| Author | Message | ||
     Natexlh1000 |
I was just curious to hear if the BMW final drive failures are a real issue or is everyone making a big deal of nothing? Did the old ones fail more often than the new ones or vice versa? | ||
| Barker |
grease you splines like you should and you will have very few problems. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
So it's just an issue of people not taking care of their things? | ||
| Jaimec |
The drive shaft problem appears to be primarily related to the GS paralever models. The double jointed shaft is especially stressed by the increased suspension travel of the GS models. So much so that BMW now considers the drive shaft a "consumable item" replaced at 60,000 mile intervals. This from a recent issue of the BMW Owner's News. As far as I'm aware, this does not apply to any of their other models. Just the GS models with paralever. I now have 115,000+ miles on the original driveshaft of my K1200LT with no issues. | ||
| Reepicheep |
How much does a drive shaft cost? Just out of curiosity. Might still be cheaper then chain drive... you would have gone through a lot of chain$ and $prockets in 60k miles. | ||
| Rubberdown |
No Problems with the unit on my well thrashed HP2 with 17,000 miles on it ... so far .... | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
So when the suspension goes up and down, the splines slide in and out and that wears it down? Is that what everyone talks about with the greasing of splines? | ||
| Jaimec |
That's one thing. Remember, MOST bikes have a wet clutch, so the splines are in a constant oil bath. The BMW uses a dry clutch, so if the splines aren't regularly lubed, they'll corrode and start slipping. The drive shaft failures mentioned though don't have anything to do with the splines. It has to do with the fact that the paralever drive shaft has a universal joint at BOTH ends. The constant movement, especially over the full range of a GS suspension, causes enough of a torque load to weaken the metal of the shaft until it eventually breaks. THAT'S why BMW now recommends replacing the shaft every 60,000 miles. Again, the regular road-going bikes don't have nearly as much suspension movement so they don't go through drive shafts the way the big enduros do. | ||
| Jaimec |
By the way, based on the results of last year's Iron Butt Rally, the old design BMW final drive was far more durable than the "new improved" design in the newer models. You can tell the difference because the new design has that funky, see-through hub. | ||
| Bcordb3 |
BMW didn't require the fluid in the final drive until the failures occurred during the rally mentioned earlier. The 2007 BMW's and newer did require a fluid change. Recently, because of the failures, BMW is now requiring all the bikes (with shaft drive) to replace the fluid at 600 miles and at milage that I can't remember. I am assuming the major service at 12,000, and 24,000 etc. I know it is a major pain in arse because of the design of the final drive. No drains? I am sure that BMW will be doing a design change in the very near future, the drive shaft has to be taken apart at the flex point and drained by rotating the final drive to allow it. My bike is due for a major service in about 2000 miles. I am not looking forward to it. | ||
| Rubberdown |
It takes about 20 minutes to change the final drive fluid in the newer BMW's like my HP2 or an RT or S or GS or R. | ||
| Bcordb3 |
That's good to know. The local BMW stealership gets about $90.00 per hour labor. I am guessing the fluid replacement will had an labor to final tally! I have never kept a bike this long! | ||
| Corporatemonkey |
Did I stumble out of BW and into a BWM board??? Seriously, how does this effect the current K1200GT? I have had my eye on one for sometime, I just can't justify a new one. I am thinking is 2-3 years of picking one up. | ||
| Bcordb3 |
A friend of mine has a 2007 K1200GT. When he took it in for his 600 mile service the tech did replace the fluid. That bike is something to ride and to look at. Something like a 154 hp, handles well, etc. The only bikes that I had heard about or read about the rear end problem were the R1200GS'. | ||
| Buellgrrrl |
The late airheads were afflicted with the paralever, and the GS with it's long travel suffered the worst. BMW violated several basic laws of physics with the GS paralever, and failures as low as 30k miles are not unusual. Despite being lowered 2 inches which improved the driveline angle, my R100GS's driveshaft failed at 58k. The newer shaft drive BMW's differential failures are a whole seperate problem. In last year's Ironbutt BMW had the most failures of any brand, amost entirely due to differential failures. So far there is no known fix for this problem. | ||
| Buellinator |
No shaft drive on my F800ST....  | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
Are shaft drives on other brands afflicted with failures like that? I spoke to a Goldwing guy and he said that his last on average about 175,000 and were cheap to replace since people do trike conversions all the time. | ||
| Rubberdown |
Arrest BMW, immediately! | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
So the old style shafties are pretty much stone-ax reliable then? | ||
| Jaimec |
I'm not aware of any drive shaft issues with the non-paralever BMW shafties, nor am I aware of any issues with the non-GS paralever bikes. As for the final drives, the older models had a problem with a French-made bearing that apparently wasn't up to spec (BMW replaced MOST of these under warranty, even if the bike itself was out of warranty). The newer, hollow-axle final drives seem to have a disappointingly high failure rate based on last year's Iron Butt Rally. |
