2005 R1200RT Final drive failure

oil changed 07RT 110 kms

Changed oil in FD this aft, first time in 3 years and 50K kms, a little dark. Changed tranny oil first time in four years, 60K kms, a little dark but expected that. More to the point, apart from several tiny metal particles, all is good. Shook the rear wheel and no free play either so I'm pleased. I maintain bike myself and it is still a solid runner; if final drive goes one day, like others I will rebuild it + carry on.

The bearing is available through Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Nsk-6013VVC3-Single-Ball-Bearing/dp/B00DBOD0Z4

crazy horse said:

Add me to the growing list. My ring gear on my final drive is toast at 47,000 miles.
Many thanks to my local dealer Schlossman's BMW of Milwaukee who went to bat for me with BMW NA offering that I would pay half the price of a new FD and they would do the labor for free. { I did have it removed from the bike}. BMW has declined that idea of goodwill saying the bike is "too far out".
Back in the 70's I would have taken that as a compliment, now it just makes me want to disconnect from a motorcycle company that I would not long ago have boasted made the best long distance bike.
Now, when that conversation comes up I think I'll clam up.
By the way, I changed the "Forever fluid" in that drive at 27,000 miles and used BMW synthetic.

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I don't get it. I have an '05 RT, I have read the owners manual several times, and now have the maintenance disk; haven't come across "forever fluid" (maybe the mineral oil in the clutch reservoir) anywhere. My operators manual and maintenance manual calls for a scheduled oil change every 12,427 miles (20,000 km or 24 months. There is a 500 mile break in oil on new FD's that has to be changed. If the first oil change you performed on the bike was 27,000 miles, you were not properly maintaining that component and should expect it to fail. Another poster on this thread also boasts of excessive miles between properly scheduled oil changes on final drive and xmsn but seems to be ok with his cost savings and is fully expecting to rebuild it when it fails, but I doubt it. It will probably fail at the worst possible time and he too will be like, BMW's suck, final drives suck, I want a refund.
My final drive did not fail. I rode it for months trying to figure out what was wrong with it. Once I realized it was the final drive I rode it two hours to Pensacola BMW where they replaced it with a new one for $650. (My definition of failure is catastrophic and unriideable. Riding 150 miles to dealer to replace a worn out part, not a failure)
My new drive (my old one was not maintained by me the first 23,000 miles) has had and will have all the proper maintenance new out of the box, I expect it to last a very long time. Any component, no matter how well engineered will fail if not properly maintained.

I have an 08. I was told of
The forever fluid by my dealer. This story is supported by the fact that there is no drain port on the original FD. I will have to check my manual.

lbarbee said:

I have an 08. I was told of
The forever fluid by my dealer. This story is supported by the fact that there is no drain port on the original FD. I will have to check my manual.

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My original 2005 FD came with a drain plug prior to 2005 were talking 1150's and that's a different bike. Every R1200RT (2005 first model year) has had a drain plug and filler port. Original oil called for 220ml later manuals brought down to 180ml of oil. If 1150's or even earlier designed final drives had forever oil I don't think we could apply that to 1200's.

Then my 08 RT and my riding partners 05 are odd. Neither have. Here is the procedure for my original FD. Only plug was at 90 degrees.
http://www.jimvonbaden.com/R1200_Final_Drive.html

Yes, I know this 90degree plug. That is the drain plug. That was the exact procedure I used to drain and refill my final drive. Later versions of the RT (the final drive I have now) placed the drain plug at the bottom and added a 6mm Allen screw as a fill port verses using the mag pick up. I've always changed mine at 6000 miles or earlier, this increased schedule may have accounted for my original final drives longevity. The oil being drained in the link you provided coming out dark, I only saw that once, during my first final drive change. After that clear. I also drain mine into a clean mason jar and then place strong magnets underneath to pull the chips to the bottom so I can visually inspect the amount of chipping. I've noticed the final drives on the 14 are on the left side (no wheel removable or silencer maneuvering) with the fill port conveniently located externally toward the top allowing to drain and fill without the removable of any other component.

I guess that's one mans story, not consistent with physics, modern design, accepted standards for drain plugs or fill ports, but if it works for you then that is awesome.

lbarbee said:

I guess that's one mans story, not consistent with physics, modern design, accepted standards for drain plugs or fill ports, but if it works for you then that is awesome.

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Awesome is invoking physics, modern design, and accepted standards to support your biases. I'm impressed.

If the plug on the back of early hexhead FD isn't a drain plug please tell us what it is and what it is for? BMW seems to think it is a drain plug but apparently you know better.

I know little, but I challenge you to find another example of a drain plug on a hardened vehicle that is not on the bottom and uses gravity. If you can, then I will have to say you got me.

Just checked my owners manual for my 08 RT. It is consistent with the forever fluid story.

I have a 2005 R1200rt I bought in 2011 with roughly 50,000 miles on it, so I don't know the history before that. I'm at 65,000 right now with no final drive issues. I've had other shaft drive bikes(suzukis) and one of them I bought brand new. I changed the final drive oil and lubed the shaft splines every two years regardless of mileage being below the interval or not. The one thing I've not done is lube the splines on the front of the shaft, and only done the splines at the final drive. So I'm starting to think that is something I need to do soon, but I'm not sure if that's something I can handle, or should have the dealer do it.
And for those of you have have had your final drive rebuilt, who is doing it for you and is there a website for them?

lbarbee said:

I know little, but I challenge you to find another example of a drain plug on a hardened vehicle that is not on the bottom and uses gravity. If you can, then I will have to say you got me.

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I'm not trying to "get" you. But check the differential on some 4x4 vehicles. The don't put the drain plug on the bottom because they expect the bottom to be dragged over hard parts. One egregious example:



Yeah, that is the drain plug. Or how about the motors where you suck the oil out with a vacuum pump? The "drain plug" isn't on the bottom. Not liking the location does not change the fact that it is a drain plug.

Actually that looks like the fill plug to me, at just the right level. That's not to say that you might be expected to somehow suck the fluid out of that same hole, but I think that is where it'd go back in.

I believe this shows the edge of the drain plug located on the lower right side. Appears to be low enough to drain the oil, even though not on the absolute bottom of the housing. Is there a specified maintenance interval for an oil change?

rangerreece said:

I don't get it. I have an '05 RT, I have read the owners manual several times, and now have the maintenance disk; haven't come across "forever fluid" (maybe the mineral oil in the clutch reservoir) anywhere. My operators manual and maintenance manual calls for a scheduled oil change every 12,427 miles (20,000 km or 24 months. There is a 500 mile break in oil on new FD's that has to be changed.

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I have my original '06 owners manual and two slightly different downloaded manuals. None mention anything about FD oil change requirements. Running-in check, service/inspection intervals at 6000 and 12000 miles, annual inspections are prescribed but none of the owners manuals describe the work to be done.

I also have the factory DVD dated 2007 which has details the work to be done at each service - none of the checklists mention anything about the final drive. I think FD oil changes for the R1200 were first prescribed in 2008?

And yes, on the early FDs the drain plug is on the rear of the housing.

Except when the drain procedure is in progress, at which time it is on the bottom.

lkraus said:

View attachment 46259

I believe this shows the edge of the drain plug located on the lower right side. Appears to be low enough to drain the oil, even though not on the absolute bottom of the housing. Is there a specified maintenance interval for an oil change?

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Maybe. The text that went with that image was bitching about the lack of a drain plug which is why I grabbed it. There are still plenty of examples. This link: http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/893997-my-rear-differential-service-with-pics.html mentions: "There is no drain plug on the Ford 10.50" diff."

And with that I've come very far afield of the original topic and for that I apologize to the readers. I'll crawl off to my corner, now.

marchyman said:

Maybe. The text that went with that image was bitching about the lack of a drain plug which is why I grabbed it. There are still plenty of examples. This link: http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/893997-my-rear-differential-service-with-pics.html mentions: "There is no drain plug on the Ford 10.50" diff."

And with that I've come very far afield of the original topic and for that I apologize to the readers. I'll crawl off to my corner, now.

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Nope. On some you loosen the bolts and give a tap to the cover.

I think the point was that many R1200 model bikes (from what I've seen up to 2008 year models) were issued with a "lifetime fill" for the final drive. After many failures, BMW made a couple changes such as reducing the amount of fluid from 220 to 180ml and having FD fluid changes at 12k miles. I didn't own my '06 RT until 2012 so by then the changes had been made and manuals updated. Problem is how many bikes racked up serious miles without any fluid changes in the final drive and if that led to failures eventually.

Now they have thankfully moved the drain plug to the bottom, though you still have to remove the wheel to refill (though my '13 has a vent on the top I have heard I can fill through. May try that next time).

I was wrong

Ibarbee,
I'm not sure if anyone does this on the internet but I was wrong you were right. I was at the best dealership in the world today, Pensacola... And I asked my hero David Peters, master tech about this subject. He basically told me that when he was going through MMI around the time Ursula was created 2005 R1200RT BMW had no service scheduel for the rear drive. He believed it was a communication error between the final drive subcontractor and BMW corporate, but yeah, initially, it was forever oil, followed by change after break in, followed by every 12000 miles (my owners manual indicates a 12000 mile service; just assumed this was in the maintenance scheduel that pertained to the rear drive that the Owners manual didn't detail) changed from one oil to another and 220ml to 180ml.... etc. So... up until the time I bought my '05 RT in '08 most of this had been worked out, and literature reflected an oil change flush.
It never occurred to me that the greatest engineers in the world would advocate never changing oil on a closed splash lube gear system, but alas, I was wrong.
Oh, also my apologies to the OP as I came off the top rope passive aggressive. I guess BMW really did drop the ball between 05 and I'd say about 08-09 time frame. Good is I think they have ironed out proper maintenance on the component now.