Cam Lobe Cracked!

[Noel]

Just found the problem on the bike, is this a common problem only 12kmiles, warranty ran out in august this is not good manfacturing IMHO. Next any body got a R/H Camshaft? (R1150 GS 2002 single spark)
Regards
Noel

 

[Noel]

Forgot a picture...

 

[ianboydsnr]

I think you will find that its a manufacturing defect, dealer should replace at manufacturers cost, warranty or no warranty.

 

[Noel]

I purchased the bike 2nd hand, the dealer I use Pidcocks, Long Eaton, quoted £135 for a cam shaft (non in the UK 5 days waiting).
1:Who should I contact in regards to getting an FOC one?
2:Is it worth putting a 2nd hand one in for £65?
3:Best way to remove the four exhaust studs which are in poor condition? (dont think I can get a cam type extractor on them)
4:Best place to get gaskets from 2x exhaust 1x head gasket?
I think thats all for now

 

[ianboydsnr]

i would ask the dealer, to ask the manufacturer to repair, it was clearly a manufactured defect, you may get them to supply the parts free.

 

[Alte Wolf]

Just found the problem on the bike, is this a common problem only 12kmiles, warranty ran out in august this is not good manfacturing IMHO. Next any body got a R/H Camshaft? (R1150 GS 2002 single spark)
Regards
Noel

That is one scary picture
Keep us posted.

 

[harry]

Noel
As Alte says that's scary an' a serious defect. Be nice,be firm and make sure Bmw put it right for free.

 

[(RIP) Kaister]

What were the symptoms that led you to this... ?

 

[Noel]

Symptoms:
1: No power on acceleration or pulling off similar to when throttle cable pops out of the adjuster on R/H pot,
2: would not tickover,
3: fuel in the air box(lot's of it),
4: on removing inlet tube to throttle body, no sign of pulling air in,
5: removed throttle body and the intake valves were not moving.
6: removed valve carrier found that.
If the lobe had seized on the shaft in a different position it would of made a mess (probably of us both and the bike) luckily it hadn't and we had ridden approx 200 mile with it like this.
I just assumed it was fuel injection problem as did the top mechainc at the dealer over the phone though.

 

[Taipan]

I agree with the others. BMW should be contacted about this. I'd expect them to want to see this anyway. But as others said, BMW should put this right for you, warranty or no warranty. That is a major mechanical failure of a engine component.

Please keep us informed of BMWs response..

 

[Noel]

Update.

Visited my local dealer and after it got passed around 'never seen that before' was mentioned for the fifth time, they decicded to try for a courtesy claim, so left it in the hands of the gods phone us back tommorrow they said. Phoned back 'BMW will give you the cam shaft' thats a reasonable result I guess, I still have to fork out for head gasket, 2 exhaust gaskets, 4 exhaust studs and nuts plus my own time (but six weeks waiting in the workshop so not bothered about my own time rather have the bike running) though. Now just a 5 day wait for the cam shaft as it is in Germany.

 

[Pukmeister]

A materials failure like that is almost certainly due to dislocations in the metal at a molecular level, the failure mode probably being due to a poor hardening process causing excess brittleness, or inclusions within the metal at the point of failure. I doubt the camshaft lobe has been overloaded or poorly lubricated otherwise there would be signs of excessice surface heating (blueing) and serious wear ridges/heavy scoring on the cam lobe surface. Incidentally, how deep is that crack in the picture?

From your picture it looks almost certainly the fault of BMW or their component suppliers, I reckon they should foot the bill for this one. BMW should be given the failed component to analyse and determine the cause of failure in their metallurgy labs, along with your engine/chassis numbers in case there are other potential failures in the marketplace. There may be serious quality assurance issues here. Can I sense a product recall in the pipeline ???

Good luck with the repair.

 

[Noel]

BMW did not seem bothered when I offered the part to them, the crack is all the way through, causing the lobe to spin on the shaft as it is made in three parts again for cheapness.

 

[Steve]

Can I sense a product recall in the pipeline ???

For one bike? Out of how many hundreds of thousands? Somewhat unlikely I would have thought.

 

[finglonga]

BMW did not seem bothered when I offered the part to them, the crack is all the way through, causing the lobe to spin on the shaft as it is made in three parts again for cheapness.

Might be worth sending an e-mail to BMW UK to let them know of your problem, and your dissatisfaction of the dealers not wanting to repair a Manafacturing fault of one of their products. It might be a 'one off' but I would expect that they would also want the shaft for examination.

Personally I wouldn't settle for antthing less than them paying for a full repair.

 

[Mrs C]

BMW UK will already know about the camshaft as it is they who will have authorised replacing the part outside normal warranty parameters and they'll pick up the cost of the part, not the dealer, Finglonga.

It's a rare occasion when an out of warranty claim is paid in full; usually it's either all labour or all parts or a percentage of the whole bill. Then again, I've never saw a cracked lobe on a GS either

 

[(RIP) Bin Ridin]

I wonder if a large shaft dia with small cam bore (both at ends of tolerance) might have enough hoop stress to crack the bugger. Just a statistical thing.

 

[(RIP) Kaister]

What pukmeister is suggesting is that the heat treatment / and or material in the specific batch of cams could all be faulty

at or around the time of manufacture of this particular bike.

Bmw no doubt run a JIT production line so batches are bought in rather than sitting in a stores shelf getting mixed up.

The problem with failures like this is its very subjective to operating conditions.

There may be no more failures or - more likely a few failures later on when fatigue limits are getting nearer.