Crown bearing failure

Beemerman59

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I thought I would share my experience with my FD failure. I have been getting increasing concerned with the sideways play in my FD which I had noticed some 6K miles ago. The play felt much more than 1mm but I have no way of measuring it - the bike is an 08 GSA with 17.5K miles. Getting increasingly paranoid after reading all the horror stories on this forum I popped it down to Bahnstormers yesterday and within minutes had the dreaded news - crown bearing failure in the FD. From speaking to them yesterday however, they said this bearing was not the cause of the sideways play and they showed me how to feel the rumbling in the final drive which was plainly obvious once you know where to feel it.

Bahnstormers were great, kept the bike, gave me a twin cam GS for free for a day even though I had no documentation with me. Bike was fixed by 11.00 this morning with a replacement bearing for the sum of £260 all in. They will send in a "goodwill" request to BMW as the bike is 6 months out of warranty although it has been dealer serviced - they are hopeful that BMW will contribute. £260 though is a lot more affordable than a grand plus, even though the bearing should'nt fail so early in its life.

Once I got the bike home I had a good look at the FD and what is really interesting to me is that not only has the rumbling been fixed but the sideways play has now all but vanished as well.

Frankly I was expecting worse (like a full replacement FD) but it does appear that dealers can now replace at least some components in the FD rather than a full replacement. The only long term issue is how long the new bearing will last, but at least I'm not going to be checking the play every night which has been spoiling my enjoyment of the bike for a few months now.
 
loosing your bearings

I still find it amaaaazing that this system still fails, you would have thought they would have learned from the 1150,still at least its mended, and it didnt cost a fortune to sort out.
I must admit to checking the large bearing on my 1150 by whipping out the seal and checking once a year,and changing the FD oil every engine oil change.you can see debris in the oil if you have any oncoming troubles, i drain into a stainless dogbowl to examine the fd oil, a bit like reading tea leaves...
its a shame really,kinda spoils a nice bike.
 
Both myself and my pal have 08GS both in for 18000 service with Vines at Caterham and both had FD bearing failure!!!
Mine fixed under extended warrenty and pals under warrenty (bmw approved bike)
Not good!!
 
Has anyone had to have another bearing done, within a equally short amount of time?

Or are the new bearings better quality/beefier?
 
Seems like a different person posts about their FD bearing failing almost every day....do BM still deny it's a real problem?
 
Maybe someone should bring in a lawyer, how much proof does one need to bring a case against a global brand?
 
John RTW said:
Maybe someone should bring in a lawyer, how much proof does one need to bring a case against a global brand?
Click to expand...

answer: Loads. They can get away through soooo many clauses. Improper use etc... And what will the lawyers do if they win on behalf of the 15% of the sample's problematic component? They will win the right to have it replaced for free. Small win.

The component is underengineered, that problem won't go away with lawyers. Only when you stop buying their duff bikes and they shrink back to #11 bike manufacturer where they were 15 years ago whilst their books go red, then they may think " hey guys we dropped the ball somewhere".

At the moment as I ve said before the things fly out the window. They are so sellable that it has reached an extent that most sales guys have gone so complacent that they are just plain rude...
 
C-J said:
Do enlighten us on this witchcraft :thumb:thumb:thumb:thumb:thumb:thumb
Click to expand...

Place hand on the final drive bevel housing and spin the rear wheel. Easy peezy lemon squezzy but I had been concentrating on the sideways play on the wheel rim. :comfort
 
To close this story down, I have just had the great news that BMW are picking up the whole bill for this repair under goodwill - bike is out of warranty by 6 months. Apparently the replacement bearing is a new updated model.

Thanks are due to Bahnstormer on sorting the issue quickly and organising the goodwill.:clap
 
The problem with legal action is the costs you incur along the way, and with someone like BMW they can stall until your skint.

I had issues and recalls with my last bike and the dealers attitude was very poor, luckily I have access to a barrister via a personal relationship who offered to take a look.

I was lucky on two counts, firstly my bike was under six months old (so under the sale of goods act you do not have to even give the dealer the opportunity to fix a fault under warranty) and secondly I had a recall letter explaining my frame had been over-torqued in the factory.

This amounted to me having both faults that I did not have to give them the opportunity to fix, and a recall letter from Kawasaki which effectively proved the bike was not fit for purpose - and again I was not under obligation to let them fix it.

The barrister even offered to do sue for free as he was that confident of winning.

At this point I contacted the manufacturer, who correctly pointed out my issue was with the dealer, but when I said I know but my barrister has already told me I can take the bike back, dump it in their car park and he will sue for a full refund and I thought I would just ask if you could help they offered to pick the bike up and look at it, they did this quickly and offered about £500 of freebies as goodwill.

The issue would have been if I had gone for the court action, he said they would probably ignore the first few letters and do nothing until it was court time, effectively they could have kept me bikeless for months, so the manufacturer deal made sense, I got the bike sorted quickly and some freebies.

Point is although legal action is damned expensive, knowing your rights can be worth a great deal in negotiations, and if you do get a real lemon see a solicitor before it is 6 months old, after that point you are highly unlikely to get a replacement or refund.
 
Interestingly my 2008 GS was out of warranty in Sept and also due its 12k service. I pointed out a small patch of corrosion near the brake calliper fixing (half the size of a 5p coin) expecting that they might touch it up. Photos were sent to BMW and then bike recalled for a full replacement of the FD. Did they know something that I didn't?
Interestingly the new FD has a different ratio and also has the breather on top.

OldCroc
 
Rasher said:
The problem with legal action is the costs you incur along the way, and with someone like BMW they can stall until your skint.

I had issues and recalls with my last bike and the dealers attitude was very poor, luckily I have access to a barrister via a personal relationship who offered to take a look.

I was lucky on two counts, firstly my bike was under six months old (so under the sale of goods act you do not have to even give the dealer the opportunity to fix a fault under warranty) and secondly I had a recall letter explaining my frame had been over-torqued in the factory.

This amounted to me having both faults that I did not have to give them the opportunity to fix, and a recall letter from Kawasaki which effectively proved the bike was not fit for purpose - and again I was not under obligation to let them fix it.

The barrister even offered to do sue for free as he was that confident of winning.

At this point I contacted the manufacturer, who correctly pointed out my issue was with the dealer, but when I said I know but my barrister has already told me I can take the bike back, dump it in their car park and he will sue for a full refund and I thought I would just ask if you could help they offered to pick the bike up and look at it, they did this quickly and offered about £500 of freebies as goodwill.

The issue would have been if I had gone for the court action, he said they would probably ignore the first few letters and do nothing until it was court time, effectively they could have kept me bikeless for months, so the manufacturer deal made sense, I got the bike sorted quickly and some freebies.

Point is although legal action is damned expensive, knowing your rights can be worth a great deal in negotiations, and if you do get a real lemon see a solicitor before it is 6 months old, after that point you are highly unlikely to get a replacement or refund.
Click to expand...

Well you seem to be answering some of your own questions about buying a 1200. Your experiences with your Jap bikes seem to be very negative including the use of threats of court action and barristers. And with bikes less than 6 months old. My experience with my 1200GSA which is now 30 months old is the opposite - very positive about the bike, the dealer I use has been nothing but 100% and BMW are sending me a check for £260 covering the full cost of an out of warranty repair. Don't get me wrong, not everything with 1200 ownership is rose tinted, but comparing your experience with mine, it's a no brainer. Just get the 1200GS and have some fun.
 
The complete FD unit has been replaced on my GS today... and with only 2600mls on the clock.
When the unit was initially inspected the lift at the rim was 3.5-4.0mm, and as the manual states a maximum of 1mm... it was quite clear to me that this was in excess of the manufactures specification so it needed replacement / rectification.

Interesting conversation with the dealer dealer today, in that the regional warranty manager of BM is rejecting claims of lift that are under 4mm... so he will have a fight on his hands to get my claim accepted.

what a shower... they make the rules up & change then as they go along
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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