Dr. Bob,

my skill's to understand englisch language (dvd, correspondence, magazines and newspapers) is quite well.

my talent for translating german language in english language is limited. these papers are original documents. if i translate the documents, i might do mistakes, you understand.

as you can imagine, i am in a lot of trouble. i won't make things worse for me by doing improperly translation. you can imagine what happens if you f*ck around with a major company!

i know ist's not satisfying at all. but belive me: the most important lines are that, that are not written. the automobile club asked some questions, and they have not been answered, or have been answered providing satisfaction.

to summarize bmw-answer:

1. these brakes are legal
2. if there are failures - they are all particular cases
3. if brakes fail, there is a warning light and you always have enough residual brake power
4. motobike-magazines tested these brakes as good
5. any recent discussion about brakes is rejected.

best thing might be to send the letters to your bmw-headquarters in spain, england, usa oder australia and asking for official translation by bmw.

Dr. ABS

 

[Dr.ABS Brake]

i am dealing with a german magazine for writing an article about the servo brakes, they like to interview me.

has anyone contactet english magazines for writing an in depth news report about servo brakes?

and by the way. censorship on german bords going on. one of my posts was censored and deleted yesterday, totday two of my posts were deleted. i assume they will clean up the whole net.

Dr. ABS Brake

 

[Wraithwrider]

Dr ABS Brake

Why don't you just get an independant organisation like maybe Which? to test the brakes under non servo assist conditions and see what they make of them?

 

[ELIMINATOR]

I think it is time that we all wrote to MCN and e-mailed the BMW person that DR ABS BRAKE has suggested. Let's frighten them with bad publicity. If someone wants to draft a letter that all can copy, but perhaps it is better if they are all different. Why don't we set a date to swamp them with? Although how many of us are going to do this? How do I find out if you are all interested. You could e-mail me?

Love the bike, hate the crap BMW attitude, more so when BMW Bracknel told me that as SPC import most/some of their bikes, the warantee is with them and not BMW GB. Caveat emptor, buyer beware. Although it has to be said SPC have reacted quickly when the brakes failed TWICE.

 

[Dr.ABS Brake]

no public statements from me.

eleminator, please contact:

[email protected]

 

[[email protected]]

I think it is time that we all wrote to MCN

At least you should write to MCN about the news in German Newspaper DIE WELT. I do expect a press release from BMW soon. I think nobody is really interested in this paper...

OH

 

[[email protected]]

USA: CONSUMER COMPLAINTS

USA CONSUMER COMPLAINTS

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/complain/

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THE NATION HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION AUTO SAFETY HOTLINE:

1-888-DASH-2 DOT ( 1-888-327-4236)

 

[Spout]

Well, I've read all those complaints. They sound to me that the riders were just suprised by the ABS kicking in. Are you sure they're about servo failure?