gearbox failer revisited

[shaggy&eddie]

Hi ive posted before with mixed luck. I bought a 1200 gs with 24000 miles on the clock on the second ride on it the gearbox failed. The guy who replaced my gearbox said it was possibly due to the gearbox oil not being changed. I would like to thank people for their help and would advise you he k your oil as i have just forked out £1300 gear box available for spares or repair could be a nice earner for someone who knows what they are doing

 

[AlexG]

For anyone reading this, who like me can't remember what the scheduled gear oil change frequency is...I checked, according to the BMW maintenance schedule:

Change gear oil every 40,000 km (24,000 miles)

 

[shaggy&eddie]

Should i get in touch with bmw then as mine has done 24500 miles

 

[DrFarkoff]

I think you need to recheck this But its FD every 6000 miles and Gearbox every 12,000 miles!

More importantly for all the cost of a litre of oil I do mine Annually all fluids and oils Except the clutch which is 4 years I MUST do it this year

TIPS for those that Don't know!

Do NOT hold the clutch in at lights and junctions if you are goling to be waiting its a car type clutch and the release bearings get hot and are under a bit of strain

ALWAYS USE GL5 specification oil in the transmission and Final drive

Brake Fluids are ANNUAL Change on Wheel Circuit and Bi Annual on Control

DOT4 is Fine also DOT5.1 Read that as Five point One!

NOT DOT 5 which is silicone based and whatever twat came up with the DOT number needs a boot in the hole How many hoses and seals killed by that cock up?

Clutch Fluid is a Mineral based oil and NOT Brake and Clutch Fluid There are also different colours for models and years (Unless they have fixed that!!!!)

 

[shaggy&eddie]

Thank you Drfarkoff i was told the same while bike was split i had new clutch fitted was a kick in the hole as you say as i had only rode the bike twice

 

[Santa-2512]

I think you need to recheck this But its FD every 6000 miles and Gearbox every 12,000 miles!

More importantly for all the cost of a litre of oil I do mine Annually all fluids and oils Except the clutch which is 4 years I MUST do it this year

TIPS for those that Don't know!

Do NOT hold the clutch in at lights and junctions if you are goling to be waiting its a car type clutch and the release bearings get hot and are under a bit of strain

ALWAYS USE GL5 specification oil in the transmission and Final drive

Brake Fluids are ANNUAL Change on Wheel Circuit and Bi Annual on Control

DOT4 is Fine also DOT5.1 Read that as Five point One!

NOT DOT 5 which is silicone based and whatever twat came up with the DOT number needs a boot in the hole How many hoses and seals killed by that cock up?

Clutch Fluid is a Mineral based oil and NOT Brake and Clutch Fluid There are also different colours for models and years (Unless they have fixed that!!!!)

Thanks for the heads up on GB & FD-

what weight oil is required for each?

Looking through my meagre service booklet, it would appear inspections rather than services were the norm

I suppose i'd better get those sorted asap

mart

 

[Pukmeister]

BMW Specify Castrol Syntrax Longlife (formerly SAF-XO) 75W90 Synthetic for both the Gearbox and Final drive. (They used to specify a GL5 EP75W90 for the gearbox but have now standardised g'box and final drive.)

 

[AlexG]

Apologies all, my bad I read this...

Without then scrolling to the page with this...

So for most bikes the 24k interval will be irrelevant. Sorry for misleading input.

 

[Phil-H]

I'm struggling to come to terms with why a bike would need a gearbox (or fd for that matter) oil change when cars & vans etc generally have oil for life with no scheduled change interval....

 

[Bones]

I think you need to recheck this But its FD every 6000 miles and Gearbox every 12,000 miles!!)

FD every 6K??? Surely not.

 

[fizzer]

for the small amount of money it costs ,i change my gearbox oil and fd oil when i do an engine oil and filter change ,for gods sake its under twenty quid and half an hour to do.

 

[Pukmeister]

I just changed my FD oil in preparation for a tour to Spain and the old oil was still golden but considerably darker through 6k of use. The 6k oil change previous to this one was heavily emulsified due to riding through flooded roads.

At 180ml a change, and £13 a litre, why wouldn't you change it regularly?

 

[shaggy&eddie]

Motorworks second hand gear box £420 new clutch £90 labour with out vat £700 van hire to get to the guy £80
Its cheaper to change the oil i fink

 

[spm0912]

Whatever the book says or how often someone feels the need to change the oil. Gearbox failure at 24k miles due to not changing the oil? Really? Seems a bit far fetched to me. Unless maybe the 600 mile service wasn't done properly and it had the original oil from the factory but even then......

 

[shaggy&eddie]

First sevice run in check done at 823 miles at south london bmw

 

[Stevie4scoops]

FD every 6K??? Surely not.

On a LC the FD oil change schedule is every 12k. When I changed mine at 11k it was completely black and stank so I intended to change it at the same time as the engine oil after this.

I to question why the FD should need changing because cars and vans go for the life of the vehicle without having their oil changed.

The other thing I do which may/may not be right is measure the moisture/water content of brake fluid rather than simply changing it for the sake of it. The oldest bike I've had for a while is three years old but all the fluid I've tested so far has been fine.

One other consideration is that BMW cars have their brake fluid changed every four years so why to their bikes need it doing after a year?

 

[Phil-H]

It's down to money pure and simple

 

[Bones]

Does a hexhead even have a drain plug for the FD? Never looked TBH

 

[duckspeed]

Does a hexhead even have a drain plug for the FD? Never looked TBH

Don't think it does, mine is on the bench for a big service and the FD oil is getting changed, in two minds wether to try and draw it out with a syringe or disconnect the reaction bar and tip the drive down ?

 

[Alan R]

Does a hexhead even have a drain plug for the FD? Never looked TBH

Yes they do have a drain plug fitted.
Alan R