final drive oil change on 09

I was unable to find in owners manual any info on changing fd oil, sure don't make owners manuals like they used to.

My Haynes manual reads initial oil change at 600 miles and no further changes necessary.
Great instructions in this forum in the technical section though.

Still have a couple of questions.
How often should the fd oil be changed if you don't believe in the no change recomendation?

On the thread for an 09 oil recommended is Castrol SAF-XO but I noticed on a thread for an earlier model a picture of BMW 75w90.

Is BMW 75w90 ok in an 09?
I see that in the Haynes GL5 Sae90 or the Castrol SAF_XO are recommended.

Here;

75/90 synthetic and every rear tire change, I go through mine, oil change too. '07 GSA here. Thats about 10000m or less on miles. FD Splines too get lubed at my tire changes, using Moly60. Same here, they used to say no oil service required and it changed to most of us doing it as regular service. Randy

dpmonk said:

My Haynes manual reads initial oil change at 600 miles and no further changes necessary.
Great instructions in this forum in the technical section though.

Click to expand...

BMW changed the recommendation from never, to once at 600, to every 12K. Castrol SAF-XO is not common in the US. BMW-NA was recommending their 75W-90 Super Synth. I assume that hasn't changed. Some dealers incorrectly recommend 75W-140.

180cc of a 75W-90 synthetic meets the spec. If you happen to buy the expensive BMW labelled stuff remember to tell yourself that the bottle will last you 60K miles worth of FD oil changes so it's not really that expensive. Thats what I did.

Since I am a paranoiac I like to change it when I want to know what it looks like in there.
Maybe every oil change, or every other. I'm not sure what I have so far. But I want to keep a close eye on it to avoid a problem on the road.
dc

And also, I very much like the RepROM.

thanks for the help

leaving on a 3500 mile ride on monday, have 2 qts of bmw syn 75w90 on shelf.
will change out tomorrow.

I change mine at every rear tire change, like said above that works out to about 10-12k. You have do remove the rear wheel anyway to get to the fill plug so why not.

I use Mobil 1 75w-90, it meets the spec, is less expensive and available locally.

next dumb question

the $7.00 a piece o-rings, is it possible to buy at parts store or are they a specialty item? Not trying to be cheeep, but nearest dealer 100 miles away and don't have time to mail order some in time for trip.

I always check the existing O-rings for damage/cracking. If they look and feel OK I'll re-use them. Unlike a crush-ring they do not necessarily permanently deform with use. I have spares on hand just-in-case, but rarely have I had to use them.

ORings;

Never changed 'em in 82000 miles. I used to change my KLT1200 FD oil a lot more and still lost two FDs, so it don't matter how much you think youre doing good! If ya got lucky enough to win the FD lottery, bad news just strikes one day, no matter what oil. Randy

Did mine yesterday - about 16,000 miles since the last change. I drained the drive into a clean aluminum baking pan and once again the oil looked PERFECT. No discoloration, no particulate matter, no funny smells.

BMW pulled 12,000 miles out of their butt IMHO.. I would easily feel safe doing it at 24,000 mile intervals, but that's me - not necessarily you. I'm currently at 52,000+ miles on the bike.

The first change at 36,000 miles (which was about when BMW changed it from "Lifetime") - the oil looked perfect then also. FWIW - it had been changed by the dealer at the 600 mile service (and it's always had the BMW 75W-90 synthetic in it.)

It did give me a chance to check the grease on the splines, and check the rear universal joint (since I've heard of a few of these giving up the ghost.) There was PLENTY of grease still in the splines (a mix of Honda Moly/60 and Wurth 3000), and the universal felt perfect. I figure I'll never need a driveshaft since I bought one off a wreck about a week ago (too good a price to pass up..) which envokes Eilenberger's Law of Parts: You'll never need the part you have..

Applying your law, Don, to a different field of endeavor..... You should get a Viagra prescription right away.

You should be able to procure Castrol SAF-XO from your local BMW car dealership in bulk by bringing in your own clean container for a fraction of what the bottled stuff costs. I got a three liters recently (one for each differential on an E83 X3 and another for the 09R1200RT). Cost was just over $20/liter. That's a pretty competitive price with the alternative fluids.

If your really concerned about your final drive health, buy yourself a DIMPLE magnetic drain plug (also for tranny and engine) like pervious writers every rear tire service change it and check plug for metal with rear wheel off it's a 15 minute project

65K miles on mine - riding to Alaska next month

I change mine every tire change, approx 10~12k miles as others said.
I always use 200 ml 75W90 BMW synthetic gear oil (after reading the bulletins on reducing to 180 ml from RepROm DVD spec'd 0.22l - and deciding to go in between so as to avoid overfill and under fill) back then, when I asked, dealer did not hear about the bulletin and were recommending 220 ml, so I figured 200 is a good safe amount that will not build pressure nor be too dry for the FD internals.
The only time it came out with black flakes was when I changed it at 12,000 after supposedly it had been done at the dealer's 600 miles service. All subsequent drains the oil came out crystal clear same as it went in. There is a magnet on the filler plug and that usually has minimal very fine "dust" attached.

Now, I hope am not incorrectly hijacking this thread, but I am quite a bit concerned leaving on my 12,000 miles trip since am actually hearing apparently a bearing noise when spinning the rear wheel on center stand with brake pads pushed away from the rotor. The noise is not loud, i't kind of like a rub-rub-rub but is pulsating faster when wheel speed increases (kind of like a steam locomotive) Also happens while riding regardless if clutch is in or out. There is no discernible play of the wheel at 3/9 O'clock (horizontal) and same amount of play at 12 O'clock (vertical ) as it was new. Not sure it may be normal or not or this may indicate shaft or transmission issue or am just being paranoid I'd love to get some input and advice.
I have a video with sound the noise can be heard when spinning the wheel http://youtu.be/6gi_dkG5TXc

Best,
Victor

As the previous poster said, the final drive plugs are already magnetic on the newer bikes. Check yours when you change the fluid and you might save yourself the expense of the DIMPLE. Or, get one anyway and consider it an upgrade.

changed fd oil today

since I already had bmw Syn 75-90 and if the worse happened I could run to dealer for new o ring I changed today. Oil wasn't pretty and clear, a little muddy looking but not too much sludge in drain plug and couldn't see any metalic looking shavings. Oil looked kinda purple and think they used the Castrol at the 600 mile service. Guess I am a little paranoid but just couldn't stand going on a long trip that would exceed the 12k interval by a few hundred miles and now I saw what the drained oil looked like after almost 9k miles.

Also used the BMW 15w50 syn and it seems the engine was about 1 bar lower on temp gauge than normal with conventional oil.

Many thanks to Semper_Fi (honey badger / moderator) for the excelent tech articles and to the others who offered help. As ususal the help on the forum in many ways is better the Haynes.

My FD bearings are toast

To follow up on my earlier post, at 65000 miles, good thing I noticed this before Alaska trip next month:

http://youtu.be/zO_pY2stmQg

The bearings failure (at least the main one) have nothing to do with oil changes, as the oil does not lubricate there apparently, bearing is just factory greased.
Now I need to rebuild the final drive hopefully will be able to persuade a dealer as they are telling me are booked next two weeks. I will try and see if I can bring the FD to them to have it rebuilt.

dpmonk said:

.......Many thanks to Semper_Fi (honey badger / moderator) for the excelent tech articles and to the others who offered help. As ususal the help on the forum in many ways is better the Haynes.

Click to expand...

You're welcome - it was my pleasure

Tech Articles

I agree that the tech articles in the library are really good and very helpful. I did all of my 12,000 mile service except the valve adjustments using the instruction offered there along with a copy of Jim Von Baden's DVD. Really great stuff, thanks so much for taking time to create it and post it for our benefit.

Mine did too!

FD bearing in GSA1200'07 was just replaced. Warranty picked it up at 4+ years now, but I did the 7 year plan. My rear shock failed too, leaking oil all over the FD and I figured immediately FD? BMW Dealer guy said FD bearing was ever so slightly wiggly, so he changed it out. No wiggly is norm. I bought new shocks, Ohlin's. 80000m+ now and this occured only 3 months ago. Yep, sealed bearing too so no oil goes to bearing. Randy