Please respond if you've NOT had a 1200GS/GSA fuel pump controller failure

[Wapping]

It all sounds fine, but I have to say that empirical evidence shows that the last thing will not help any more than asking the tooth fairy

I pray to St Jude....The Patron Saint of 'Lost causes'.....

Here's his picture. Suitably rugged GSer type I always thought:

 

[Wapping]

Of course this won't be a scientifically reliable survey, but the inconsistencies will at least be consistent. Tim (or whoever) will t least be able to say "We asked the same sample size for both positive and negative replies, and THIS is the result" instead of just "XXX reported a problem."

Water vs Heat: Mine failed after a whole day's riding in the rain, some of it really torrential, followed by a night parked in the rain, followed by a damn good thrash up the Stelvio pass (not rhyming slang) - when the bikes I was with were all running very hot. So my failure could be down to water, heat, or both, or neither. There was no sign of damage when I hacked apart the broken unit.

(I haven't taped up my ventilation holes, but the unit now sits in a big lump of silicon grease. Even when the well fills with water, it's not getting anywhere near the seal at the bottom. Lor donly knows if this will prevent another failure, but I carry a spar ewith me everywher I go now just in case.)

Hi Robin,

The bottom plug you sent me (thank you, again) - following your failure - showed no sign of corrosion. Indeed, I used it to make the work around. So the seal at the bottom would appear to be irrelevant, so making the sealant grease unnecessary....

Still, if you are happy, that's good.

It might though be a bit like the old joke about how to keep elephants out of a fridge. Keep a pound* of butter in it. I do and have never found an elephant in there yet.....


*454 grammes in these metric times....

 

[smartbear]

bound to fail now

october 06 1200gs
10,000 miles,used most weathers stored in dry garage.
no failures-but does run lumpier than it used to

 

[Wapping]

Of course this won't be a scientifically reliable survey, but the inconsistencies will at least be consistent. Tim (or whoever) will t least be able to say "We asked the same sample size for both positive and negative replies, and THIS is the result" instead of just "XXX reported a problem."

Of course Tim (or whoever) could not have done that from his original post...Tim's question only asked for 'Failures', not for 'No failures'.....

Indeed his request was explicit.... Please respond if you've had a 1200GS/GSA fuel pump controller failure .....Reverse comment was excluded......This inconsistency has now been removed....

Anyway...on with the voting, gents, please.....

 

['Nuffsaid]

Maybe I should buy a low loader instead ......

Steve Diederich
Had 3 GS12's
04 GS12 - 28k Miles, No Problems
56 GSA12- 20k Miles - No Problems
08 GSA12 - 8k MIles Still no problems

Ridden every day in every weather

Stored in and out

And I wasnt feel paranoid until I read this thread ............

 

[Dahoum]

Are you looking for a target percentage of bikes sold that have failed, that once you have reached, BMW have said they will take some action? Is there a percentage failure rate that once they reach, from their own records, they will then investigate?

we wont know until he answers what I've (twice) asked - ie what is he collecting the info for

all a bit cloak and dagger if you ask me

 

[ed4554]

September 04
1200GS
20,000 miles
All weathers


Have had a gearbox and final drive. Hey Ho.

 

[Wapping]

Steve Diederich
Had 3 GS12's
04 GS12 - 28k Miles, No Problems
56 GSA12- 20k Miles - No Problems
08 GSA12 - 8k MIles Still no problems

Ridden every day in every weather

Stored in and out

And I wasnt feel paranoid until I read this thread ............

Now here we see a possible problem in Tim's statistics.

This is three bikes....from one owner....I can only assume that is three positive votes....?

 

[Tim Cullis]

we wont know until he answers what I've (twice) asked - ie what is he collecting the info for

all a bit cloak and dagger if you ask me

Either use your imagination or read the first post on the thread.

Now here we see a possible problem in Tim's statistics. This is three bikes....from one owner....I can only assume that is three positive votes....?

Err.. I'm not at all interested in bikes that haven't yet broken down.

Seriously though, without collecting the information on numbers of failures it's a bit difficult to approach BMW for action. And by the end of today I expect there will be over 100 documented failures.

In the meantime, those who haven't yet broken down please continue to pass the time with piss taking.

Tim

 

[FidoNick]

30k miles over the past couple of years in all weathers (even some I don't want to repeat) and never had a 1200GS fuel pump failure.

 

[The Machine Cat]

Before being being sick, people are usually healthy
Being French and everything, I don't exactly understand the interest of this thread. It's probably an exemple of what we call "l'humour anglais" over here...

 

[Davel]

No issues here either!

2008 - 1,750 miles

There's time yet though....

 

[Wapping]

Of course this won't be a scientifically reliable survey, but the inconsistencies will at least be consistent. Tim (or whoever) will t least be able to say "We asked the same sample size for both positive and negative replies, and THIS is the result" instead of just "XXX reported a problem."

I (and now you, too) stand corrected. It was meant to be a scewed survey:

Err.. I'm not at all interested in bikes that haven't yet broken down.


Tim

The word 'yet' is, of course, subjective....but hey-ho....the wheels roll on....

 

[Russ-AFC]

Seriously though, without collecting the information on numbers of failures it's a bit difficult to approach BMW for action. And by the end of today I expect there will be over 100 documented failures.

In the meantime, those who haven't yet broken down please continue to pass the time with piss taking.

Tim

Tim,
apologies i wasnt piss taking, i just replied to this thread without reading your original one. Am honestly interested in your quest and would like to know what percentage of bikes have to fail before BMW start an investigation. Have they given you a figure to aim for? The 100 you believe you will have by end of play today would appear to be only 0.1% of 12GS/GSA sold over the years if the figures posted earlier in this thread are correct.

 

[Tim Cullis]

BMW has failed to respond other than make statements such as "I can advise you that, although BMW do not recognise the problem you describe as an inherent design fault, we are constantly striving to improve the quality and design of our vehicles. BMW monitor customer feedback and are involved in an ongoing improvement blah blah..."

I'm not interested in doing a worldwide 'survey', obviously the numbers of failures in Germany, Italy and the US will be considerable. There's only 7800 owners registered on this site. Many of these are no longer active, or are owners of 650/800/1100/1150 bikes, so I guess the number of active 1200GS owners might be around 3000. If this is the case, 100 failures represents at least 3%.

Tim

 

[FidoNick]

Before being being sick, people are usually healthy
Being French and everything, I don't exactly understand the interest of this thread. It's probably an exemple of what we call "l'humour anglais" over here...

I wouldn't even TRY to categorise the humour here......

 

[Decster]

i am presuming that the public does not have a right to all this information?

Can a shareholder find out how many spare pump controllers, ews thingy, rear UJ seal/bearing or whatever fails have been sold etc?

my 2p on this subject

 

[Gizmo*]

I'd be interested to know how many of the failures have happened whilst the bike is moving ( if any) even if its a tiny number when you add in the known failures it could be worth passing the info to VOSA and reporting the defect officially. The Vosa procedures require the manufacturer to work with them and provide the data they request and it can only take a couple of cases endangering riders to trigger the procedure......

Forms are easy to complete and VOSA very helpful, I work for a mountain bike company ( bikes class as vehicles under certain bits of legislation) and even though its highly unlikely that we would ever need to do so VOSA provide the forms, training and help but would expect us to comply with them in the event of a potential fault requiring action - voluntary or otherwise.

As I posted yesterday Audi TT owners managed to get Audi to replace dashpods up to 5 years old FOC with the data coming from forums http://www.tt-forum.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8689&highlight=dashpod the failed percentage wasn't important the number of failures was enough to force action.

 

[Wapping]

BMW has failed to respond other than make statements such as "I can advise you that, although BMW do not recognise the problem you describe as an inherent design fault, we are constantly striving to improve the quality and design of our vehicles. BMW monitor customer feedback and are involved in an ongoing improvement blah blah..."

Tim

Well bugger me...

Near enough word for word what I predicted. I would do much the same if I were BuMW or any large automotive manufacturer. Not out of any malice for the customer (I believe they do like their customers, deep down) but because they are unable to confirm or deny anything, often constrained on simple legal grounds.

We work with a very large Product Liability Insurance for a huge truck manufacturer, world wide. It would be dynamite - particularly to US and European lawyers - if misquoted announcements went out on every fault, perceived or real....

Believe me, if there is a problem, resulting in bodily injury, lawyers will look everywhere and under every stone, probably rightly so....depending on whose side you are on....

I sat in a meeting where, years before, a decision had been used to put a $5 lock on a passenger door, not a $15 lock....the difference (other than $10 - nothing on one hand - but significant enough if 10's of thousands of units are manufactured) was zip between the two locks, they both worked just as well.

Sadly a child was thrown out of a vehicle in a crash....why was the child there, how did the crash occur....etc. etc.....why was a $5 dollar lock used in specific planning meetings years before.....each second / hour clocks up (very) expensive legal time.....

Good luck with your endeavours, Tim....

 

[jonnie comet]

- bike details 2006 R1200GS
- mileage 12,000
- Ridden in all weathers, regularly left in fields, and on camp sites....done plenty of wet, foreign miles.
- 'Bike is essentially a 'leisure vehicle' I don't use it every day, and it regularly goes unused for a few weeks at a time.

I have complete faith in it.....you might think that's stupid, but I do. If it breaks down, I will get it fixed. I've never bought anything that I thought would never break down or go wrong.

It's a good 'bike......Fast enough for me, reliable, luggs stacks of gear all over the place, cleans up really well (and I'm fussy)...Sure, I wouldn't feel the same if it had had loads of 'issues' but it hasn't......it just runs and runs.....