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fuel strip on GS? '09

dpmonk

P Monk
My 09 GS has 2600 miles on it. The second fuel strip just died last night. First time I ran out of gas due to it not showing empty, (partly my fault).

Last night was working fine until warning light came on showing 51 miles until empty, the gauge went to zero.

Does anyone ever get a strip that really will last more t han a thousand miles?
 
I don't think it ethanol related. My ST went through 3 or 4. One quit working as I was pulling out of the dealership parking lot....
My last one has been there for a few months and is working fine. (kiss of death, now watch it quit my next ride)
 
It's hard to show the ethanol theory being valid since the strips are also failing in Europe and Canada (where ethanol isn't polluting the fuel supply..)
 
My bike has a fuel gauge but I still go by the trip odometer. Even before fuel injection, I think I only had a bike go on reserve once.

My wife takes the opposite approach, she'll drive her car for days with the low fuel warning light on.
 
'09 GS - Lost my first one at 3200 mi. 4100 now and the second one is starting to act flaky, too. And the worst part of it for me is that the dealer is a 220 mile (boring) round trip...
 
I'm on my third. The dealer said BMW won't cover the cost of replacement much longer. Anyone else heard this?

Rubber down,
Rich
 
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I'm on my third. The dealer said BMW won't cover the cost of replacement much longer. Anyone else heard this?

Rubber down,
Rich
More "Dealer Blather" (TM-dje).. Unless BMW is changing their parts warranty, they have no choice but to cover the cost of replacement for 2 years from the last replacement. We should start collecting the absurd things dealers try to pass off as facts.. :bolt
 
I am on number 5 (2008) R1200RT with 12000 miles. Number 2 for my F650GS twin (2009) with 4500 miles. It is not the ethanol as they have as many failures in countries that do not have ethanol.

I am now trying to keep the tank full and fill up after every ride just before I park it. Maybe they are just drying out. I will try anything. At my age I do not want to waste anymore time than I have to at the dealers.

Jack
 
BMW required to warranty replacement for 2 Yrs?

I need to read my warranty closely. Has anyone actually had one replaced after bike was out of warranty?

Talked to my dealer about getting strip replaced again and their opinion is that the strips are just bad engineering and that BMW is going back to floats, and that it is impossible to update. Wonder if the 2010 that I didn't buy had the floats?
 
I need to read my warranty closely. Has anyone actually had one replaced after bike was out of warranty?
You won't find that in the owners manual or bike's warranty manual. It is a 2-year PARTS warranty on ALL parts (except wear parts like rotors/brake pads) sold (and installed) by BMW. If they installed it - they warranty the cost of installing the replacement also.
Talked to my dealer about getting strip replaced again and their opinion is that the strips are just bad engineering and that BMW is going back to floats, and that it is impossible to update. Wonder if the 2010 that I didn't buy had the floats?
AFAIK - ALL the '10 hexheads still used the fuel strip. Dunno on the '11 models.
 
I am on number 5 (2008) R1200RT with 12000 miles. Number 2 for my F650GS twin (2009) with 4500 miles. It is not the ethanol as they have as many failures in countries that do not have ethanol.

I am now trying to keep the tank full and fill up after every ride just before I park it. Maybe they are just drying out. I will try anything. At my age I do not want to waste anymore time than I have to at the dealers.

Jack

Maybe Ethanol aggravates the speed of the failure. My '08 RT has 24000 miles on it and I don't think that it has had a failure. (I bought it used with 10000 miles on it)

I only use "real" premium (unless forced to do do otherwise) and I typically let the tank run down until the low fuel light comes on.

Just shooting in the dark here, but...

With 5 failures in 12000 miles I wonder if a module that reads the strip is bad. Maybe back feeding some voltage that fries the strip???

Is it climate related? I live in the midwest so periods of high heat are rare.

I know that there are complaints about the connections that go to the tank being recessed and trapping water. Could that be a problem?

Maybe we should track the details of the failures; location, fuel grade, ethanol (or not), miles at failure, riding in lots of rain or washing the bike too often ;-)

Good luck.
 
Fuel Strippers

At least that could be a happy thought...

Mine died about 2 wks ago on an 07 R12RT. About half my fill ups are with non- ethanol gas thanks to a great little independent gas station near our mt hide away.

I got a price from BMW/ATL thinking that while the brake line recall work was going on would be a good opportunity to "git r dun". But alas and alack. Those dollars can be put to MUCH better use buying lottery tickets, beer, take out sushi, funny foreign motor rags, Cussler/Rollins/Du Brul thrillers, museum tickets to see late period Dali for a second time, 12 personal trainer sessions at my local gym with Mary Ann (aka Dungeon Mistress) a nice sweet new Ortofon MC cartridge for my ancient Rega P-2 (Magnapan Uni-Pivot arm!) taking SWMBO to Chops or Kyma, taking SWMBO to MoogFest in Asheville and on and on.

As for the RT - still a great bike. Maybe I should have gotten a GS but what is a guy to do. Somehow I made it for 37 years using a trip meter as an approximation of how my gas is and I never once ran out. Now at my 40th year in the saddle, back to the old way.

No complaint with BMW/ATL - great dealer, great staff & great Techs. And my RT is the absolute best bike I have ever owned and I've owned quite a few from just about everybody except Harley. There will be none of that nonsense here.
 
Holding my breath..... Every time I fill the tank and ride off I think I've lost my fuel strip. Takes a long time to register that I've filled the tank. But so far my 06RT has 20 thousand miles on it and still tells me (mostly) how much gas I've got left.
 
Holding my breath..... Every time I fill the tank and ride off I think I've lost my fuel strip. Takes a long time to register that I've filled the tank. But so far my 06RT has 20 thousand miles on it and still tells me (mostly) how much gas I've got left.

No need to hold your breath, I just traded in my 2006 RT with 68000 miles with the original still working fuel strip. I expect the same performance from it's 2011RT replacement.
 
GSA'07 here;

At about 60000m now and on number three strip in my tank. About every 20000miles, mine fail. Have any of you actually seen the strip when they replace it? I saw mine and its about as simple a device as you can imagine, shaped to the contours of the internal tank design and is an electrical sensor device throughout its length to read the level of gas! Boy, its simple as engineering gets as I see it, BUT:(. They fail a lot and I have another idea that maybe they are simply "vibrating" to death. They are NOT secured on the far end of the strip and a lot of vibration can occur from gas sloshing around or the road shaking it to death in there? A guess of course, but some time(years) has passed and I wonder IF anybody has a clue yet to the cause, or even working on it at BMW? Randy
 
I have had two strips to fail,under 2000 miles for both.No problems since the last one was replaced.I think it was just a bad part,Now 2 years later the ride just gets better and better.:thumb
 
No problem on my 06

I just traded my 2006 RT on a 2011 last week. I've heard about the fuel strips going bad, but I never had a problem. 67,000 miles. I avoid ethanol most of the time, but some states, like Illinois require it in all gas.
 
Well, I thought I'd weigh in on this subject, too. My first fuel strip went out after 29,000 great miles on my R1200RT '09. The funny thing is that it occurred one week after a service recall on brake lines. Now, the second fuel strip has gone out after about one week of operation. Basically it showed full when I was almost empty and it showed empty (annoying yellow light) when I was full. I positively love my bike and have ridden it to California from Charleston, SC. Yet the emergence of the fuel strip continues to be a bone of contention. I have reverted to using my trip meter to double check on my fuel status.
 
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