"A health and wellbeing warning for BMW R1200 riders..." thread in "Motorbike Chat"
Originally Posted by Foxy Shh, I'm tired and grumpy I'm not surprised. You have a PM by the way....

I'm not surprised. You have a PM by the way.

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MC011

Similar thing happened to someone I know about 5 months ago - 07 1200RT with 10k on the clock. Going down the A19 and felt a power loss followed by a seizure, no fire as such though just a wrecked engine which was replaced under warranty.

He's (along with two GS owners that I know) had the immobiliser problem aswell.

bmw need to get a grip of their qc before their reputation is destroyed.

With this and the F650 thread over in Staying Alive, I'd say the reputation is about to go belly up. Although they've survived worse things, like the collapsing wheels that, supposedly, killed some of their customers.

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If beer is so bad for brain cells, why does my brain allow me to drink so much of it?

Isn't that the thing right underneath the fuel tank?

We have split our fleet between 1200RT and Yamaha FJR. There have been very few problems ( mostly comms ) with the FJR. The BMW's have so far been a pain in the backside. Constant little problems - ignition/ immobiliser issues with over half the bikes we have. Having to remap the bikes at nearly every service.
I have heard on the grapevine that the overheating/ seizure issue has been partly put down to leaving the bike running on the sidestand,the oil drains from the rhs cylinder. Some of the riders prefer the BMW to ride. But i'm glad i have a FJR available to use.

Thanks for the heads up foxy, glad your ok and not too toasty..

Will be speaking to Bimmer next time I drop by, I've not had any faults with my R1200S as yet.. fingers crossed.. not heard about the key fobs going tits up.. best keep a spare with me..

I did have a seizure on my old R1100S, but that was on the Transmission side rather than the engine..

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War hath no fury like a non-combatant" - Charles Edward Montague

So how does my car engine not seize every time I start it? Four cylinders, all above the oil so the oil 'drains away from them'.

The reputation of BMWs more recent models must be hanging in tatter by now. Gone are the days when you paid a premium for their known finish and reliability.Now you just get to pay a premium.

It's like reading reports about some old rattly 70s stroker. BMW reliability even features strongly in TRC's tag cloud and not for good reasons. Poor show.

Jeez! Glad it didn't lock up and spit you off! Sounds like you were very lucky there!

On a lighter note just what do you lot do to your bikes? First you bust the Pans now you've started on the BMWs. If you really want Triumphs then why not just ask for them!

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Wonder about my avatar? CLick this www.freeschapelle.net/

Re the keys, the problem is supposed to be more common when keys are kept together. Somehow they talk to each other and one or both get the hump. Obviously with the amount of keys we have it crops up fairly often.

We never got the 1300 Pan for operational use. But the old ST1100s are sorely missed, and none of the BMWs we've had since (R1100RT, R1150RT and R1200RT) are a patch on them. What we really want and what would be better suited are FJRs, but we're not allowed them





In respect of the bike I was riding, I visited our workshops today. They confirmed there has been a recent spate of these, and from talking to colleagues another bike from the same place where I work gave up the ghost yesterday. I haven't spoken to the rider yet so I haven't been able to confirm if this is another 1200 or any of the other circumstances. I have now been able to piece together some form of reason for this.

The R1200RTP is designed to run on 98 RON unleaded. My employer prefers us to fill up from our own pumps to reduce the costs of running such a large fleet. These pumps at the time stocked only 95 RON and diesel. BMW were approached when the bikes were first obtained and asked if it was okay to run them on 95 RON petrol. They said yes. The bikes were run on this lower grade petrol until a number of engine failures occurred. The cause was investigated and it was found to be down to the petrol used. In the interim we were directed to fill up with 98 RON unleaded at public filling stations and pay with our fuel cards. This was the status quo for some time and no more engines went pop. Obviously my employer wasn't happy about the extra expense so recently the bikes went back to BMW. BMW remapped the bikes to cope with 95 RON petrol and they were returned to normal use. Now that they are back they have started going pop again. For some reason it is the right hand cylinder that is mostly affected. They hadn't had the chance to open my bike up as it is being returned to BMW but they have found that both spark plugs had disintegrated and both pistons are holed and severely damaged.

So I think it would be prudent to recommend at this stage that these bikes are only run on 98 RON unleaded. Which I am attempting to get pushed through at work.

See now if you ran GSs you would be fine on cheap shit fuel.

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and...the keys/ign thing ?
wasn't the keys re progamming the cdi or owt like that, theres a small plastic ring round the ign, that act as an antennae for the key to talk to the CDI...thats the bit that breaks and then the key can no longer talk to the CDi and the bike wont start, that appears to have been solved by updated part number 342!

Glad you managed to stop and get off without yer bollox roasted...

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Too much is NEVER enough...till it hurts...

Nice to see that Fred karno has managed to find employment within the Met workshops

Nice save though Foxy although had to come to rest beneath a Gatso it would have been better...

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Es mejor morir de pies que vivir en las rodillas

MC 004

i'll pass the warning on . thanks

Cheers for the update on this Foxy.

I plumped for a new RT a couple of months ago, so I'll be making sure I only run it on decent fuel from now on!