Engine racing (Clutch??)

[shready]

I have a January 1999 R 1100GS that has done 40,000 miles and has been regularly serviced and well looked after, I had the bike from 8 months old with 3,000 (genuine) miles on the clock. I use it for commuting in and around London and the SE right throught the year.

Never had any problems with it at all except for a broken Speedo cable, so I can't grumble about it at all. It's a fantastic bike (but we all know that GS's are anyway!).

However, over the last couple of months I have noticed that when accelerating the engine revs high briefly and then drops back. This is mainly noticable when say pulling away to overtake or fill a gap on the motorway. The bike does speed up but the revs get high briefly then fall back to the correct level.

Once this happens I cannot recreate it under the same conditions ie. lowish revs and then accelerate. It seems to just happen a couple or three times per commute (about 40 miles, motorway at the moment) when I'm in 4th or 5th.

Does anyone out there have any advice at all please, is my clutch going or do the symptoms point to something else?

If it is my clutch does anyone have any idea when it may go totally and what BMW dealers charge to get it replaced?

Thanks folks.

Jon Shread

 

[CoolCarbon]

Sounds like a seal letting oil through onto the Clutch....

Not uncommon unfortunately......

Any "Misting" around the gearbox/engine cases?

CC

 

[Greg Masters]

As coolcarbon says, this has all the symptoms of clutch slip - it's normally more noticeable in say 4th or 5th gears at mid-engine speeds.

Possible causes are:

• contamination (oil seal worn)
• a partially seized release mechanism (takes a few moments to fully engage even though clutch lever is fully released - is the cable OK?).
• worn clutch friction plate or worn/borken pressure plate

It's probably a dealer job unless you are a Haynes 5 spanner home mechanic!



Greg

 

[shready]

Engine Racing (Clutch?)

Thanks Coolcarbon & Greg,

As I've had no major work done on the bike I'm not sure where the 'misting' could be. However, on the offside of the bike behind and below the right pot the casing looks like it has burnt oil on it, off yellow/straw colour. Is this the area?

Also, I admit I may have slightly overfilled the engine a while back, but only ever so slightly!

If it is an oil seal any idea of dealer costs?

Jon

 

[Vern]

The yellow stain sounds like petrol leaking from the fuel lines on to the casing. I don't know how much a dealer charges for new clutch and oil seal, but you'll just have to get that credit card out, or get a haynes manwell, and diy, it's not that much of a big deal once you get into it, good luck.

 

[Greg Masters]

Re: Engine Racing (Clutch?)

If it is an oil seal any idea of dealer costs?
Jon

The oil seal is probably a couple of quid. Fitting it is probably several hundred! (See this thread)

Greg

 

[notadrop]

Clutch oil seal went on my 1100GS and clutch and seal were replaced no charge as it was apparently a common problem I was told. Apparently, again from what I was told, the seal type was changed on newer models to lessen the chance of this occuring. Try mentioning that and see if you can qualify for replacement as the early seals proved inadequate on a lot of 1100GS's.
Andy of L&C was the man who told me back in about '97, when it happened.
Good Luck
Paul

 

[shready]

Engine Racing (Clutch?)

Thanks folks.

Just spoken to Les at South London Motorcycles and he reckons much as yourselves and that I need a new clutch and maybe a seal..

Does £350 to £400 (£450 if a seal too) sound about right?

Seems freekin dear to me (IMHO).

 

[shready]

Clutch ??

Well just to update anyone who is interested.

The clutch was worn out and down to the rivets and there was no oil leak (that was the good news!).

However, I also needed a new gear selector indicator switch as this was giving me false readings, new paralever bearings, rear pads etc. etc. etc.

The bad news was this came to £860 !!

Oh, not to forget the new front tyre (£80) and MOT(£15)..

At least it passed the MOT!

Merry Christmas!!

 

[andy malton]

how much!

Bloody hell £765,what is the breakdown labour/parts,I done all that to a mates bike minus the tyre and mot for a curry,how much does he still owe me.And what about SLM wanting to charge you £50 to replace the seal,thats disgusting as it would only take minutes to do as all the clutch parts have already been taken off for replacment.Andy

 

[Vern]

'kin ell. Put the bill up here, so we can all have a look. If all that took more than 6 hours, then they're taking the piss. The whole back wheel, swing arm and gearbox come out in one big bit, and everything else is a doddle to do.
Come on, lets see this bill then please, 'cos I didn't know they charged for standing about with their thumbs up their arses. That's the only way I can think of how they landed you a bill like that.

 

[ricardo kuhn]

'kin ell. Put the bill up here, so we can all have a look. If all that took more than 6 hours, then they're taking the piss. The whole back wheel, swing arm and gearbox come out in one big bit, and everything else is a doddle to do.
Come on, lets see this bill then please, 'cos I didn't know they charged for standing about with their thumbs up their arses. That's the only way I can think of how they landed you a bill like that.

Same here

In the us the bmw book calls for 8 hours of labor and that is how much they charge you.

I can do one in about 3 hours on a NONE ABS BIke(I imagine one more hour if you have abs),,cleaning everything,and i'm not the super mecanical

I differ with you VERN on the SEAL Comment,,if is the gear box seal,yeah is right there and is easy,,but is is the engine seal(much more commun) you need to take the flywheel and that require some serius tools and more time..

anyway the clutch change was is more or less the first time i did some heavy work on my bike and sinse then I never turn back ,,that is for about the last 270,000 milles,,maybe the zip ties are not as well align but the bikes work just fine...

 

[Vern]

What did I say about a seal????

I didn't say nuffin about no seal mister, 'onest, it was that bloke above me sed that, not me, I don't know much about seals, apart from the fact that polar bears eat 'em, and I'm sure I didn't mention polar bears, or is that penguins I'm thinking of, I'm all confused now