Service intervals

[thebiker]

Hi

I am a little confused (all the time my wife says) over the service intervals on my 04 GS.

Bought it in May 10 and it had been serviced by the supplying dealer inc the annual inspection. I have done 3k miles on it since then and come May I am not sure what service it will need.

I am doing my own work and have a CD of the BMW official workshop manual.

Any advice is welcome.

Pete

 

[Deleted account 190920001]

it will need the annual service.

 

[Myke Rocks]

Since you are not interested in BMW dealer's moneymaking machine

Since you are servicing it yourself, ignore the garbage preented as essential.
Most of it is aimed at lining the pockets of dealers.

Maybe I take it to extremis, but I have at home receipts the original owner had for the first 2 years servicing, and I could have bought a perfectly good motorcycle for the same money, ( 10,000 miles, 4 services, averaging £320 per service) not serviced it at all, or even checked the oil, ridden to till it seized, dumped it at the side of the road & bought another. It would still have been cheaper than a dealer service regime.

If I leave my Wife's Skoda Fabia diesel into a local country Skoda dealership for an intermediate service, I get a bill for under £100. Why should a bike cost 3 times as much?

Many on this site will talk of the enhanced trade in value of a BMW serviced bike, but if you subtract the service costs from the enhanced value, it does not make economic sense.

On to servicing itself, in extremis.

Last 4 years: Change the oil & filter just as I park the bike up for winter - not in Spring - that way all acids etc are flushed out of the engine before lay up.
(I Always use any really good fully synthetic oil bought in a car dealers)

In Spring, put the battery on charge night before I am going to ride it.
Next morning: Kick tyres. If boot bounces off firmly, ride the damn thing.

Clean wheels check tyre pressures & disk pads when tyres are being changed. (Usually twice a year)

That's it.

Wait till you see all the horror posts regarding the above.

I have the bike 4 years. It has been round Europe 4 times.

I have, never, in this time, checked, never mind changed the oil in either gearbox or final drive. I have never pulled rocker covers off to check tappets. If it does not need done in a car, I reckon it does not need done on a low tuned bike like this.

I have never checked or changed brake fluid. (Other than a cursory glance at the level indicator glass)

Changed the plugs when bike started to miss. It cured the problem. (27,000 miles)

Watch for all the posts saying how they would never wish to buy a second hand bike of mine. There never are any. I never trade in or sell. I ride the guts out of it into the ground. Usually extremely high mileage.

It uses no oil, and, if something breaks, I fix it, properly, myself. So far, the only significant fault has been a fuel pump controller.

If it should eventually drop a valve, I will get the head repaired in a couple of days, & buy a piston & valves off motorworks. Dealer servicing, and valve clearance checks do not seem to reduce the likelyhood.

I bought a spare final drive 3 years ago because of the horror stories, but it has hung on my shed wall since. (£125 - ebay) - Cheaper than BMW extended insurance, expecially when the (required) dealer servicing is factored in.

When I travel, I always carry with me a fuel pump controller & an ignition EWS ring, just in case. The EWS shear bolts have already been changed for Stainless allen screws, to make an change easy at the side of the road if required. (the bike cannot be stolen anyway without a key because of the EWS, so I reckon the shear bolts are a nonsense.)

This whole missive may not inspire confidence in my servicing ability, but you asked, and that's all I do. I bought the damn thing to ride, not to polish or pay massive maintenance bills.

Myke

 

[Deleted account 190920001]

Never in a million years would I buy a bike from you!

Na most of it your quite right and doesnt need doing. Stuff like brake fluid and all that every two years is just daft. I would say its worth doing the tapits and TB balance though. Not to stop valves from dropping but just to make the bike run better. Cars don't need it done because they pretty much all run on bucket and shim now but the boxer still uses ancient rockers and they do go out a fair bit. It doesnt take long to do so why not. Its your bike and time though so its all up to you.

 

[Andrew Lodge]

Surely it all boils down to two simple options;

1, If you plan to change a new bike every one, two or three years part ex it at a dealer and don't do many miles you are better off sticking to the dealer service schedule as stamps in the book will help the trade in price.

2, If you plan to keep it ages and are confident to do it yourself you will save a fotune with home servicing.

The hard bit is when you don't fit into one of the above neat boxes

 

[Sgt Bilco]

Hi

I am a little confused (all the time my wife says) over the service intervals on my 04 GS.

Bought it in May 10 and it had been serviced by the supplying dealer inc the annual inspection. I have done 3k miles on it since then and come May I am not sure what service it will need.

I am doing my own work and have a CD of the BMW official workshop manual.

Any advice is welcome.

Pete

You don't need to follow anything the dealer says but services are due every 6k. If you don't do that mileage yearly, just do a full service annually which will be good enough I would have thought

 

[thebiker]

Thanks for the reply's so far guys.

I agree with all you have all said.

I am fairly competent home mechanic and have looked after my previous bike, a Yamaha Bulldog and my wife's Yamaha Virago 535 since the warrantys expired after 2 years, and frankly dont trust dealers to do the work correctly. My wife's Virago came back from a dealer full service with a loose main exhaust mount and a not even finger final driver sump plug!!

My is a 2004 with current 36k on the clock and though in really excellent condition no dealer would want it in PX (or not at a figure I want).

I will do my own work on it and work out what is needed, I tend to do oil and filter every year and will do the gearbox oil every 2nd one.

Just changed the air filter which was last done 10k miles ago, so that will last a while.

I do about 4 - 5k miles each year so it is not too much of a problem just checking things over every year and doing the oil.

Thanks for the replies and keep the info coming.

Pete

 

[Rasher]

On most my bikes I serviced myself I mainly paid attention to oil change frequency, prefering cheaper oil and more regular changes.

If I di my own GS Servicing it would a decent spring service with tappett check and a smaller oil / filter change for my 5-8k annual mileage.

Brake fluid is piss easy and cheap so used to flush that through yearly and clean calipers up at each service to keep them tip-top and hopefully avoid ever having to rebuild them.

Good check over of bearings etc. grease of suspension linkages, easy enough with centrestand, steering head bearings on jap bikes normally lack grease from new and need doing properly, but then probably last for years.

That is far more than dealers do, I have never known one to bother to clean caliper pistons, oil cables or grease suspension linkages - they would probably rather not bother and then charge you a fortune when you turn up with a seized linkage.

 

[skywalker]

On most my bikes I serviced myself I mainly paid attention to oil change frequency, prefering cheaper oil and more regular changes.

If I di my own GS Servicing it would a decent spring service with tappett check and a smaller oil / filter change for my 5-8k annual mileage.

Brake fluid is piss easy and cheap so used to flush that through yearly and clean calipers up at each service to keep them tip-top and hopefully avoid ever having to rebuild them.

Good check over of bearings etc. grease of suspension linkages, easy enough with centrestand, steering head bearings on jap bikes normally lack grease from new and need doing properly, but then probably last for years.

That is far more than dealers do, I have never known one to bother to clean caliper pistons, oil cables or grease suspension linkages - they would probably rather not bother and then charge you a fortune when you turn up with a seized linkage.

Knob

 

[MacFarlane]

Knob

Thought he was in customer services

 

[Demongroover]

If you are doing it yourself with the CD, every 6000 miles or 1 year whichever comes first.

Print out the service schedule and fill it in as you go.
This will detail the work you have done for the next owner (if you ever sell it).

Do the usual safety checks often: oil level, tyre pressures, lights, bolt tightnesses etc.

As for brake fluid, not as straight forward as the usual jap type systems but not that hard, there is a excellent and detailed step by step how-to guide by Jim Von Baden somewhere on this site that I followed recently on my '04 42k service all went well.

 

[AberdeenAngus]

If you are doing it yourself with the CD, every 6000 miles or 1 year whichever comes first.

Print out the service schedule and fill it in as you go.
This will detail the work you have done for the next owner (if you ever sell it).

Do the usual safety checks often: oil level, tyre pressures, lights, bolt tightnesses etc.

As for brake fluid, not as straight forward as the usual jap type systems but not that hard, there is a excellent and detailed step by step how-to guide by Jim Von Baden somewhere on this site that I followed recently on my '04 42k service all went well.

Yup, 6K or annual whichever comes first.
Tick off the items on the service sheet and attach all receipts.

 

[Pukmeister]

Brake fluid is Hygroscopic (absorbs moisture over time). It is worth changing it as recommended by BMW for two reasons:

1) Moisture can expand into vapour in your brake lines under the heat of heavy or repeated braking, leading to a loss of pressure/feel or even brake failure (fluid is incompressible, vapour is not).
2) Moisture leads to internal corrosion. Very bad in an Servo ABS pump.

A change of fluid also removes any microscopic rubber particles from piston seals due to wear which also won't do servos any good.

Basically what Myke Rocks says is true, the servicing regimes are a money spinner, however your bike still needs a regular change of oil and filter/air filter, check and adjust rockers/tappets and balance throttle action, change brake fluid and bleed, check pads. New spark plugs and alternator belt every 24k should be enough.

 

[thebiker]

cool guys thanks for the reply's now I know where I am going