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Fuel strip poll

Have you had at least ONE fuel strip fail?


  • Total voters
    835
Doug - my latest strip is (knock on oak-grain formica woodlike substance..) the longest lasting one I've had. It has the "Eilenberger modification.." (as my local dealer's mechanics call it..) On the R1200R the fuel strip runs directly below the filler hole. If you open the cap and look in with a maglite - you'll see it. The thought came to me - that in NJ we have emission collars on many gas pumps, meanig to turn the pump on one has to really push the nozzle pretty far into the opening. Doing this - it either will hit the fuel strip, or only be an inch or so away from it.. which means high-pressure fuel is directly impacting the fuel strip. That can't be a good thing.

I thought about it - and thought that adding a deflector shield above the fuel strip might help. I discussed it with a very savy mechanic at the dealership last time it was in getting a strip - and he thought it sounded good and would think about how to do it. He was quite proud that he thought of using a piece cut out of an oil bottle, with a few punched holes in it, and some tie-wraps to hold it to the top of the fuel strip. Now gasoline is deflected away from the strip when filling up.

And this strip is going on it's 3rd year - which is a real record for me (my first R1200R had 7 or 8 strips in 100,000 miles, this one had gone through 3 by about 20,000 miles). Does the deflector help? Dunno for sure - just anecdotally it seems to..


That is in line with my assumption that all the failures are in the connection of the strip to the connector at the top in that epoxy block. I measured the strip in a dozen or more strips at the dealership here and none of them had any issue with the resistance of the sensor or the heater. So no issue with the fuel on the strip itself. They all had a disconnect at the connection inside the epoxy block. Mechanical wiggling may well be the cause...vibration included as well. It is just a poor way of connecting the strip.
 
Don,

How about a photo or two of the deflector strip?
Hi David, there isn't much to see through the filler hole. It would require taking out the cap assembly to really see anything, and right now I have no plans to do that - but perhaps if I do in the future I'll remember to take photos. I didn't see it before it went into the tank, but AFAIK - it's simply a disk about 3" diameter with some holes punched in it for tie-wraps. It's tie-wrapped on top of the fuel strip right under the fuel filler hole. You could probably make and install one through the filler hole if you remove the cap assembly. Mine was installed when my most recent strip was installed, so it went in through the fuel-pump hole (and the pump got replaced due to the cracking flange on it at that time..)

Don
 
Fuel Strip #4

2009 GSA

Taking it in next week to have the 4th fuel strip put in. 2nd owner.

Latest strip lasted 2 years.
 
I have given up on my fuel Strip. I replaced (2) in my previous 2008 R1200R and (2) in my current 2013 R1200R. It is a real pain in the neck to take the bike to the dealer and have them replace the fuel strip. It is a 2 to 3 day event and I need to drop off the bike get my wife to pick me up from the dealer and drop me off to pick the bike up only to have it go bad a few months down the road. I just use my trip meter for a gas gauge. Around 175 miles I get gas.

Roger L
 
2009 r1200 rt

5 failures and counting...:banghead
Date Replaced and Miles
1. built 01-2009 took delivery 04-2009
2. 02-2011 @ 9034 miles
3. 02-2018 @ 21,092 miles
4. 08-2018 @ 21,400 miles (ride to the dealer is 100 miles)
5. 05-2019 @ 22,500 miles (1st ride 2019)

This bike isn't ridden much because I have 2015 GS but so
disappointed in BMW that they can't get this problem
corrected...:scratch
 
but so disappointed in BMW that they can't get this problem
corrected...:scratch


They are choosing not to. Most likely they figure it is cheaper to just replace your 5 or 6 or 10 strips as they fail. :scratch

You have about two more years then too bad for you BMW says. :banghead Got to love it, thanks BMW, builds all kind of confidence in buying another bike. I am sure this is my last. :wave

GD
 
Are they still using the fuel strips?:scratch

They went back to the float...it worked for about 100 years, but was mechanical. I don't think the strip is unique to BMW, but BMW has the worst record of using it that I know of.
 
2008 GS with 31K.

Getting ready to schedule 3rd replacement tomorrow, all under extended warranty so far. Last one made it two fill-ups.
 
Fuel strip #4 needed

My 2006 R1200RT went for 10 years with no problems
Yesterday dreaded orange triangle again
This will be # 4, but now on my dime
 
lasted 70 miles

my light is now taped over after replacing 3 fuel strips. the last one only took 70 miles to break!
 
2007 RT fuestrip troubleshooting/replacement

My fuel tank was 1/4 full when i started and immediately went empty then started counting down the miles till empty. I changed the strip and now still have no gas level indication. I didn't have a meter handy where I am so I just bought the strip and put it in. Relay? maybe wiring? I have to bring a meter home from work to see if it is or was the wiring/relay. These machines wear you down with the parts cost and the fact that they have a problem for years with this strip and have ben a problem.
 
My fuel tank was 1/4 full when i started and immediately went empty then started counting down the miles till empty. I changed the strip and now still have no gas level indication. I didn't have a meter handy where I am so I just bought the strip and put it in. Relay? maybe wiring? I have to bring a meter home from work to see if it is or was the wiring/relay. These machines wear you down with the parts cost and the fact that they have a problem for years with this strip and have ben a problem.
When was your bike put into service? On a 2007 it's possible you're out of the 12 year extended warranty from BMW.

FWIW - there is only one relay on your bike - the starter relay. If it goes bad you won't start. There certainly have been instances where a brand new strip failed - happened to one of mine. My bike got 2 strips in a day that time. If the strip is an issue - it's covered by BMW's 2 year parts warranty. If you're lucky (or clever) you'll never have a fuel strip last longer than 23 months once you bought one.

Good luck with it..

BTW - you might want to fill out a vehicle complaint form on the NHTSA website for a vehicle failure that could cause death or injury (if you ran out of fuel in the wrong place..) There are instructions back a bunch of pages in this thread on how to do it and make it effective. If enough of those accumulate maybe BMW can be goaded into making right on these and coming up with a design that works. There is one private owner who came up with a circuit for it allowing for the use of the old fashioned mechanical float mechanism. I'm sure Seimens or Bosch has some clever engineers - they just need incentive $$$$ from BMW.
 
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