Final Drive Oil Change

[velofelo29]

Reading the traumas of a final drive failure I decided to change my FD oil today. Bike is an 07 GS with 4200 miles. The drained oil came out black and the magnetic level plug had certainly done its job, the stuff it had picked up looked like silver paint, there did not appear to be any chips or small slivers so I am assuming this is normal. While it is not a difficult job to drain the FD unit it is certainly more work than it needs to be, (next time BMW I will give you 50P extra to the price of the bike for a fitted drain plug). One thing for sure from now on I am changing this oil at 1500 at most 2000 mile intervals.
I also don't intend to go the dismantling route, next time the level plug gets removed and some mates help me to up end the bike wheelie style, I don't see that there is anything that will hurt doing that. Seems to me BM want to have a rake in their archives and find the guy that did the design for the air cooled twins, their final drive was bulletproof.

 

[G5RJO]

suck!

Surely the easy way is with a syringe and a short length of tube........

Suck out oil (The measure on the side tells you how much you've got out) then when you've got the old out, squirt in the new in the same way

Go watch a dealer do an oil change on a car these days, they do it the same way. Easy and they don't get claims for stripped sump plugs. Mate at a car repair place reckons lots of people strip out sump plugs then turn up for an oil change and blame dealers.

Roger

 

[Chris Terry]

The oil should have been changed at 600 miles to remove all that manufacturing & assembly debris. From that mileage on every 10,000 miles or so is sufficient, any more just wastes your money.
But if it makes you feel better go for it.

 

[Timpo]

Surely the easy way is with a syringe and a short length of tube........

That would be the easiest way, certainly....

Suck out oil (The measure on the side tells you how much you've got out) then when you've got the old out.

You won't get all the old oil out, but close enough for some.... not me though.

...squirt in the new in the same way...

Wrong. The correct amount of oil for a 1200 FD Unit will not go into the drain hole. The oil level in the FD Unit is above the hole. This oil needs to be applied through the hub sensor aperture.

Go watch a dealer do an oil change on a car these days, they do it the same way. Easy and they don't get claims for stripped sump plugs. Mate at a car repair place reckons lots of people strip out sump plugs then turn up for an oil change and blame dealers.

Forget about what car repair garages do.....

Do the oil change as described in many a thread in the 1200 section here.
Any raising of the front wheel is going to have gearbox and engine oil leaking from breathers.
Whilst your doing it correctly, make sure you put some moly assembly grease on the shaft spline, 'cause they have almost nothing on them from new.

What I found when I did my oil change.

Timpo.

 

[Owen Snell]

I don't think the tube would go past the ABS sensor ring to suck out the oil, and even if it did you would get some residue left. Always better to drain from the bottom - that way all of the sh*t that sits at the bottom of the unit (including any water that has got in) will be flushed out. Get the drain hole right to the bottom and then spin the FD to get any dregs out. The idea of flushing the drive (Timpo's write up) is good too - might do that next time.

A syringe and short piece of tube is ideal for putting the oil in though. Got a 20 ml syringe from the local vet FOC and used 2" of tube from a brake bleed kit.

It is definitely worth changing the oil reqularly in the gearbox / FD to minimise the risk of failure and the cost is so low if you do it yourself.

 

[cookie]

You won't get all the old oil out, but close enough for some.... not me though.

or me. besides which, you can't get a tube through the gap between the crown wheel (or might be the ABS ring) and the casing

Wrong. The correct amount of oil for a 1200 FD Unit will not go into the drain hole. The oil level in the FD Unit is above the hole. This oil needs to be applied through the hub sensor aperture.

since bmw changed the amount of oil needed for a change to 180ml, you'll find it now comes up to the bottom of the rear mounted drain hole. so you could fill through that hole.

 

[velofelo29]

Taking that point about an oil quantity of 180ml, I wasn't sure what quantity should go in. Trawling this forum it seems that it is split between 220ml and 180ml. I measured the quantity coming out this was spot on 190ml so that's what went back in. I take on board some of the earlier comments about wasting money by changing the oil too soon. In fact this is a valid statement, I will however drain it out around the 1500 mark and see what it looks like, obviously if it is original colour with no visible degradation I will leave it longer next time, right now my feeling is I would not let it past 2k without a check.

 

[BD]

did mine y/day at 24k watch a bloke do the oil at12k and it only took 20mins hardest part was twidling spline back in. i read all the feeds as to how much what oil when etc i just think it all gets bogged down when the fatherland should make their mind up and get it right the first time!

 

[BD]

part 2

does that change of quantity coinside with the drain plug mod on later fd units i wonder, so it makes it easier to service.the yanks have been drilling and tapping theirs from day 1 on the 12`s

 

[Davy F]

Funnily enough, I changed mine for the second time last week. As I had filled it the last (first) time with 220 ml, I measured what came out and it was still 220 ml. So I've put the same amount back in.

 

[littleredrooster]

Hope you used the correct spec, fully-synth stuff. The only place I could find it was at the dealers......no-one else stocked it.

 

[Timpo]

Hope you used the correct spec, fully-synth stuff. The only place I could find it was at the dealers......no-one else stocked it.

Tad-dah!!

http://www.opieoils.co.uk/p-736-castrol-saf-xj-75w-140-fully-synthetic-final-drive-lubricant.aspx

and

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CASTROL-Oil-S...ItemQQimsxZ20090723?IMSfp=TL090723157001r7429

 

[velofelo29]

I got mine at www.raceindustrial.com They don't show it on their website but they do stock it. I find their prices good for the other Castrol GS oils and asked when buying engine and gearbox oil if they kept SAF- XO.

 

[Davy F]

I bought a litre of the correct oil via the web for (IIRC) about £12.00. Dealer wanted the guts of £30 for a litre.