Final Drive failure 2008 R1200RT

[HeiniK]

The final drive on my husband's R12RT failed in the middle of the Cabot Trail, NS on Sat. BMW arranged transport to the nearest dealer, Moncton, but at first glance, BMW Canada had to backorder the part from Germany. Fortunately BMW USA came to the rescue and the parts have shipped from the USA. A week later, the bike will be operational. My husband is livid as he traded in a Honda ST1300 for an unreliable R12RT. I hope BMW solves the problem on final drive failures. Regardless of the help from BMW, failure in a remore setting cause tremendous disruption.

 

[hlothery]

According to some, this problem is already solved. My worries about it not being so led me to a Goldwing. Looks like the problem still exists. I had the seal go out on my 05 just before I sold it......helped me make my decision. Hope your husband makes it home OK, and sorry about the messed up trip.

 

[cookie]

How many miles does the bike have and do you know the maintenance history, who did the work etc.? Just curious. What a nightmare to be stranded with no mode of transportation. Hope he is well.
Jeff

 

[racer7]

Be interesting to hear the reason for this one as the 08 has "all the upgrades" to the FD.
FD failures are pretty rare in the auto industry where diffs are far stronger and I've yet to run into a Honda owner who had one so don't think they're common on them-when I used to own Hondas I never heard anyone eve raise the subject of FD failure.

Bearing?
Seal?
Gear?
????

Safe to assume the bike isn't running a sidecar and isn't high mileage?

 

[chipwalter]

Be interesting to hear the reason for this one as the 08 has "all the upgrades" to the FD.

Ditto the "interesting to hear" part, especially since I have an '08 myself and have been hoping that I dodged the FD failure bullet with this model year RT...and I'm preparing to leave this weekend on a 3.5k/10 day ride.

 

[R80RTJohnny]

The final drive on my husband's R12RT failed in the middle of the Cabot Trail, NS on Sat. BMW arranged transport to the nearest dealer, Moncton, but at first glance, BMW Canada had to backorder the part from Germany. Fortunately BMW USA came to the rescue and the parts have shipped from the USA. A week later, the bike will be operational. My husband is livid as he traded in a Honda ST1300 for an unreliable R12RT. I hope BMW solves the problem on final drive failures. Regardless of the help from BMW, failure in a remore setting cause tremendous disruption.

Hope your tow was not too bad. Our tow truck experienced a flat tire en route to the dealer in Moncton when I experienced EWS failure in Margaree (Cape Breton). 10 hour tow. Friendly tow truck driver though.

Out of curiosity did your husband's bike have the new recommended fluid levels in his final drive?

Thanks

PS: Unless BMW changes it's attitude towards these problems they will become the laughing stock of the motorcycle world. Still saving for when my FD fails me (Yes I've accepted the inevitable).

 

[greenwald]

According to some, this problem is already solved. My worries about it not being so led me to a Goldwing. Looks like the problem still exists. I had the seal go out on my 05 just before I sold it......helped me make my decision. Hope your husband makes it home OK, and sorry about the messed up trip.

Duh. "Problem - what problem?!" (BMW's official line).

Messed up travel plans and precious time off lost - the greater cost of BMW FD failures that are hard to assign a $$ value.

 

[GIZMO]

According to some, this problem is already solved. My worries about it not being so led me to a Goldwing. Looks like the problem still exists. I had the seal go out on my 05 just before I sold it......helped me make my decision. Hope your husband makes it home OK, and sorry about the messed up trip.

Yeah but, the Goldwing has not been without it's issues, for example cracked frames.

 

[WILDPIG]

final drive failure?

isn't that a myth? bmw wont even admit to it the best i can determine.................

 

[hlothery]

Yeah but, the Goldwing has not been without it's issues, for example cracked frames.

Which were rapidly acknowledged by Honda, fixed or replaced under warranty, and then the manufacturing process was corrected to resolve the problem, in a very transparent process. Not a problem after 2006. Compare and contrast........

 

[GIZMO]

Which were rapidly acknowledged by Honda, fixed or replaced under warranty, and then the manufacturing process was corrected to resolve the problem, in a very transparent process. Not a problem after 2006. Compare and contrast........

No question BMW has handled the final drive failures poorly. The point I was making however is, no brand of bike is immune from mechanical failures, after all they are machines built by humans. We tend to read on the internet only those that have failed, while there are many who have had trouble free miles. This does not absolve BMW because clearly there was/is a problem they have been unwilling to acknowledge, at least publicly.

 

[deilenberger]

I'd suggest before damning BMW once again on rear drives - it would be informative to know what failed and what the service history on the bike is.

All bikes have warts - Goldwings are not without them (there was a discussion in another thread on another forum about transmission failures, and the difficulty of replacing the air filter on a Goldy..) Nor are any other bikes. Or cars. Or anything made by man. Stuff breaks. The more complex anything is the more opportunities there are for it to break.

What was good IMHO was the response of BMW to the failure. It appears they transported the bike to the Moncton dealer and then arranged to source a final drive from the US. I suspect if pressed - the OP's husband might be able to get some compensation for living expenses from them also (it's been known to happen.)

While I agree with the OP that "failure in a remote setting cause tremendous disruption." - IMHO that's one of the risks you take going to the remote setting. I'm heading there in a week or so actually.. and one has to accept that something can ALWAYS go wrong (and usually will at the least opportune time and place.)

 

[hlothery]

the difficulty of replacing the air filter on a Goldy..)

Some very practiced mechanics can do this job in about 1.5 hours.........you see that as a problem?

Seriously, though. I realize everyting put together, sooner or later falls apart. Not damning BMW.......just saying that an issue seems to exist. It was rumored to have been fixed, but continues to seem to exist. While I applaud their efforts at fixing things which have broken, I would (as a consumer) appreciate a little transparency about what is being done to prevent them from breaking.

Having said that......I hope the transmission on my Wing continues to stay in 5th gear when I want it to.

 

[alzyck]

Which were rapidly acknowledged by Honda, fixed or replaced under warranty, and then the manufacturing process was corrected to resolve the problem, in a very transparent process. Not a problem after 2006. Compare and contrast........

Used to have a GL1800. Awsome bike with a terrific engine and drive train, but it still has open issues where Honda hasn't responded well.

Honda did acknowledge the frame cracking, but not that quickly. Didn't it take 4 years to get the recall?

It seems to me the FD kind of equivalent issue on GL1800's is the 45 MPH front end wobble. Happens on a small, but still significant number of bikes. Honda refuses to admit it's a problem. Doesn't strand anyone, but many consider it a safety issue. Lot's of after market attempts to fix it including replacing the headset roller bearings with taper bearings from VTX1800's, fork braces, traxxion suspension. Even people bantering about class action lawsuits over it up on GL1800riders.com. While they may not actually do a class action suit, it shows peoples frustration with NA Honda's responsiveness.

Again, the Gold Wing is a great bike (although a bit heavy) , but I don't see NA Honda being any more responsive than BMW NA.

 

[hlothery]

I agree no manufacturer is immune to potential problems, and most will initially stall to gain data prior to admitting a problem. The fact that we are talking about two premier manufacturers who have had issues is worrisome. For the record, my opinions were never intended to slam one vs. the other. I have made my choice, and will live with that. I will hope to never have my travel plans destroyed in such a manner. I have been lucky so far. Hope that continues. I do worry that guys like me ( who was initially so enthusiastic about BMW, only to eventually let worry about FD failure change my mind about my choices) will influence the economics substantially if said manufactures do not start to respond in a more transparent manner. I'm done, now.....thanks for indulging me.

 

[greenwald]

No question BMW has handled the final drive failures poorly. The point I was making however is, no brand of bike is immune from mechanical failures, after all they are machines built by humans. We tend to read on the internet only those that have failed, while there are many who have had trouble free miles. This does not absolve BMW because clearly there was/is a problem they have been unwilling to acknowledge, at least publicly.

Well said.

 

[deilenberger]

I think BMW did admit they had a problem - when the head Motorrad dude discussed it at the Q&A session at last years RA rally. He said it effected less then 1% of the bikes. He said no one has paid for a rear drive yet (and implied no one would.) He did say that it made no sense to recall 100% of the rear drives when more then 99% are running along the road just fine.

If there was a report of injury due to rear drive failure, I suspect the song might be different, but so far - I have heard of no injuries attributable to a rear drive problem.

As I said - all bikes have warts someplace. Just the nature of mechanical things - they break sometimes. Seems BMW has been taking care of customers where the fault doesn't fall on the customer. I dunno what else people expect really.

BTW - this is only the 2nd confirmed rear drive failure I've heard of (and I'm fairly well tuned into the hexhead community) since BMW added the 600 mile oil change, the 12,000 mile change interval, and changed the fluid quantity used in the drives. Undoubtably there have been others - but IMHO it's not an endemic failure as it initially appeared after the one IronButt. It isn't anything that keeps me awake worrying at night.

 

[akbeemer]

BMWs have final drives??? And they break??? Say it isn't so.

 

[alzyck]

I think BMW did admit they had a problem - when the head Motorrad dude discussed it at the Q&A session at last years RA rally. He said it effected less then 1% of the bikes. He said no one has paid for a rear drive yet (and implied no one would.) He did say that it made no sense to recall 100% of the rear drives when more then 99% are running along the road just fine.

I think Kevin Greenwald discussed this on a different final drive thread a while back (sorry it it wasn't you Kevin), but when the BMW dude just "implies" no one is going to have to pay for a failed final drive, it doesn't give an owner much of a warm fuzzy feeling about their investment in a high end bike. It's not a show stopper, but it's not really great either. Wouldn't it give you a lot more confidence if BMW had a formal, written policy that said they'd cover final drive failures on maintained drives for something like 5 years and 100,000 miles rather than having it be something that gets casually discussed at a rally and then passed on through web forums?

 

[haughty]

Wouldn't it give you a lot more confidence if BMW had a formal, written policy that said they'd cover final drive failures on maintained drives for something like 5 years and 100,000 miles rather than having it be something that gets casually discussed at a rally and then passed on through web forums?

THen It would actually mean something.. I am a 4% ... er oops we have heard its really 1% bikes (not final drives?).. all the changes at service including the 600 mile service and it still went belly up at 12K? (04 RT)
ANd when I DID call BMW- I got the ""well.. a weekend is coming up and its a long way to there...we cant come to get it (150 miles away) isn't there some way you could get it to us and we will look at it on Tuesday?""
Yes, NO ONE has ever paid for a final drive failure...I better get that lottery ticket tomorrow then..