Paint bubbling.....
- Thread starter TheStammeringBiker
- Start date
Inwent for the Tiger 1200 Rally Explorer, tested that and the Ducati multv4 Rally. I could not see £10k difference in the bikes. The place i got it from sell Honda as well. Mate with a same age Africa Twin rang me to say he was taking it in as it was going rusty with paint bubbling and on the basis of my experience with BMW was looking forward to the answer. After 3 days he got a call to book it in with all work covered by warrenty. Good dealler / bad deallers. We pay the miney and take our chances
Got a couple of mates with new Tiger 1200s, both love them. Could well be in the running for my next bike. Love the GS but i find it hard to accept some of the corners that have been cut. For me you can ditch the supposed small power hike on the 1300. Improve the build quality and im far more likely to buy one.Inwent for the Tiger 1200 Rally Explorer, tested that and the Ducati multv4 Rally. I could not see £10k difference in the bikes. The place i got it from sell Honda as well. Mate with a same age Africa Twin rang me to say he was taking it in as it was going rusty with paint bubbling and on the basis of my experience with BMW was looking forward to the answer. After 3 days he got a call to book it in with all work covered by warrenty. Good dealler / bad deallers. We pay the miney and take our chances
I had a 1200 Tiger Explorer and it had less than 10K miles on it when I traded it in for a 2 year old (2016) GSA. The Tiger, a late Mk1 model, showed signs of paint bubbling all over the front of the engine casings despite regular cleaning and liberal use of ACF50, so I hope they've improved over time. Also started having electrical problems that the dealer couldn't pin point where it kept cutting out when warm. Got fed up with it so went back to the main dealer and they agreed to take it in exchange for the GSA. The GSA had a hard first 2 years, covering just 15K miles and wasn't prepped as it had just come in and was in a pretty filthy state which helped the negotiations. It looked sound enough under the grime and rode well so I did the deal, stripped the panels and cleaned and ACF treated the whole bike. No corrosion on frame, a little stonechip damage to centre stand where rust was starting to set in but that was cleaned up and treated and I fitted a centre stand bash plate to protect it.
After a year of ownership and regular cleaning, I noticed paint bubbling around the exhaust headers and it continued to deteriorate but only in this spot. Its position on the underside of the cylinders suggested it was road crap being thrown up perhaps causing pinhole damage to the protection and air getting to the allow underneath which corroded which started the paint bubbling. ACF works for a short while and can halt corrosion but needs re-applying every 6 weeks or so really. The best product I've used so far though is Lanoguard. I've protected the underside of my cars with it for years and the finish still looks like new when you rub the Lanoguard down slightly. Withstands salty roads well too. I'll be treating the underside of my cylinders with it on my RS which luckily seems pristine despite being 5 years old but really all this paint bubbling has to be down to moisture and air getting through to the alloy casings so BMW may want to rethink how they prep the undercoat or ought to powder coat their engines. I can't see that happening any time soon though so will just continue to use Lanoguard in vulnerable areas and ACF everywhere else.
BMW are not alone in this and changes over the past number of years to allowable paint finishes (many being water based) have reduced durability of all bikes. Some are better then others but BMW seem no better or worse than many others I've owned.
After a year of ownership and regular cleaning, I noticed paint bubbling around the exhaust headers and it continued to deteriorate but only in this spot. Its position on the underside of the cylinders suggested it was road crap being thrown up perhaps causing pinhole damage to the protection and air getting to the allow underneath which corroded which started the paint bubbling. ACF works for a short while and can halt corrosion but needs re-applying every 6 weeks or so really. The best product I've used so far though is Lanoguard. I've protected the underside of my cars with it for years and the finish still looks like new when you rub the Lanoguard down slightly. Withstands salty roads well too. I'll be treating the underside of my cylinders with it on my RS which luckily seems pristine despite being 5 years old but really all this paint bubbling has to be down to moisture and air getting through to the alloy casings so BMW may want to rethink how they prep the undercoat or ought to powder coat their engines. I can't see that happening any time soon though so will just continue to use Lanoguard in vulnerable areas and ACF everywhere else.
BMW are not alone in this and changes over the past number of years to allowable paint finishes (many being water based) have reduced durability of all bikes. Some are better then others but BMW seem no better or worse than many others I've owned.
Totally agree with you. As I said I’m my first post this was my 3rd BMW. First two were bubble free after 10 years and 30,000 miles and 3 years with 18,000 miles. It’s the 21 plate that had issues and all my bike had been treated / cared for exactly the same.
My. Bikes live in a heated carpeted garage, my car lives outside all year round. I don’t have to wash the underside of my engine bay and ACF50 the car 9 times a year to prevent rust and paint bubbling. I don’t think I have washed the underside of my car since it last went through a car wash years ago as I wash it at home, and I don’t blow dry it. if the manufacturers aren’t going to honour warranty’s for bikes used all year round they should stipulate that upon purchase. can you imaging going into dealers to look at 20K plus bikes with big signs above them with the words, please do not get wet or use between November and April.
My. Bikes live in a heated carpeted garage, my car lives outside all year round. I don’t have to wash the underside of my engine bay and ACF50 the car 9 times a year to prevent rust and paint bubbling. I don’t think I have washed the underside of my car since it last went through a car wash years ago as I wash it at home, and I don’t blow dry it. if the manufacturers aren’t going to honour warranty’s for bikes used all year round they should stipulate that upon purchase. can you imaging going into dealers to look at 20K plus bikes with big signs above them with the words, please do not get wet or use between November and April.
Well, after a wet long ride including some mudday lanes yesterday, I cleaned the bike off last night and today removed the crud catcher and other bits and got to examine the underside of the bike. The driveshaft housing was fine, swingarm section for shock linkage fine but the dreaded bubbling was evident on the engine underside casing bolt tunnels and in between, as well as starting now around the headers. Not going to lose sleep over it. Cleaned it up back to paint (and bubbles) and plastered the whole lot with lanoguard, removing the excess. It may or may not prevent it getting any worse but on a bike that's 5 years old I'd expect some paint bubbling. It's currently not affecting any other area of the bike which looks as good as the day it came out of the factory. My GSA was just the same at 3 years old. At some point in the future I may strip the paint off the bottom of the casings, clean off and kill minor corrosion spots and prep for new paint but that's a good few years down the line. All my older bikes didn't use painted engine casings and they just got plastered in ACF50. Perhaps BMW shouldn't bother painting the underside as this gets the lion's share of water and crud on the road. Short of epoxy coating them, I can't think of any other bike that would fare any better using painted casings.
I cut my teeth on BSA, Triumph and Norton motorcycles, these were followed by a BMW R75/6, none of these had powder coated or painted engines apart from the black heat resistant paint on the cylinders. None of these bikes suffered from this bubbling paint disease that is so common to modern day BMWs and my 2003 R1150GS was the first bike that I owned to have this issue, I’m afraid it has coloured my views on BMWs ever since, so why have it at all? But if you really must have it, then it really shouldn’t have any issues in this day and age.
It's simply a function of EU rules on what paint systems are allowed for vehicles. Car and bike bodies and panels for example all had to stop using cellulose and migrate to less durable and less suitable water based paints with topcoat sealers years ago. Engine paints for bikes are microporous and not as durable as older coatings. You'll find it's not just BMW but they come to the fore because the engine sump is pretty exposed (unless you have a sump bash plate or lower fairing and gets the worst of the crud flung up by the front tyre). As said above, this leads top pin-holing and migration of moisture which along with the air getting to the alloy reacts with it to oxidise it and to create powder oxide residues, creating bubbling of the paint finish on top. To be fair to BMW, their arms are tied by construction and use Regs but they know there's a problem and ought imho, to provide all their bikes with sump protection preventing this happening. There's little that can be done to the headers as they are unique n that they stick out and are prone to similar damage. Honda manage with their painted goldwing boxer engines by covering the whole thing underneath with fairing belly pans.
Those who have not already had a peak under their cylinder heads may find after a few years, definitely 3 to 5 years, that bubbling may have started around the headers and on the lowest part of the engine casing. Everywhere else, the casings should still be pristine. I had the same issues on triumphs. Better really not to paint the bikes as alloy is easy to keep protected from new using Lanoguard or similar and it's less unsightly. That or simply anodise the bloomin things.
Those who have not already had a peak under their cylinder heads may find after a few years, definitely 3 to 5 years, that bubbling may have started around the headers and on the lowest part of the engine casing. Everywhere else, the casings should still be pristine. I had the same issues on triumphs. Better really not to paint the bikes as alloy is easy to keep protected from new using Lanoguard or similar and it's less unsightly. That or simply anodise the bloomin things.
Whilst I agree that the paints manufacturers are forced to use now are not as durable as they once were in not so sure that the problem I’ve experienced is purely down to paint quality.
My guess the issue is partly the manufacturing process. It looks as if the crankcases are painted and then machined leaving an edge that allow water/ salt or whatever to get under the paint finish. I appreciate this is standard practice for most manufacturers but for some reason BMW seems to suffer.
As you say, products such as lanoguard would indeed stop or at least slow this down. I will be using something like this on my bike when I get it back.
As a side note , I had two Crosstourers before the GS , treated them exactly the same and had no similar issues.
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