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Fuel strip poll

Have you had at least ONE fuel strip fail?


  • Total voters
    835
Vote once

All the once with multiple failures, vote multiple times.
Once for their year model and then again for "multiple failure" part of the poll.

I think you can only vote once.

So, if you had multiple failures and voted in a "year" category you only got to register one failure.

For the multiple failures category the registrant is asked to post how many, model and year.

Hopefully Don has a plan as to how to collate and interpret all the info (year, model, location, etc) scattered throughout the thread.

My guess is the failure rate is about 60%.
 
I think you can only vote once.

So, if you had multiple failures and voted in a "year" category you only got to register one failure.

For the multiple failures category the registrant is asked to post how many, model and year.

Hopefully Don has a plan as to how to collate and interpret all the info (year, model, location, etc) scattered throughout the thread.

My guess is the failure rate is about 60%.

My guess is that the failure rate is higher than 50% also. I asked the Mech/Dealer why I am having what appears to be more failures than others. Mech. said he has seen others at 6 or 7 and I am not the only one????

Mech. said he beleives that periods of sitting ie several weeks without use could contribute. I am a multiple bike owner and sometimes the RT sits for three to four weeks. I do fill up now and have been doing this thinking the strip might dry out but this has proved to be wrong.

If BMW would just release a reason for the strip failures perhaps the owner could do something to prevent this---or is it a below standard vendor furnishing a poor product???? In the begining they said it was the ethanol but found multiple failures in countries that do not use ethonal.

Where are the service memo's or any word from BMW would help. Getting to feel like we"ve been dropped of a cliff never to be heard from again.

Jack
 
My guess is that the failure rate is higher than 50%..........

We certainly should not extrapolate from this poll to the wider HexHead population. The stated goal of this poll is to gather info on the failure rate by year. Okay, but to try to say that the failure rate of fuel strips nationwide on HexHeads is X% based on a sampling such as this is not appropriate. The poll is interesting and indicates there are problems that need to be addressed, but 119 responses from a self selecting pool is certainly not scientific. I'd love to know the true failure rate of fuel strips and final drives. Among all the friends I have that ride HexHeads the failure rate of both items is near zero... also not information that can be used for any instructive purpose.

I'm not trying to poo poo the effort; I was among the first to respond and hope we get many more responses. The survey provides an interesting anecdotal comparison of the failure rate by year but should not be cited as being authoritative.
 
I have to agree entirely with Kevin. There is no easy way to run a really scientific poll on the actual failure rate. That's a usual problem with any Internet poll, people with the problem are usually more likely to open and reply to the poll then people who haven't had the problem, or even worse, never heard of it.

My intent was to try to see if there is any pattern to failures by year, since I couldn't recall ever seeing someone complain about an '05 or '06 failure. I think that information is somewhat revealing, and might be more so if we knew the actual number of bikes made with fuel strips for every year..

Right now the pattern is a very low incidence rate for '05 and '06. Might be less bikes were made with fuel strips in those years, but somehow I rather doubt it (the comments also reinforce that doubt.) To me - it does appear that something happened with the strips starting in '07 model year that causes them to fail more frequently, or something changed in the electronics that drive the strips - causing the strip to fail.

What changed? Dunno. I'm sure BMW has really accurate records (hey - they're German..) but they aren't telling. Even if they're not telling, if the supposition that failures increased starting in '07 is true, that should provide an avenue for troubleshooting or modifying the design to make them more reliable.
 
I think you can only vote once.

So, if you had multiple failures and voted in a "year" category you only got to register one failure.

For the multiple failures category the registrant is asked to post how many, model and year.

Sorry, and this is not for arguing.

There are 2 in 2007 that also voted for multiple failures.
There 3 in 2008 that also voted for multiple failures
There is 1 in 2010 that also voted for multiple failures.

So instead of 6, there were 12 votes.

It's not about getting too pedantic, as long as we are aware of this.
The numbers voted so far are way too small to draw any conclusion at all yet.
So taking 6 out will give you a failure rate so far of just over 51%
 
Had my first strip fail at 19,000 miles in 2009. My second is "failing" now. It never shows the tank less than 3/4 full. And for the record, I use non-ethanol fuel around home and put in ethanol treatment when I'm on the road. I also throw in a bottle of Tecron every 1,000 miles.
 
It's not about getting too pedantic, as long as we are aware of this.
The numbers voted so far are way too small to draw any conclusion at all yet.
So taking 6 out will give you a failure rate so far of just over 51%


No problem. I voted once under "multiple fuel strip failures", didn't check year.

Looks like a total of 130 choices made and only 122 voters.

"Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 122. You have already voted on this poll"
 
I have to agree entirely with Kevin. There is no easy way to run a really scientific poll on the actual failure rate.

Thanks for doing this Don! The info offered has been interesting. Didn't expect anything more than what is reflected in an internet poll.
 
And still the fact remains, BMW hears nothing, tells nothing and see's nothing! After seven failures (2008 RT) my dealers service manager hinted that BMW might not replace the next one. Huh! That's right.

Jack
 
Jack,

Unless your service manager can unilaterally rewrite the warranty terms that are in effect when you had your last strip replaced - BMW is going to pay for the next one. It always amazes me when dealership employees take it upon themselves to come up with crap like this. I somehow think they must enjoy tweaking the customers.

And folks - it is a MULTIPLE CHOICE poll - I hoped I'd made that clear in the explanation in the very first post.

If you have a 2007 R1200xyz and a 2008 R1200xyz - and both had failed fuel strips - you could check both off. If your 2007 R1200xyz had more than one failed fuel strip - you could check off the option for multiple failures.

Unfortunately - due to how Vbulletin sets up polls, there is no option for a branching poll, and there is no option for a user to change their initial vote. So this means the survey will not be entirely accurate especially in regards to the total failures. What it was intended for - and the only intent - was to see the failure rate distribution by model year.

Hope that's clear. I'll go back and look at the post where I explain how the poll works and see if I can make it clearer, but given the tendency of people to vote first and look at the explaination second, I don't think it will do a lot of good.

Right now - it is what it is - and it confirms my impression that the '05 and '06 model years don't experience the number of failures the later years do. Some of that may be due to the number of bikes that were sold in those years - less having fuel strips (the R1200R didn't get released until 2007, so there would be no Roadster numbers counted for '05/'06.)

Thanks for all the input. If I can get production numbers I'll post them here..
 
Jack,

Unless your service manager can unilaterally rewrite the warranty terms that are in effect when you had your last strip replaced - BMW is going to pay for the next one. It always amazes me when dealership employees take it upon themselves to come up with crap like this. I somehow think they must enjoy tweaking the customers.

And folks - it is a MULTIPLE CHOICE poll - I hoped I'd made that clear in the explanation in the very first post.

If you have a 2007 R1200xyz and a 2008 R1200xyz - and both had failed fuel strips - you could check both off. If your 2007 R1200xyz had more than one failed fuel strip - you could check off the option for multiple failures.

Unfortunately - due to how Vbulletin sets up polls, there is no option for a branching poll, and there is no option for a user to change their initial vote. So this means the survey will not be entirely accurate especially in regards to the total failures. What it was intended for - and the only intent - was to see the failure rate distribution by model year.

Hope that's clear. I'll go back and look at the post where I explain how the poll works and see if I can make it clearer, but given the tendency of people to vote first and look at the explaination second, I don't think it will do a lot of good.

Right now - it is what it is - and it confirms my impression that the '05 and '06 model years don't experience the number of failures the later years do. Some of that may be due to the number of bikes that were sold in those years - less having fuel strips (the R1200R didn't get released until 2007, so there would be no Roadster numbers counted for '05/'06.)

Thanks for all the input. If I can get production numbers I'll post them here..

My two year parts warranty expired October 7, 2012 my last strip failed October 14, 2012. That is one week past expiration. It was a "good will" replacement. Service manager said he discussed it with dealer owner and was told another replacement may not happen due to the "good will' replacement. FOR ONE WEEK! You got to be kidding right?

Jack
 
Fuel Strip Poll Comment

2009 RT with 7,000 miles -- failed and replaced under warranty last week. But the replacement is not working properly. I have to take it back to the dealer for "recalibration" or replacement next week. (Dealer told me they will decide what to do when I bring it back in.) Geeez.
 
Just one so far

07 RT. Strip failed one year out of warranty. Waited until Sept of this year to replace. Cost was about $350.

While we are at it, my ESA pre-load feature has frozen up for the third time. The first time it started working again on its own. The second time, dealer (BMW of ATL in Marietta, GA) did whatever it is that they do to awaken the sleeping monster. The third time, it quit working the DAY AFTER I GOT THE BIKE BACK FROM THE FUEL STRIP REPLACEMENT.

Due to some health problems - since banished :clap:clap:clap - I have only 8100 miles on my RT. And I'm already on my 3rd set of tires. Tasty new Z8's. I know I ride a bit harder than the average bear, and 90% of ALL miles are in the southern mountains, and the RT does weigh roughly 600 lbs., and I like comma splices.

Still a great bike, but fussy and expensive to own. Says my 41 years and 15 bikes of ownership.

Bike Show back in Atl after several years absence. A few of the other ones are looking kind of tasty just now. Keeping my wallet closed and temper in check will be fun!:eat

Having a really good dealer here makes the whole thing just that much more of a puzzle.
 
35,500 miles on a '09RT - no failure of the strip.

(68,000 miles on a '85RT - no failure of the float:rofl)
 
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