Engine failure

[Dan79]

Thought I'd share this little gem with you....

I am the proud owner of a 54 plate R1200 GS. I bought it at the end of february this year (had 6500 miles on the clock) and have covered another 16000 miles mysle fsince then. I've read many posts on here regarding reliability issues, but the woirst that had happened to me so far was a blown headlamp bulb.

However...

Whilst riding home from work on wednesday night, doing 80mh in 6th, my engine suddenly lost power and made strange noises. I pulled over to the hard shoulder of the M1, engine stopped as soon as i selected netural. Tried to restart, nothing.
Called Breakdown people, waited 30 mins, breakdown truck arrives. We try to restart bike, it starts, but lost of blue somke, so we immediately switch off the engine. Bike is then taken away.

Call from dealer the next day, turns out that on the r/h cylinder, the exhaust valves somehow hit the piston, causing "extensive damage"! I visited dealer yesterday, had a look at the engine, what a mess! (no pics unfortunately)

Very luckily for me, my warranty runs out in 3 weeks. BMW are paying for a new engine.

Just wondered if anyone else has experienced similar problems?

Dan

 

[(RIP) Kaister]

very strange - ask for a detailed explanation how this occured.

 

[Fanum]

First one like that I've heard of......cam chain failure???

Glad to hear you're being sorted out well....there are some manufacturers who'd be on the 'you didn't maintain it, fill with oil' etc etc trip.....


Jimb/Tentoone.....don't even bother

 

[Dan79]

thanks for comments so far....

talking of oil - its been using on average 500ml per 1000 miles, so I have been carrying a bottle in the hard luggage. Always keep it correctly topped up.

 

[Jimb]

Fanum

 

[Deadskin]

 

[birdseye]

for valves to hit the pistons, the bike has either to have been spectacularly over -revved or the timing chain has to have slipped or broken. chains are normally very reliable, much more so than belts.

did the gargae say why the one had hit the other?

does any body know if the 1200 engine has a rev limiter? I never got mine anywhere near that area before it became an ex 1200

 

[GSmonkey]

does any body know if the 1200 engine has a rev limiter?

most definately

 

[Timolgra]

Bad luck

 

[Pukmeister]

I've got similar mileage on the same year, and my engine rattles from the RHS a bit on starting from cold, kinda like a small clatter as the camchain tensioner pumps up or something. I hope I don't suffer the same fate !

 

[marcus]

Dan

I traded in my blue 04 GS with about 6,500 miles on it because it kept falling to bits, including an exact duplicate of the symptoms below.


I hope you havn't got my old one. It was a dog.

 

[The Bede]

for valves to hit the pistons, the bike has either to have been spectacularly over -revved or the timing chain has to have slipped or broken. chains are normally very reliable, much more so than belts.

did the gargae say why the one had hit the other?

does any body know if the 1200 engine has a rev limiter? I never got mine anywhere near that area before it became an ex 1200

... The cam chain tensioner can fail, I had one replaced at 3,000 miles, it was picked up by the dealer whilst they were doing another minor job the bike. TBH I hadn't noticed, it would apparantly be easy to miss. (The revered North Oxford yet again)

... Left unidentified, I imagine it could cause the coming together of metals moving in opposite directions, with unseemly consequences.

 

[Dan79]

Hi there,

I had been doing a steady 80 mph in 6th gear for a good 30 miles since last fag break, so no way it could have over-revved. It just started chugging/misfiring, then stopped as I pulled over. Could have been a lot worse if the engine had stopped dead...

BMW say they dont know what caused this to happen, and arent likely to find out due to extensive damaged caused....

There was very little left of the exhaust valves (just the valve stems actually), so it made quite a mess of thew r/h clinder. New engine on its way, BMW are footing the bill.

Until that arrives I have the use of an R1200ST, which is useful.

Marcus - mine is a red "54" plate, so not your old one, thankfully!

Cheers Dan

 

[Bananaman]

sounds like it's the timing chain tensioner that's allowed the chain to slip a cog hence damage the valves etc.
Oddley enough Pugrot cars are prone to this as well, but you would expect it from a SH1t car, not a masterpiece of german engineering.

Why don't they fit a decent timing chain tensioner in the first place? ... sounds like minimal engineering to me to keep costs down.
But I am so what do I know anyway ?

 

[El Minky]

Sorry to hear the bad news but glad your not having a fight for the repair
Does anybody know if the boxer engines use oil pressured cam chain tensioners? If so there was a mod made to the Porsche tensioners years ago that prevented the tensioner slacking off to the point that chains could jump teeth in the event of a collapse (usually a seal failure). However it sounds like an isolated incident - unless the vast tosser knowledge base knows different.....?

 

[TENTOONE]

very strange - ask for a detailed explanation how this occured

Occured thus:

Engine built to a price with conponents that are continually suspect. Engine asked to do some proper mileage. It breaks. Waves the white flag. Kaput. Finito. Game over.

RTW bunker proof of course.

 

[Deleted account 211025001]

Fixed it for ya

Andres

 

[JohnC]

Occured thus:

Engine built to a price with conponents that are continually suspect. Engine asked to do some proper mileage. It breaks. Waves the white flag. Kaput. Finito. Game over.

RTW bunker proof of course.

Seems to be the first for a 1200 GS. Have you heard of many others? Links please? If not, gtfott

 

[bsogri]

dropped vaslve

my mates dropped a valve at 4500 miles , needed complete head barrel etc

 

[Tricky]

:"`Thou seyst nat sooth,' quod he, `thou sorceresse,
:With al thy false goost of prophesye!
:Thou wenest been a greet devyneresse;
:Now seestow not this fool of fantasye
eyneth hir on ladyes for to lye?
:Awey!' quod he. `Ther Ioves yeve thee sorwe!
:Thou shalt be fals, paraunter, yet to-morwe!"

Yeah... whatever