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07 KGT1200 Clutch mkes noise

So does my '06. My buddy had his '08 clutch basket replaced under warranty by BMW but even the new one makes noise........ Go figure. I started to pretend it is a Ducati so it doesn't bother me any more, just need to paint it red. :laugh
 
My 07 GT did the same thing. BMW finally replaced the clutch basket, plates, discs and drive plate. The part numbers
were the same as the old ones but are different, so make sure the new parts are recent. Mine was done over a year
ago and no noise since and works smoother. Not as grabby.
 
Seems this is a common complaint. Sometimes I was smooth enough to avoid the noise, a lot of times not. I got the bike with 22K miles in 2010 and I am pretty gentle with clutches but never figured this one out. Last spring went on a 4300 mile trip to FL and back over a month so the bike had luggage. Over the trip it seemed like there was wear or something did not feel right. I took it to a dealer to look at it at the end as the brakes needed replacing. They had nothing to say about the clutch. It makes noise. It seemed to me in Virginia on the way back north that pulling from lights in traffic that the noise was something that should be telling me something. But it was not slipping.

Did not ride it much over the summer and then in the fall took it off the island where it never gets out of 4th gear on onto the interstate. On the highway when I rolled on the throttle it was slipping. It was like a bad dream at first. Did I imagine a slip? Nope, the engine was revving to 7500rpm and the speedo was not going along with it so it had to be the clutch. Was not noticeable, or just barely so, off the highway at low speed.

Well dang, I guess we now know how it fails when it does. Nursed it along another hundred miles or so and to a dealer. Parts are pricey. Clutch pack is about $735 alone. Plus the manufacturer recommended replacement of a few other parts that were $100 or so. I am not seeing them on the microfiche right now and cannot recall specifically what they were. The dealer and I agreed that they were not absolutely necessary. I passed on them.

I did replace the cam chain tensioner at $124 for the part which should be a RECALL, hello BMW. Since the factory makes a tensioner that, hmm, loses tension when parked, and then says the fix is a plastic guard to keep the chain from jumping off at startup. Stated otherwise: "The part we made doesn't work right so here is a piece plastic to prevent the potential major engine damage that can happen, which you can put on at your expense, if you know about it, because it is not a recall." Oh wait, it is now, three years after the problem is identified. I had put the jump guard on last year which was the cheap factory fix.

So the clutch noise does not seem to be an indication of when the clutch is going to fail. I try to be light on it but it is a wear item. Don't know how the first owner treated it. I bought it with 22K on it and put 30K on it in three years so the failure was at 52K miles. The new expensive clutch seems to work wonderfully but I have just 300 miles on it since the replacement and it is winter in Massachusetts so there ain't no miles being ridden.
 
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