Fuel pump controller, repair.

[robbie boy]

well for the life of me i can't explain this one, see if you can ?.

I have been looking for a used fuel pump controler for the tool bag as i'm going on a european trip
and wanted to gather some of the essentials,after no luck in sourcing one i decided to
just buy a new one, fit it and keep the old one as a spare.

As with a lot of 1200gs my fuel gauge wasn't working so was using the trip like everyone else
well after fitting the new fuel pump controler and taking her for a wee spin, my fuel gauge started
to work perfectly again, now it hasn't worked for over a year, i have filled the tank up and it showed a full tank
done over a hundred miles and it dropped down perfectly, topped her back up, just to check it
and the gauge is working perfectly.

Not sure but this may help others, if your fuel gauge is knackered, try replacing the fuel pump
controler, its £100 for a new fuel pump controler, or £200 + for a new fuel strip and fitting.
i dont think that its a coincidence do you ?.

 

[Ravenbyrne]

Had a simular problem with my old 1200. There's a thread somewhere suggesting that cleaning the electrical connectors and using compressed air to remove any gritty bits out might work. It did on mine

Cheaper that replacing the controller


sent by me using my phone

 

[robbie boy]

The controller was working perfectly well, prior to being replaced with the new one,
as mentioned i only replaced as i wanted to have a spare for the tool bag.

 

[jeff]

Robbie,

Like you I don't believe in coincidences. Mechanical and electrical machinery don't act irrationally or emotionally ( although sometimes it seems like that!)

Clearly the action of replacing your fpc caused the fuel strip to start working. It may be the actual replacement part or it maybe you have disturbed another part in the course of replacement, but there is a logical explanation. Finding that explanation can be difficult.

It would be interesting to know if your fuel gauge/strip works properly all the way down to empty.

I say this because I have a problem with mine. For two years it worked fine. When the gauge and distance remaining came close to 0 it would run out of fuel - never tried it but ran it close to zero as was leaving bike for three months and didn't want load of fuel in bike, took nearly 32 litres to fill up.

Then it malfunctioned. At about 125 miles to go the range counted down quickly to 25 miles, warning light started flashing at 95 miles. Pulled into PFS at 0 miles, tank took 23 litres so 10 litres still in tank.

BMW replaced fuel strip but identical problem persisted . On fourth replacement strip and still have identical problem. The dealers have said they will replace strip yet again but I find it hard to believe that three new strips would present the same problem. The dealer seems to be blinkered that it must be the fuel strip as they have a long history of problems.

My only logical thought was that the transfer pump was not working and although I had upwards of 10 litres it was on other side of tank to pump.

Dealer assures me that is not the case as a fault code would be displayed.

I always use trip and fill tank when I can. Can be a prob in Franceand Italy where many stations are unmanned and you have to prepay for fixed amounts.
It is a little unnerving and indeed annoying to have the fuel warning light flashing when on an autostrada at night even when you know that you have at least 100 miles of fuel in the tank.

Something other than the fuel strip is at fault but what.

 

[(RIP) Miff]

The controller was working perfectly well, prior to being replaced with the new one,
as mentioned i only replaced as i wanted to have a spare for the tool bag.

Have you tried putting your old FPC back in to see what happens??

 

[PaulW21781]

Robbie,

Like you I don't believe in coincidences. Mechanical and electrical machinery don't act irrationally or emotionally ( although sometimes it seems like that!)

Clearly the action of replacing your fpc caused the fuel strip to start working. It may be the actual replacement part or it maybe you have disturbed another part in the course of replacement, but there is a logical explanation. Finding that explanation can be difficult.

It would be interesting to know if your fuel gauge/strip works properly all the way down to empty.

I say this because I have a problem with mine. For two years it worked fine. When the gauge and distance remaining came close to 0 it would run out of fuel - never tried it but ran it close to zero as was leaving bike for three months and didn't want load of fuel in bike, took nearly 32 litres to fill up.

Then it malfunctioned. At about 125 miles to go the range counted down quickly to 25 miles, warning light started flashing at 95 miles. Pulled into PFS at 0 miles, tank took 23 litres so 10 litres still in tank.

BMW replaced fuel strip but identical problem persisted . On fourth replacement strip and still have identical problem. The dealers have said they will replace strip yet again but I find it hard to believe that three new strips would present the same problem. The dealer seems to be blinkered that it must be the fuel strip as they have a long history of problems.

My only logical thought was that the transfer pump was not working and although I had upwards of 10 litres it was on other side of tank to pump.

Dealer assures me that is not the case as a fault code would be displayed.

I always use trip and fill tank when I can. Can be a prob in Franceand Italy where many stations are unmanned and you have to prepay for fixed amounts.
It is a little unnerving and indeed annoying to have the fuel warning light flashing when on an autostrada at night even when you know that you have at least 100 miles of fuel in the tank.

Something other than the fuel strip is at fault but what.

I've gone through this exact same issue with my GSA and it reporting no fuel (and then conking out due to fuel starvation) and then when filling it up finding it still has 5 to 10 litres in it...

There is no transfer pump, the return flow of fuel from the FPR feeds through a sucking jet pump (which is just a mechanical venturi pump) which then acts to pump the fuel from one tank lobe to another. Over time though (from reading up on this and also from my own experience) the return flow reduces, as the flow from the actual fuel pump itself reduces. Few people say it's because the 'Lifetime' fuel filter clogs up (they've stripped old pumps down & it's been dirty as hell) other say it's the FPC acting up by not running the pump at full pace. But it can also be caused by trying to 'ride like a saint' as if the return flow isn't high enough (ie, you're not riding the bike hard enough so the fuel pump isn't running at full whack as it doesn't need to go so hard to supply the engine with the amount of fuel needed to run), the jet pump will stop working. Few people over on advrider have tested to see how much flow is required for the siphon jet pump to work, and estimate it to be around 500ml/min. If you can get access to a GS911, run a fuel pump test and see what the flow rate is showing as. If it's running as it should be, the flow should be around the 500ml/min mark.

I'm already on my second fuel pump now (2010 bike, first pump was replaced under warranty after 18 months), and it's already starting to show signs of a lower flow rate as it's showing as empty/coughing while it still has a good amount of fuel in. I have to physically lean the bike on it's side to drain the fuel from one lobe to another (you can actually hear it flowing when doing this) and the bike is then good for another 70+ miles until I need to do it again. Bloody annoying! Although I find that if I go full throttle every so often, it does help me to use *all* the fuel, but then what's the point of doing that all the time just so I can use the full capacity of the tank??

I'm either going to try and blag another fuel pump on the extended warranty if I can, or look at replacing the whole pump unit for something like this

http://www.euromotoelectrics.com/product-p/fp-379.htm

Bit of an arse to do it, but I reckon in the long run (and seeing other people have done the same) it would be worth it. Plus, I'd rather do that than just hardwire the FPC to run the pump at 100% all the time, although this may still be an option due to costs...

Also, regarding the Warranty stuff... I'd had 4 replacement fuel strips prior to them replacing the fuel pump, and was told (by the dealer who replaced the pump under warranty), that BMW had issued a note saying that a replacement sucking jet pump wouldn't be covered under warranty to resolve this issue, and that a full fuel pump replacement was recommended...

 

[robbie boy]

it`s all very confusing eh, no i haven't tried the old one back in as to be honest im just happy that its all
working the way it should, don't want to screw it up again. i have a 2005 gs, still on its first fuel pump and fuel strip
must be one of the lucky ones.

 

[jeff]

I've gone through this exact same issue with my GSA and it reporting no fuel (and then conking out due to fuel starvation) and then when filling it up finding it still has 5 to 10 litres in it...

There is no transfer pump, the return flow of fuel from the FPR feeds through a sucking jet pump (which is just a mechanical venturi pump) which then acts to pump the fuel from one tank lobe to another. Over time though (from reading up on this and also from my own experience) the return flow reduces, as the flow from the actual fuel pump itself reduces. Few people say it's because the 'Lifetime' fuel filter clogs up (they've stripped old pumps down & it's been dirty as hell) other say it's the FPC acting up by not running the pump at full pace. But it can also be caused by trying to 'ride like a saint' as if the return flow isn't high enough (ie, you're not riding the bike hard enough so the fuel pump isn't running at full whack as it doesn't need to go so hard to supply the engine with the amount of fuel needed to run), the jet pump will stop working. Few people over on advrider have tested to see how much flow is required for the siphon jet pump to work, and estimate it to be around 500ml/min. If you can get access to a GS911, run a fuel pump test and see what the flow rate is showing as. If it's running as it should be, the flow should be around the 500ml/min mark.

I'm already on my second fuel pump now (2010 bike, first pump was replaced under warranty after 18 months), and it's already starting to show signs of a lower flow rate as it's showing as empty/coughing while it still has a good amount of fuel in. I have to physically lean the bike on it's side to drain the fuel from one lobe to another (you can actually hear it flowing when doing this) and the bike is then good for another 70+ miles until I need to do it again. Bloody annoying! Although I find that if I go full throttle every so often, it does help me to use *all* the fuel, but then what's the point of doing that all the time just so I can use the full capacity of the tank??

I'm either going to try and blag another fuel pump on the extended warranty if I can, or look at replacing the whole pump unit for something like this

http://www.euromotoelectrics.com/product-p/fp-379.htm

Bit of an arse to do it, but I reckon in the long run (and seeing other people have done the same) it would be worth it. Plus, I'd rather do that than just hardwire the FPC to run the pump at 100% all the time, although this may still be an option due to costs...

Also, regarding the Warranty stuff... I'd had 4 replacement fuel strips prior to them replacing the fuel pump, and was told (by the dealer who replaced the pump under warranty), that BMW had issued a note saying that a replacement sucking jet pump wouldn't be covered under warranty to resolve this issue, and that a full fuel pump replacement was recommended...

Many thanks for that Paul,
Don't think it's riding like a saint as it has always happened by riding on motorway or more often French or Italian toll roads riding around 95mph. Bike spends most of its mileage in Europe at spirited speeds.
Thanks for the details on how pump works. Clearly dealer was using wrong terminology. Your experience does tend to confirm what I thought could be the only logical explanation i.e. fuel was trapped on right side of tank (right side when sitting on bike) and not being pumped over. Again dealer assured me that if sucking jet pump was not working it would generate fault code and assured me bike would use "last drop of " fuel irrespective of what readouts were showing, but then again he isn't driving down an Italian toll road two up with full luggage in the rain at night. Have used the tipping on side trick many times on many bikes but it is no joke on a fully laden GSA (same year as yours)

Have not got access to a GS911 but there is a great British trained mechanic in Xania Motorrad Crete. I'll be there in 7 days so will ask him to do a flow test on pump. Will also see what happens when I try to use "last drop of fuel" when I get to Crete (with a gallon of fuel in a can in one of the panniers!)

Again, many thanks for your experience and suggestions, much appreciated