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Camhead final drive lube 2012 R1200GS

Now you made me look it up! The dealer where I bought my 12RT did change the final drive fluid at 600 miles. At another dealer where I had my 6,000 mile service done, I asked them for a maintenance schedule. It says its for a 0440- R 1200 RT and they gave it to me on 8/10/12. It says "33 00 501 oil change, rear wheel drive - every two years or 20,000 km". I'm not sure what to make of that, but I'm glad it got changed at 600, and I'm going to do it at 12,000 in another few weeks.
 
I asked them for a maintenance schedule....

And perhaps they gave you A maintenance schedule, not ALL maintenance schedules. In the past BMW had these various schedules

BMW Running-in Check
BMW Service
BMW Service with Annual Inspection
BMW Inspection
BMW Inspection with Annual Inspection
BMW Annual Inspection

I suspect they still have something similar. You need all of them to get the complete picture.
 
BMW service

The one next to the muffler bearing. :whistle

That is right, thare is no steering head bearings on Telelever suspension design and all fasteners - not only ball joints need to be checked at routine service for proper torque, but the cylinder heads on Camheads no longer need a retorque - at any intervals.
 
A&S cycle sells Castrol SAF-XO for $43.00 1 Liter Castrol labeled part # 33117695240

A friend just picked up a 1 Liter container of BMW labeled final drive gear oil C-SAF-XO SAE 75W-90 for $25.00 part #07512293972

That's quite a price difference . Just curious, could these two oils be somehow different?
 
Don E..

I picked up a quart of the LAND ROVER LRN7591 final drive lube (75-90w) which is supposed the be Castrol SAF-XO rebadged for LR. Parts guy also told me all their oils at LR are Castrol. Just cracked open the quart, put my pinky in it and dropped the oil onto a clean surface, it is perfectly clear, no color whatsoever. Land Rover Dealer sold it to me for $23 bux.

Phil
 
Don E..

I picked up a quart of the LAND ROVER LRN7591 final drive lube (75-90w) which is supposed the be Castrol SAF-XO rebadged for LR. Parts guy also told me all their oils at LR are Castrol. Just cracked open the quart, put my pinky in it and dropped the oil onto a clean surface, it is perfectly clear, no color whatsoever. Land Rover Dealer sold it to me for $23 bux.

Phil

I thought the BMW stuff was red?
 
A&S cycle sells Castrol SAF-XO for $43.00 1 Liter Castrol labeled part # 33117695240

A friend just picked up a 1 Liter container of BMW labeled final drive gear oil C-SAF-XO SAE 75W-90 for $25.00 part #07512293972

That's quite a price difference . Just curious, could these two oils be somehow different?

Doubt any difference. Just A&S making a bit of extra profit. I remember seeing an $895 set up fee on the price sheet for a new 1200GS while visiting.
 
I thought the BMW stuff was red?

Yeah, I've drained my final after a dealer service and it was red... but according to DirtRider (he's THE GURU.. find him on BMWST forum) he says that it is one and the same...(The LandRover 7591 FD oil) I wonder if the red is just some dye?
 
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Trying to bring some clarity to the thread, which has drifted off into rear-drive-oils:

1. BMW Spec'd SAF-XO which was unobtainium in the US.

2. So BMW then spec'd their GL5 75W-90 synthetic oil - which is red (probably a dye) in color. Almost everyone got this at the first rear-drive oil change (if you were lucky and the dealer did it at the 600 mile service.)

3. For a while - someone (I think it WAS BMW from talking to my parts guys) offered the official Castrol SAF-XO oil in Castrol packaging. It was expensive - around $45/liter. That showed up at my dealer and talking to the parts guys - they never sold ANY of it retail due to the price. They may have used it up on service bikes.. dunno, but it's now gone. That was BMW's MSRP on it.

4. Suddenly! Appearing on the oil shelves of my dealer was a BMW branded oil called C-SAF-XO 75W-90 GL5 oil. Given the "C" in the branding - my WAG - it's the same oil they were selling for $45/liter - but it was now priced a reasonable $25/liter. I bought some. I haven't opened mine. So I dunno what color it is.

5. People have bought the Castrol SAF-XO oil from Land Rover dealers - and report it cost about what #4 above cost, and was an amber color (no dye.) FWIW - Porsche spec's the same oil in differentials for my Cayenne - but everyone in Cayenne world uses Mobil-1 gear oil, with great success.

My conclusions: (Some* stolen right from Paul Glaves)

1. Some oil is better then no oil.*
2. Either the original spec'd oil (the SAF-XO stuff) is good, but the BMW 75W-90 GL5 is likely equally as good.
3. Clean oil is better then dirty oil.*
4. We obsess too much over magic elixers - but there isn't any real harm to it except for the shelf of "old oils" in my garage, ones formerly thought to be the magic potion, then cast aside in the glow of a new Interwebz discovery.

Anyone want a partly used bottle of BMW GL5-Synthetic? I'll make you a deal.. :whistle
 
Various...first BMW has a history of changing the price of oils dramatically from one quarter to the next, second, I don't think there is any thing in the dealer agreement about setup charges. They do approve labor hourly charges, but that probably has more to do with the warranty labor charges which are a reduced percentage of the customer charge. A&S in my experience has often been a little higher on some items.
 
Yeah, I've drained my final after a dealer service and it was red... but according to DirtRider (he's THE GURU.. find him on BMWST forum) he says that it is one and the same...(The LandRover 7591 FD oil) I wonder if the red is just some dye?

I visit that forum as well. I imagine it is dye. It probably is an identifier of sorts. I use Mobil 1. YMMV. :)
 
IMHO - red just means it's red. The BMW 75W-140 GL5 gear oil is also red tinted. I somehow doubt VERY much that the color red makes any functional difference in the oil. :whistle

See #4 above.:drink
 
Just drained drained my GS at 380 miles on the odometer. This is what came out. With the amount that didn't make it into the container it would have been 200cc . Have they changed the amount on the camheads? I see they added a breather. Or is 20cc over close enough with a breather?

20130308_141827.jpg

20130308_141852.jpg
 
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