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Only Found 7 out of 100,000s 310 Engines Produced: G310 Engine Failures (Query Closed)

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Yes, this about just the 310 series. Sorry for any confusion. This is the only place I've posted this that wasn't a 310 specific forum.
 
Paul and Voni had two G310 engine failures.
I don't remember if it was a valve problem.
I don't know if each bike had a engine failure or one bike had two failures.
 
While it’s possible to build a small engine that will run 100,000 miles at nearly full throttle without grenading (example=250cc Honda Helix), I’m not convinced TVS has that manufacturing capability. It’s still a nice bike, though, and donor replacement engines are readily available for around $1K on eBay.

Years ago I toured on a Honda CB360. The plan then was, if it blew up, I’d have a used engine shipped to me and simply replace it on the road. I never had to do that and my guess is most that tour on 310’s won’t ever have to do that either.
 
A Tale of Two 310 Gelände-Strasse

I have spoken about this before.

I had a 2019 310 GS that lost function in the lower end with a little over 25,000 miles on the clock. I was on my way back from Tennessee at brisk highway speeds - 75 and a little above. Rolled into a small community making expensive noises and spitting oil from the counter shaft area. With the clutch in the engine revved just fine. I called road service and BMW replaced the engine under warranty. This bike had taken me as far south as Key West from Northern Michigan and was ridden off road to places it did not deserve to be.

I traded up to a 2022, taking the many farkles off the 2019. The 2022 enabled me to start the clock on another three years of warranty and road service. I believe the warranty and road service is of great value and I plan on using as much of that as possible (36,000 miles) within the three year period. At the end of that time I will make a decision to buy additional coverage, take my chances or move on to something with a new warranty. If I have a problem I will ring up the road service people and send it to get fixed. Valves were never my problem. I have 7,340 miles on the 22 so I can say that I have over 32k of riding between the two models with no valve issues.

I like the platform for one up riding and can't wait until the weather up here improves. Sadly, I have some ground to make up on my miles.


Wayne Koppa
Grayling, MI
371,449
 
Paul and Voni had two G310 engine failures.
I don't remember if it was a valve problem.
I don't know if each bike had a engine failure or one bike had two failures.

Three. One on the Red one. Two on the Black one. And the red one is faster.
 
I have spoken about this before.

I had a 2019 310 GS that lost function in the lower end with a little over 25,000 miles on the clock. I was on my way back from Tennessee at brisk highway speeds - 75 and a little above. Rolled into a small community making expensive noises and spitting oil from the counter shaft area. With the clutch in the engine revved just fine. I called road service and BMW replaced the engine under warranty. This bike had taken me as far south as Key West from Northern Michigan and was ridden off road to places it did not deserve to be.

I traded up to a 2022, taking the many farkles off the 2019. The 2022 enabled me to start the clock on another three years of warranty and road service. I believe the warranty and road service is of great value and I plan on using as much of that as possible (36,000 miles) within the three year period. At the end of that time I will make a decision to buy additional coverage, take my chances or move on to something with a new warranty. If I have a problem I will ring up the road service people and send it to get fixed. Valves were never my problem. I have 7,340 miles on the 22 so I can say that I have over 32k of riding between the two models with no valve issues.

I like the platform for one up riding and can't wait until the weather up here improves. Sadly, I have some ground to make up on my miles.

Wayne Koppa
Grayling, MI
371,449

Thanks, Wayne; this ups the count to five catastrophic failures: Three valves; one crankshaft; and one counter shaft area.
 
Three. One on the Red one. Two on the Black one. And the red one is faster.

Thanks, Paul. Your three are already included in the current count of five catastrophic failures: Three valves; one crankshaft; and one counter shaft area.
 
My earlier thread post is being copied to ADV Rider so I thought it would be appropriate to post my response for context.

Reported on the BMW Thumper Forum by Wayne Koppa, Grayling, MI: I had a 2019 310 GS that lost function in the lower end with a little over 25,000 miles on the clock. I was on my way back from Tennessee at brisk highway speeds - 75 and a little above. Rolled into a small community making expensive noises and spitting oil from the counter shaft area. With the clutch in the engine revved just fine. I called road service and BMW replaced the engine under warranty. This bike had taken me as far south as Key West from Northern Michigan and was ridden off road to places it did not deserve to be. I traded up to a 2022, taking the many farkles off the 2019. The 2022 enabled me to start the clock on another three years of warranty and road service. I believe the warranty and road service is of great value and I plan on using as much of that as possible (36,000 miles) within the three year period. At the end of that time I will make a decision to buy additional coverage, take my chances or move on to something with a new warranty. If I have a problem I will ring up the road service people and send it to get fixed. Valves were never my problem. I have 7,340 miles on the 22 so I can say that I have over 32k of riding between the two models with no valve issues.

This makes five catastrophic failures: Three valves; one crankshaft; and one counter shaft area.

The above mentioned Wayne Koppa (thanks Jerry G.) is happy with his 310 and takes his hat off to anyone flogging off a 1k day. You can do it on a 310 without riding it into the ground - if you don't stop at all the Tim Hortons on the way. I wish the GS handled off road like my KLX 300 and I wish my KLX 300 had the horsepower of my GS. A few years ago I did Prudoe to Key West on a 650 GS in 175 hours and I think I could do that on the 310. If I could get all the planets in line I would give it a try but its expensive and long (21 days up there, down there, back home) and you don't want the locks to be changed when you get home. A long time ago a guy by the name of Dick Mann won the Daytona 200 on a Honda over road racing hot shots hired by Honda that had run their bikes into the ground. The 310 is a good bike. My problem with the earlier model may be a model problem or an anomaly. Time will tell. I think you need to decide, if when your riding your 310, if your a factory hot shot or Dick Mann.



Wayne Koppa
Grayling, MI
#71,449
 
My earlier thread post is being copied to ADV Rider so I thought it would be appropriate to post my response for context.

Reported on the BMW Thumper Forum by Wayne Koppa, Grayling, MI: I had a 2019 310 GS that lost function in the lower end with a little over 25,000 miles on the clock. I was on my way back from Tennessee at brisk highway speeds - 75 and a little above. Rolled into a small community making expensive noises and spitting oil from the counter shaft area. With the clutch in the engine revved just fine. I called road service and BMW replaced the engine under warranty. This bike had taken me as far south as Key West from Northern Michigan and was ridden off road to places it did not deserve to be. I traded up to a 2022, taking the many farkles off the 2019. The 2022 enabled me to start the clock on another three years of warranty and road service. I believe the warranty and road service is of great value and I plan on using as much of that as possible (36,000 miles) within the three year period. At the end of that time I will make a decision to buy additional coverage, take my chances or move on to something with a new warranty. If I have a problem I will ring up the road service people and send it to get fixed. Valves were never my problem. I have 7,340 miles on the 22 so I can say that I have over 32k of riding between the two models with no valve issues.

This makes five catastrophic failures: Three valves; one crankshaft; and one counter shaft area.

The above mentioned Wayne Koppa (thanks Jerry G.) is happy with his 310 and takes his hat off to anyone flogging off a 1k day. You can do it on a 310 without riding it into the ground - if you don't stop at all the Tim Hortons on the way. I wish the GS handled off road like my KLX 300 and I wish my KLX 300 had the horsepower of my GS. A few years ago I did Prudoe to Key West on a 650 GS in 175 hours and I think I could do that on the 310. If I could get all the planets in line I would give it a try but its expensive and long (21 days up there, down there, back home) and you don't want the locks to be changed when you get home. A long time ago a guy by the name of Dick Mann won the Daytona 200 on a Honda over road racing hot shots hired by Honda that had run their bikes into the ground. The 310 is a good bike. My problem with the earlier model may be a model problem or an anomaly. Time will tell. I think you need to decide, if when your riding your 310, if your a factory hot shot or Dick Mann.

Wayne Koppa
Grayling, MI
#71,449

Thanks, Wayne, for the valuable additional info.
 
From what I read in the link, the 310 should not be ridden at near top end for hours at a time. I wouldn't ride any motor for hours at or near it's top rpm/speed range.

It's a motor I was looking at for awhile along with the RE Himalayan. I'll keep looking.
 
From Peter Krenn, Rock Hill SC post on g310rforum.com:

I just had catastrophic engine failure on my 2019 310 GS with around 10K on it, ironically I was taking it to my local BMW dealer to have the valve clearance checked, going down the interstate about 70 MPH and the engine just quit. I was only a few miles from the dealer in Charlotte, so he sends his truck to pick me up, after a diagnosis he said I had major engine failure and he was going to talk to BMW about it, today he called and said they started to work on the engine and a valve had gone into the cylinder. Two months out of warranty, I'm 76, I enjoyed the bike, and I don't hot rod it, I do enjoy riding in somewhat of a spirited manner, but nothing out of the way, I have been riding for over forty years, so I know what I'm doing and not to abuse a bike.

From JerryG: This makes six confirmed 310 engine failures: four valves, one crankshaft, and one countershaft.
 
Reasonable expectations

The 310 is a great bike but it’s probably important to recognize it is built to a certain price point. In India, the TVS 310 Apache (essentially the same bike with sport bike plastics) RETAILS for about $3,200 USD. In contrast, a Honda CRF300 Rally retails for nearly twice that in Thailand, where it is made.

So, one can assume BMWs margin on US 310 sales is probably very healthy and it allows them to provide good warranty support, which is a good thing. I just don’t think it’s reasonable to expect a 310 to be as trouble free as a Honda. A few are going to fail.
 
From Peter Krenn, Rock Hill SC post on g310rforum.com:

I just had catastrophic engine failure on my 2019 310 GS with around 10K on it, ironically I was taking it to my local BMW dealer to have the valve clearance checked, going down the interstate about 70 MPH and the engine just quit. I was only a few miles from the dealer in Charlotte, so he sends his truck to pick me up, after a diagnosis he said I had major engine failure and he was going to talk to BMW about it, today he called and said they started to work on the engine and a valve had gone into the cylinder. Two months out of warranty, I'm 76, I enjoyed the bike, and I don't hot rod it, I do enjoy riding in somewhat of a spirited manner, but nothing out of the way, I have been riding for over forty years, so I know what I'm doing and not to abuse a bike.

From JerryG: This makes six confirmed 310 engine failures: four valves, one crankshaft, and one countershaft.
 
Circling back to close this out. Between here and a similar thread I had on www.g310rforum.com (which has G310GS sub forum), only seven confirmed engine failures have been reported. This is out of hundreds of thousands of the 310 engines among the 310GS, 310R, and the TVS Apache. By that result, engine failures seem to be an extreme rare event.

In the meantime, I kept riding my 2022 G310GS and I'm not babying it. I now have 24,686 miles on it. This included a 2022 trip from NC to the BMW National Rally in Missouri to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, via the NEBDR and back to NC; a 2023 trip from NC that included the MABDR, the PABDR-X, the Atlantic Spur of the Trans America Trail (TAT) from the Appalachia Mountains to Cape Hatteras, NC, and the BMW National Rally at Richmond, VA; and a second 2023 trip on the TAT from Hot Springs, NC, to Port Orford, OR, to La Crescent, MN, with the BHBDR-X added along the way and a fun curvy road route back to NC. I had Eurosport in Mills River, NC, (formerly in Asheville) do the 24K service and they found nothing to suggest I can't keep going.

For 2024, I'm tired of the great plains, so I'm going to cheat by trailering the bike to start from either my friend's house in Colorado Springs, CO, or my cousin's house in Prescott City, AZ. From one of those two starts, I'm going to the Redmond, OR, BMW National Rally via the Continental Divide Trail and/or as many BDRs as I can fit in. After that, I may go further if there's a decent weather window for Alaska or I'll do more BDRs as I make my way back.

Keep having fun. I sure am.
JerryG

Leaving home on the TAT trip from NC to OR to MN:
Start from Home.jpg

Cape Hatteras end of the TAT Atlantic Spur:
Cape Hateras.jpg

A few miles from Wyoming Mountain in the Wyoming Range in, you guessed it, Wyoming:
G310GS in Wild Flower Valley.jpg

TAT's end at Port Orford, OR:
Port Orford Beach.jpg

Cement Ridge Lookout on the Black Hills BDR-X (my G310GS is bit right of the latrine):
Blk Hills Cement Ridge Lookout Cropped.jpg
 
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