The sorry saga of 1200GS/GSA fuel pump controller failures (410 so far)

ggggrrrrrrr....

When did it happen? Yesterday
- Where: Riding on the A3 at Guildford, fast lane...only just managed to get to verge/safety in time
- rider name - Marc
- bike details (model and year) R1200RT, 2008 (yeah I know but I had a GS until last month)
- remedy - waiting for Vines BMW to fix
- How many days work/holiday did you lose? evening out
- Were there any incidental costs? None (yet)
 
July 2010

A14 30 miles south of Peterborough heading for London on day one of two and a half week trip to Portugal

Lost a couple of hours due to exceedingly helpful RAC guy locating part, fetching it and fitting it

Cost £60 I think it was

55 plate GS 16K on the clock
 
Last edited:
Update on failure statistics (UK owners only) totalled by year of breakdown

2004: 7
2005: 17
2006: 34
2007: 58
2008: 136
2009: 110
2010: 25

Total: 387

It seems that many bikes not covered by the rather limited recall window are continuing to break down. If you are one of those affected you should complete and dispatch a report to VOSA stating that BMW's recall was too narrow. The form can be downloaded here (right click and 'save target as').

Cheers
Tim
 
When- 30/08/10
Where- At home near Chester
Bike R1200GS, June 08, 21,000 miles
Called BMW rescue (I had paid for extended warranty)
No impact except I couldn't go out for a ride; very lucky, really.

Thanks to this site in general and this thread in particular (thanks, Tim), I was pretty sure what the problem was. This was confirmed when BMW arrived and problem was fixed 10 minutes later. Slightly worrying that the replacement FPC was silver, not black. The old FPC was clean and had no outward signs of deterioration/ corrosion. It hadn't been sitting in water.
 
31/08/10 05:00
Hove - after the Bank Holiday weekend, bike not ridden since Friday.
Bike- R1200GS July 08, 19,000 miles
Called AA (having not extended the warranty :( ).
Screwed up my day. Train to London with bike on back of tow truck off to Chandlers, who fixed it by 17:00. Back to Hove by train very late.

AA man was very good. Told him what I suspected, but he went through his checks thoroughly (battery, flooding, sparking, injectors). Finally agreed it was FP electronics. Chandlers changed some bits for £128. I haven't seen what was replaced yet, as picked up the bike in the dark last night and set off again today in the dark.
 
FPC failure - old failure new addition to the list

- When did it happen? 7th July 2009
- Where were you? 70km from Istanbul Turkey
- rider name. Pascal
- bike details (model and year) R1200GS 03/2007
- remedy: new controller from BMW dealer in Istanbul
- How many days work/holiday did you lose? 3 days
- Were there any incidental costs? Transport/Trailler cost of 300Euros
 
- When did it happen? 22:30 16/09/10
- Where? Middle of roundabout
- rider name? MIKA
- bike details (model and year) GS1200 2005 "55" 14.500mls
- remedy AA call out and FPC by-pass
- How many days work/holiday did you lose? 1 1/2 hours at side of road
- Were there any incidental costs? None

Travelling home when bike died, started it again and then it cut out. Phoned AA who arrived, tech didn't have any experience of this bike so due to this forum I directed him to the FPC. Asked him to hard wire it direct to the battery but he wouldn't do that, he did agree to cut into the wire loom and by pass the FPC although again he did say that he shouldn't even do this but I managed to convince him, and in fairness he relented to save me waiting for a truck to take the bike back home.

Now not looking forward to parting with cash for a replacement that BM know about but continue to screw their customers.
 
FPC Failure 2009 1200gs

It would appear that the so called fix has not worked.

- When did it happen? 18/09/10
- Where were you? Uig, Isle of Skye
- rider name self
- bike details (model and year) 1200GS, 2009
- remedy Recovery to Inverness, then replacement FPC fitted.
- How many days work/holiday did you lose? 3 1/2 days
- Were there any incidental costs? Not really, other than a biking holiday in a Vauxhall Astra, misses the point.
 
FPC FAILURE

When did it happen - 21.30 ?/5/10
Where - coming from visiting family
Rider name - Boirche
Bike Details - 06 1200 GS
Remedy - AA recovery = 00.30
How many days/work/holiday did you lose - 3hrs by the roadside
Where there any incidental costs - 3hrs by the roadside
 
- When did it happen? This summer in May. My bike started to act weird, just like I was running out of fuel. It stopped, but when I let it cool down for a while it started again, until it finally died.
- Where were you? Close to my home.
- rider name Mikael
- bike details (model and year) R1200GS, 2004
- remedy
- How many days work/holiday did you lose? None
- Were there any incidental costs? Yes, we had to put it on a trailer and take it to the dealer.

It was quite expensive to fix it.
 
When: yesterday 3rd September 2010
Where: A22 4 miles South of Killyleagh (Northern Ireland) - about 70 miles from home
Bike: 2007 model R1200GS with 6000 miles (1st registered in August 08)
Ride: Me
Remedy: Bike recovery 'man in a van'; £60 to take it to BMW dealer
Cost: On top of the £60 recovery cost, I'll find out what BMW are going to charge me when I collect it later today
Lost time: 2 hours at the roadside on a sunny Sunday, 2 hours out of work today to collect the bike

1.5 hours into a great ride in perfect weather, cruising at about 65mph and then all power lost, rolled to a stop. Wouldn't restart (healthy battery and full tank of petrol).
 
Jule 2010

When did it happen?: July 2010

- Where were you?: all over the place

- bike details (model and year): 2006 R1200 GS

- remedy: initially cut out sporadically including when on the A40 in London (aaarrrrghhhh) finally gave out on way back from MOT (mechanic riding I was at work)
- How many days work/holiday did you lose? none just inconvenience
- Were there any incidental costs? New control unit, and 4 hours waiting for BMW assist and a bottle of scotch for mechanic who had to push it 2 miles back to his workshop....
 
FPC Failure #2 - Black FPC - Stamped 30/09

2010/11/02

At 'home'. Attempted to start bike, no fuel pump whine could be heard called BMW ES.

2008 (late) R1200GS

56K miles.

Replacement FPC - silver - stamped August 2008 - not happy about this, I now have the 'old' model FPC.

The FPC that failed is one of the newer black FPCs which was installed by another BMW ES chap when the original silver one failed about 6 months ago.

Possible problem leading to failure:
When the black FPC was removed, the rubber gasket had obviously been pinched when it was originally installed, this is the likely culprit for allowing water into the unit.

So the jury is still out.


BTW... BMW when you're reading this, can you arrange for proper FPC??? and some servicing vouchers.....
 
One more...

Michael Gray has sent the following message from the Contact Us page on http://www.motorcycleinfo.co.uk/:

"Controller failed 11/1/11 I mile from home.Pushed R1200RT 2008 model home. Rang BMW emergency services. Responded within 1hr 15min, replaced part as he had spare onboard. (Problem known about - quite common)). I am retired and costs (£80) borne by BMW warranty."
Click to expand...
 
- When did it happen? 0700 25/01/11
- Where? on the road, luckily <1 mile from home
- rider name? Jeff
- bike details (model and year) R1200GS 2006 29,000 miles
- remedy purchased replacement at dealer, and replaced it myself
- How many days work/holiday did you lose? 1
- Were there any incidental costs? None

Luckily I had an idea what the problem was from following this board....motorcycle stalled a few times when I left the house in the AM, the final (third) time it was finally 'dead' and wouldn't go any longer. Luckily this was less than a mile from my house, so I was able to walk home.

Replacement cost was 85GBP, including VAT, from Bahnstormer.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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