Corrosion : yes or no ?

Oct 2014 GS LC TE, 9200 miles, just had replacement engine for corrosion/blistering on the block by the head gasket, and currently on second replacement rear hub centre due to corrosion.

GlennT said:

Nutty I was thinking about one of those bike dryers. Good investment?

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Yep, brilliant bit of kit. When you see the amount of water it blows out of the areas you can't see, you realise what a worthwhile bit of kit it is.

GlennT said:

Nutty I was thinking about one of those bike dryers. Good investment?

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I use a drier too but mines a £30 leaf blower from Tesco, a simple mod to channel the air down to a much thinner tube and it works wonders. The amount of water left on after a wash is amazing the leaf blower clears it all.

i've never found clean water left on a bike much of a problem.

i used to always try and run the bike up the road to get it off, but i don't bother now, and no corrosion.

madmechanic said:

Interesting those who have corrosion how do they clean it , high pressure jet wash ???? or hose pipe and good cleaner ????
will make a big difference

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I use a hose pipe, bike cleaner and Zip Wax or similar.

A high pressure washer may lift paint at the exposed edges of a part if the surface preparation and is poor, but not elsewhere.

If BMW believed the bike was neglected, then they wouldn't honour a warranty claim. There's obviously an issue when otherwise immaculate bikes have engine corrosion problems.

The Nutty GSER said:

GS or GSA?

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GS. Paint bubbling and flaking at coolant hole on block, along the top of the head gasket joints, lower engine mounts, at places on the shaft where there's an edge to paint at machining.

ChazzyB said:

GS. Paint bubbling and flaking at coolant hole on block, along the top of the head gasket joints, lower engine mounts, at places on the shaft where there's an edge to paint at machining.

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I notice that most bikes with replacement engines tend to be the GS rather than the GSA. There are one or two exceptions though. It'd be interesting to find out why this is.

JohnnyBoxer said:

It's all down to care, wash regularly and job's a good'un

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It is mostly, BUT on some bikes the silver paint bubbles up in spots all by itself regardless of how much care one takes - it is as if there was something on surface of the metal before it was painted or something wrong with the paint itself. It happened to the rear drive of my 2013 LC and it was replaced under warranty.

It doesn't have to be at a machined edge either, it can happen in the middle of a painted section too.

8 to 7

Eight with corrosion so far, seven without. And Engineer : unusually, not sure which way you are voting but please remember this thread is about corrosion not Hilltop

cookie said:

i've never found clean water left on a bike much of a problem.

i used to always try and run the bike up the road to get it off, but i don't bother now, and no corrosion.

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Do you think a bike dryer is a good thing?

Seem to be all the rage

SMcGirr said:

but please remember this thread is about corrosion not Hilltop

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My non Hilltop GS had corrosion
My Hilltopped GS does not

I think Hilltop needs to be included

SMcGirr said:

Eight with corrosion so far, seven without. And Engineer : unusually, not sure which way you are voting but please remember this thread is about corrosion not Hilltop

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Ok I have had one (2013) that has 'corroded' (but is it corrosion?) on the rear drive and my 12,000 mile 2015 TE LC that hasn't - tell me which way I should vote? Understanding the root clause is more informative that dodgy statistics.

JohnnyBoxer said:

Do you think a bike dryer is a good thing?

Seem to be all the rage

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Probably a good thing.

My 2006 1200gs has no corrosion, been washed down every time it went out in any type of inclement weather, washed with water and sprayed with wd40.

one each I'd have thought !

2014 GS had corrosion on engine after 18 months and about 9500miles. Engine just recently changed.
Always hose bike down after ride if salt around.

Ian

June 2014 GSA ridden through one winter, rinsed daily using work power wash, ACF50'd by all year biker. I have a bike dryer and I'm an amateur detailed SI I know how to clean and maintain bikes.

Engine replaced under warranty sept last year

Minor corrosion found at 6k service but I had a trip to Austria booked so it was changed at 10k. Didn't ride it this winter

blues n twos said:

June 2014 GSA ridden through one winter, rinsed daily using work power wash, ACF50'd by all year biker. I have a bike dryer and I'm an amateur detailed SI I know how to clean and maintain bikes.

Engine replaced under warranty sept last year

Minor corrosion found at 6k service but I had a trip to Austria booked so it was changed at 10k. Didn't ride it this winter

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So, what's next?

Lets keep going for a bit and see how this pans out. It looks so far like more do have corrosion than don't. A bit of evidence to make BMW sit up and notice. I'd still like to see a voting option so that it'd be easier for peeps to record their problem.

SP

JohnnyBoxer said:

It's all down to care, wash regularly and job's a good'un

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2008 GSA, 2006 RT, 1999 1100s, 850R all had paint bubbling issues, some parts replaced some not . No paint issue on the 2014 GSLC ( 11000 miles ) and don't ride in the winter. So out of 15 BMW over 25 years, 4 had paint issues. The best quality paint was on my airheads and the K100SE.

This explanation sounds logical as to why it happens :

"If you were painting an ali Johnson or Mercury boat motor leg for total salt water immersion, you would first cover the ali in some acid, wash off, neutralize, clean, dry, then coat with a chromate based etch primer, usually yellow in color. Then follows the layer build up and hot oven bake. I bought a tin of this Johnson chromate primer years ago and have used it on several ali paint projects. Marine paints are also very good quality and nothing like auto paint.

This process and some of the chemicals used in the ali primer are no longer regarded as Eco friendly and you have to use Eco friendly paint that peels off.

With some difficulty, I have stripped the paint off a tranni and rear drive. The BMW paint is a very hard 2 pack catalysed polyester paint, hardly touched by Nitromors paint strippers. I could find no trace of an etch primer used underneath it. Therefore their paint process has to rely on getting a perfect airtight seal and key. Any external dings or contamination on the ali surface before painting will cause problems.

I was curious as to why they put on such a thick paint layer and was not convinced it was for a quality paint finish. When I had the paint stripped off, I could see their castings were not that good and thick paint coating hides and fills imperfections and irregularities.

I was even more curious about the slow air loss from my tires about 2-5 psi per month. After I had the wheels bead blasted to leave a nice key on the wheel rims, I had them powder coated. I get virtually no pressure loss on both tires now. I think these castings have some porosity (meaning not so good) and thick paint is a cheap fix.

If you want decent paint or powder coating work done, talk to marine painters, they know what they are about when parts need to withstand salt water."

Voxmagna from i-bmw.com in 2004