Another Brake Line Recall: Any Known Failures?

I got a call from Second Wind BMW/Triumph the other day. There has been another recall on my bike for brake line issues. This is not the one from a few months ago, where the issue was chafing. I read about that one, but was never notified, even though my bike fell within the serial number range. This one is only weeks old, and concerns a fitting/line under the tank splitting, thus leaking out enough fluid that the front brake fails. They don't indicate that it's an instant failure, and one of the things they say is that "If it went unnoticed" there could be a failure. At least so I was told.

Neither Second Wind, nor the service manager at Max's BMW has heard of any failures of this nature so far, and it sounds like keeping an eye on the reservoir would preclude any nasty surprises. I also am told that they consider this one serious enough that, if the bike is in for service for any reason at any BMW dealership, they're going to do it if it isn't done already, and I would have no choice.

Has anyone here ever had or heard of a failure of this nature? If not, I'm rather inclined to wait till it gets in for some other reason, rather than make a special trip and wait in the waiting room for an hour and a half. That may not be for quite a while, as I do all routine maintenance myself, and the bike is an '09 with only 14,000 on it.

This recall cuts across quite a number of models and involves thousands of bikes, so I would think that if there was any real danger someone here would have heard about it.

Had mine in for the recall last weekend, and wasn't informed of yet another recall. AFAIK - the one that was done was lines under the tank.. again. Not flex lines.

dhgeyer said:

I got a call from Second Wind BMW/Triumph the other day. There has been another recall on my bike for brake line issues. This is not the one from a few months ago, where the issue was chafing. I read about that one, but was never notified, even though my bike fell within the serial number range. This one is only weeks old, and concerns a fitting/line under the tank splitting, thus leaking out enough fluid that the front brake fails. They don't indicate that it's an instant failure, and one of the things they say is that "If it went unnoticed" there could be a failure. At least so I was told.

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That sounds like this one,

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/06/29/bmw-recalls-over-15-000-motorcycles/,

with the gist being "THE BRAKE LINES COULD BE UNDER STRAIN. IF THE VIBRATION/STRAIN IS SIGNIFICANT, THE BRAKE LINE COULD SPLIT AND START TO DEVELOP A LEAK". But that would be the older one from June this year??

My '09 was in today for the original brake line recall replacement, which was completed. No mention of any other recall here either.

Just had it done on my 08RT and they flushed the rear reservoir as well, cost me $18.

WOW all 2007 - 2009 bikes. Glad I've got a 2006

Now I'm beginning to wonder if there is only one recall after all. What may be confusing me is that the dealer has waited this long to contact me, the service manager told me that the current recall had only been out for a couple of weeks, and may not have described it precisely accurately. Tomorrow I'll get the recall number, and compare it to the older recall number: NHTSA CAMPAIGN ID Number: 10V276000. That should get it straight one way or the other.

dhgeyer said:

Now I'm beginning to wonder if there is only one recall after all. What may be confusing me is that the dealer has waited this long to contact me...

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Please let us know. FYI: to this day, I never got anything from BMW regarding this recall. I contacted the dealer after reading here about it, they told me my bike was part of the recall, and they gave me an appointment.

hjsbmw said:

Please let us know. FYI: to this day, I never got anything from BMW regarding this recall. I contacted the dealer after reading here about it, they told me my bike was part of the recall, and they gave me an appointment.

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Ditto.. haven't received a thing from BMW yet.

deilenberger said:

Ditto.. haven't received a thing from BMW yet.

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If you're talking about NHTSA Campaign 10V276000 (the first recall in the link in post #3 of this thread), BMW hasn't yet sent notification letters to motorcycle owners.

In their original letter to NHTSA, BMW stated they expected to complete dealer notifications in June 2010 and customer notifications in July. A copy of the dealer notification Service Bulletin is available on the NHTSA web site, as are all documents related to any recall campaign. Federal law requires vehicle manufacturers to notify NHTSA if any schedule slips by more than 2 weeks. I contacted the NHTSA coordinator for this recall, Kelly Schuler, who stated that BMW had not provided any new schedule. After contacting BMW, Schuler informed me that BMW stated they would begin mailing customer letters this month.

I'm not sure why this is so difficult for BMW, but I suspect the company lawyers are involved.

Well, this has been interesting. I looked up the NHTSA Campaign # posted above, and it sounded like the recall on my bike, as described by the service manager who called me from Second Wind. Sort of. Anyway, I went there this afternoon for something else, and asked the service manager (Shelley) if she could confirm that that recall (by the NHTSA number) was the one on my bike. She could not. BMW sent out a different number entirely covering the work to be done, and did not tell the dealers what NHTSA number it related to.

Next I called BMW North America customer service. Useless waste of time as always.

Next I called the NHTSA. He had their number, but not BMW's number.

Then I came back to this thread, and read kthutchinson's post, and tried the NHTSA website. Bingo - got the numbers reconciled. The NHTSA number is 10V276000, as posted above. The BMW number is 0000347400 for all bikes affected, except the R1200R. For the R1200R it may be that number, or it may be 0000347500 if some additional work is required.

So there is only one recall after all for the front brakes that is active at the moment.

I think there are several sources of confusion. The recall was first published in May of 2010. Dealers weren't notified till late August according to Second Wind, although Max's service manager said they've done 20 or so of them so far, so maybe the dealers were told sooner and Shelley was mistaken.

This recall is almost identical to one issued in 2008. It is, I think, the same problem, but the earlier solution wasn't enough (sound familiar?). Following is a quote from one of the documents on the NHTSA website, which is a communication to NHTSA from BMW:

"A similar issue was reported in 2008 and assigned 08V-254 by NHTSA. At that time, our remedy was thought to have fully corrected the problem. However, over the course of time, some non-US field reports were received indicating that the remedy was not sufficient in some cases. Accordingly, analyses were conducted in order to determine the specific problem and develop a further improvement.

"Please note that we first reported this new decision to NHTSA on May 21, 2010 as an amendment to 08V254 but upon discussion with the agency, it became clear that a new Part 573 report was more appropriate."

I also have the answer to my original question that started this thread. There have been no (0) catastrophic brake failures as a result of this, and any difficulty would happen over a period of time. If one keeps any kind of an eye on the front brake fluid reservoir, they will see it coming long before brake performance is affected. So, I'm in no hurry at all to get this done.

As always, thanks to all who responded to my inquiry.

Dave Geyer
Merrimack, NH USA

If one keeps any kind of an eye on the front brake fluid reservoir, they will see it coming long before brake performance is affected. So, I'm in no hurry at all to get this done.

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OK now I'm totally confused.

A leak in the wheel circuit such as a leaking caliper should never be indicated by the master cylinder reservoir on the throttle side of the handlebars as I understand it the depletion of fluid from a caliper as an example would drain from the unit under the tank. I did a wheel and control circuit flush last week or so and overfilled the rear wheel circuit under the tank due to the rear caliper pistons extruding from the housing. When I pushed the pistons back into the caliper the excess fluid came out of a vent tube from the unit under the tank, not the rear master cylinder.

AFIK when you squeeze the handbrake the fluid goes to the unit under the tank and energizes a secondary circuit that applies pressure to the calipers. Two separate systems. Fluid level in the handlebar sight glass is of no consequence in a wheel circuit leak.

2 recalls, yes;

My dealer has shown me the 2 recalls, from BMW. There is in fact two of them. The first brake line recall was in itself a failure line(design) and not quite right and a second recall came very shortly after the first, about a month. I got the second job done on my bike, before the the first one was ever done. This would be a pain, if you had the first one done already, but it is out there for a repeat indeed! Randy PS; Cycle SpecialtiesBMW, Modesto,CA is my dealer involved.

So there were 3 recalls: 1 in 2008 and 2 this year? Or maybe 2 potential fixes to the recent recall.

The failure rate was estimated by BMW to be 1/10 of 1%. At least that's what they're claiming.

The leak, should it occur, is in a line or fixture under the tank - not at the wheel. I believe the description of the problem specifically mentioned that not keeping an eye on the reservoir would be a component of the problem. Have to look at that again to be sure. It also mentioned not noticing the fluid that had leaked out.

According to all sources I found, no notifications have been sent out to owners yet. And no one at BMWNA customer service has any idea when they will be.

Dave Geyer
Merrimack NH USA

So nobody here has seen a failure yet? I have not either and have two RTs that qualify with a total of 40,000kms ridden. Lots of those in stop and go city traffic so the brakes have been used. For my part I am happy for a recall that affects 1/10 of 1% of the bikes when it comes to brakes.

MPMARTY said:

AFIK when you squeeze the handbrake the fluid goes to the unit under the tank and energizes a secondary circuit that applies pressure to the calipers. Two separate systems. Fluid level in the handlebar sight glass is of no consequence in a wheel circuit leak.

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Marty - that is pre-'07 bikes with the whizzy brakes. The EVO-II brakes have single circuits. You flush/bleed an '07 and on just like plain old-fashioned brakes, and any leak will show in the fluid reservoir level dropping.

I agree;

My '07 is a simple brake flush, no extra help beneath the tank. Thank goodness. I never got a recall notice either, in the mail. It would be a good idea to ask your dealer on occasion, for such data on your bike, which they should share quite easily. Randy

Polarbear said:

I never got a recall notice either, in the mail. It would be a good idea to ask your dealer on occasion, for such data on your bike, which they should share quite easily. Randy

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We are going to be notified by mail, or so BMWNA Customer Service assured me. They just don't know when. Nobody has been yet.

One thing I did learn from all this is that the dealers do, or at least are supposed to, check for open recalls whenever a bike comes in for any kind of service. That information is available, by serial number of the bike, to any dealer nationwide. Maybe even worldwide - not as sure about that. Records for any warranty or recall service are kept for each bike in some central database. When Second Wind looked up my bike, they picked up the open recall, and also saw that Max's BMW had replaced my fuel strip under warranty.

Depending on the type of recall, they may be required to make the fix with or without even asking the owner. That is the case with this recall. The recall will never expire, and will never be something I (or whoever owns the bike) will have to pay for.

This happened to me with my Toyota Prius. Because of this "accelerator getting caught under the floormat" foolishness, they cut 1/2" off my gas pedal when it was in for routine service, and only told me about it when I picked the car up. I mention this only as an example of recalls and how they work. Let's not hijack the thread and start talking about Priuses again - OK?

Got my recall letter yesterday.

35675 said:

Got my recall letter yesterday.

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I did also.