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R1150RT transmission/clutch failure

L

LESLIR

Guest
My 2004 R1150RT (31,000 miles) has had no problems until it abruptly lost its clutch or gears this past week. No advance indication. Loud whining noise and loss of any ability to engage the engine. Anyone else have a similar experience?
 
moved over here to give it an audience with the oilhead folks.
 
How did it happen, what where you doing when it happened, what is it doing now, will it go in gear but nothing engages? Hard to say till I know more but possible to be clutch splines or U-joint or could be something totally different. Give us a bit more on whats up with it.
 
It happened in heavy rain, riding two up on twisty roads mainly in 2nd and 3rd gear. The engine kept on running, but the noise happens when the clutch is engaged. Engaging the clutch gives no drive power. Same problem no matter what gear is selected.

It is now awaiting dealer service time with a guess of clutch spline or gearbox damage, maybe more. Just wondering if this is a chronic RT problem and if after it is fixed, it is not likely to reoccur. Hoping for a quick fix, since a week-long road trip is planned for next week.
 
LESLIR said:
My 2004 R1150RT (31,000 miles) has had no problems until it abruptly lost its clutch or gears this past week. No advance indication. Loud whining noise and loss of any ability to engage the engine. Anyone else have a similar experience?
Click to expand...

Run over to the bmwsporttouring.com forum and do some searching. It is not an uncommon failure.
http://bmwsporttouring.com/ubbthrea...s=+Spline++Fail&topic=&Search=true#Post651635
Some bikes with a misalignment problem eat clutch hubs and transmission input shafts every 29-30K like clockwork. Others go for a hundred thousand miles without a problem. Just depends on how well aligned the input shaft is to the center of the cranksaft.
Some folks have had the entire repair paid for my BMW, others had to pay the Full amount themselves. Good luck! With your mileage, it should be covered fully under warranty.
 
Last edited:
What Mick said.

Almost certainly the splines on the transmission input shaft and clutch hub have worn and stripped. The repair involves replacing the clutch disk and the transmission input shaft. Such a disconnect could be a broken driveshaft but they usually involve large amounts of banging and clanking at the back of the bike.

31,000 miles is pretty low for a clutch hub failure. BMW doesn't schedule this maintenance and I've typically been comfortable with about a 40,000 miles cleaning and regreasing interval. I would suspect either very poor initial lubrication, too much time parked in salt air, or something misaligned. Misalignment was a problem on some 2 valve K bikes - mostly K75s. It would be a big problem on an RxxRT because the misalignment would have to be either in the engine cases themselves or in the transmission case. Hope that is not the case.

Paul Glaves
 
Thanks Paul and Mick,

Should hear today what the dealer finds.
 
I'm on another list where a guy with the SAME BIKE at the SAME MILEAGE had the same failure. What is going on with the 2004 bikes?
 
jdiaz said:
I'm on another list where a guy with the SAME BIKE at the SAME MILEAGE had the same failure. What is going on with the 2004 bikes?
Click to expand...

A guy here in Tucson just had BMW buy him a new Transmission, New Clutch and pressure plates for his 2001. He had a failure at 25K miles and BMW picked up that repair. 10K miles later at 35K, same exact failure, clutch hub eaten away and the transmission input shaft had the characteristic 'barrel-shaped' wear pattern. This is NOT a lubrication issue! :nyah
 
The dealer opened up the gear box. Paul and Mick nailed it. It was the clutch spline and the input spline to the transmission. Long repair prognosis, so I traded it in on a new '06 RT. They gave me full value. Hope the new one is immune. Off to Tennessee from Vermont. Thanks for the help, all.
 
The mechanic thought it was likely an improperly lubed part when assembled. The gear spline was stripped. Not sure why it happened so abruptly. But new '06 I picked up last week is shifting smoothly. 3K on it already and a smile on my face.
 
My 02 RT (31,000 Miles) has never had a clutch spline lube service yet, but I'm thinking about it...

Thank goodness I have my 05 FJR as a backup
:usa :bikes
 
Late seventies airheads had a corrosion problem with the input splines. The cure was lubrication. They did not fail without warning. Hard sticky shifts, and bad clutch engagement preceded a "failure". The oilheads with failing input splines have no symptoms, just a sudden failure?
robert :hungover
 
I agree with the assessment that this is not a lubrication issue. Must be alignment or metallurgy.

This is the kind of news that has me re-considering getting an oilhead, or any other "modern" BMW. Of course, we only hear bad news, but nevertheless, on a bike this expensive, we should not be hearing about major component failures with relatively few miles of use.

I wonder what kind of troubles other makes are having. I have not researched any other makes to any extent because there are not very many bikes out there that I want.
 
Mike,
ALL of the R1100 bikes can have the failure but a very small percentage actually fail. I think there was a period in 2000 where a lot of transmission cases were machined incorrectly but that is just my opinion. Some bikes NEVER see the problem.
This is very similar to the K-Bike failures from the late 80's to mid 90's. Some of the intermediate housings were similarily machined incorrectly. Input shafts and clutch hubs would last about 25K miles there too. The only fix was a new housing. BMW tried to explain it away by saying the shipping process 'bent' the housing or the rider 'abused' the bike and bent the housing. Yeh, right. :banghead :banghead
 
transmission failure

I spoke with my specialist about it, and he has never seen one, so hopefully it's rare.

Rinty
 
Thanks Mick,

Since I am actively looking for a new bike (either an oilhead or brand x) this is of interest to me. I won't buy a new BMW again so looking for the foibles of the earlier models is something I want to keep abreast of.
 
This thread is not making my day.

I started having trouble downshifting my '00 R1100RT last fall at 22k miles. I had an authorized dealer look at it over the winter. They lubed the splines and put it back together. They said the splines were dry, very dry.

Before I took it in for 24k service I started having downshifting problems again. The previous dealer is gone, I took it to a trusted independent with BMW trained tech. They found evidence of impending bearing failure when they drained the trans. I authorized new bearings throughout the trans.

Now I'm wondering how long this repair will last. Ack! :sick

Bob
 
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