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2011 RT Oil Leak

Inga2011

New member
Bought a 2011 RT in March. I just turned 10,500 miles on Saturday after a 1000 mile interstate cruise. Sunday found a puddle of oil under the bike. Looks like its coming from the rear of the motor. Took it to the dealer for an in warranty repair. The mechanic at Bob's BMW here in MD tells me it looks like the rear main seal or the balancing shaft seal. Won't be certain of the source 'til the trans is removed. I noticed a vibration on Saturday during my ride but frankly thought it was the speed/RPM's I was running. I typically don't cruise at 75-8o mph. But it was WV highway with 70mph speed limits mostly. ANYONE EVER HEAR OF THIS OIL LEAK ON A LATE MODEL RT? I am concerned it's a symptom of a greater problem.
 
Bought my RT in July 11 and have not had any issues with oil leaks and have not heard of your specific problem. Mine just burns oil like gas.
 
Has any one else had this issue?

What worries me most is I can't find anyone who has heard of this problem at this kind of mileage. So I am thinking there is something else wrong. Yes, it could be a bad seal, but I am seriously skeptical. I fear the vibration is the real problem.
 
Relax- seal leaks are not all that rare despite the previous comments in this thread. Most of the time simple replacement fixes them but once in a while a repeat can happen if there is a machining error causing excessive runout or if there is a burr on the shaft, etc. Hope the guy working on your bike has good eyes and looks for any fundamental problem in addition to just doing the replacement.
My 08 RT has been leak free but we've had a couple 1200s in our local club develop seal leaks when quite new. At least 2 of those I know of have done some serious miles since then with no further issues. I'd be surprised if the guys at Bob's didn't have a few customer bikes they've put seals in- ask them..
 
+1 -- to which I'll add that the balance shaft seal is a known one-in-a-blue-moon leaker. Much less often on later R12's (quite a few on the earlier R12s), but they still happen.

Not unlike my 2012 RT's final drive outer seal leak within the first 600 mi. -- BMW seems to finally have a handle on these seal leaks, but every once in a while a bad one slips through.

Unless your technician finds an excessive amount of radial run-out of either the balance shaft or the crankshaft, I'd go with the new seal and then forget about the problem entirely unless/until it actually shows up again -- that's what I'm doing with my FD seal.
 
Bob's put new rear main seal on the engine. Also replaced the balance shaft seal and trans input shaft seal because they were weeping. We will see how long this holds up.
 
Well I Leak from rear of engine and it was the Clutch seal and it ended up costing me 2000.00 I put the rear seal in (easy) then the clutch started to slip and the internal one went bad sure only 25.00 piece but the motor had to come off tranny and since oil shot on to the clutch plate had to replace that also. any way hope you leak is not that , hope it is easy fix. GL
 
I would watch for the tell tale sign of another leak.

I have a 2005 GS that has had the counterbalance shaft seal replaced 7 times. The first time it started leaking was at 12,000 miles. Look for a very slight line of oil at the seam of where the transmission and engine meet. Don't wait to see oil dripping on the ground or your will be replacing your clutch. I just got my GS out of the shop for a leaking rear counterbalance shaft seal and a bad counterbalance shaft front bearing.

Some bikes seems to have this repeated problem, but my riding buddy has a a 2005 1200GS just like mine and has not had any problems with leaking seals. His build date was 9 months after my bike.
 
2010 rt

I have a 2010 RT that is just 26 months old and has 60,000 klix (36,000 miles to you, eh) on her and have not had one bit of trouble. She still uses about 250 ml of oil per 1,000 klix and I have no trouble at all with that. She runs like a finely-tuned German machine and I could not be a happier camper. She's been in for service 3 or 4 times and the valves are still within spec. I think I've got a keeper.
 
BMW and your dealer can fix it under warranty. We can type about it a lot but that won't fix it. If it is a seal a good tech will try to see if some defect in the shaft caused it. A less good one might not. So a casual "do you suppose the shaft has a defect that caused this" comment to the tech might spur his or her inclination to look further than to just pop in a seal.
 
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