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Fuel Strip Repair tool - tested and verified!

DBCasey

Enjoy the ride!
My friend made this post in the ADV site.

http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?p=21268240#post21268240 Post #253, page 17

He used it on his 09 GSA and it works. He tried to explain to me how it worked, but all I heard was Charlie Brown's teacher.

I hope this will help out some of you with the same problem.

Mods, I didn't put this in a specific forum as I didn't know what specific models this affected. Please feel free to move it.

Good luck,
Daryl
 
I'll save those instructions, in case mine goes bad. I think the warranty on my bike expires within the next week or two. Has BMW been covering these beyond the 3/36 warranty, since they're a known defect?
 
I'll save those instructions, in case mine goes bad. I think the warranty on my bike expires within the next week or two. Has BMW been covering these beyond the 3/36 warranty, since they're a known defect?

Does history provide evidence?;) What problem. :laugh
 
They will cover the strip and replacement labor for 24 months. If you are living well, the first one or two or three will
fail within the original 3/36 period and then subsequent strips will fail before two years is up, thereby saving you $300
to $400 out of your own pocket each time. I have lost count but I think I'm on #5 on an '09 GS.
 
I made my version of the piezo tool needed for the fix not from a butane containing piezo lighter like shown on Advrider but from one of those red push button barbecue starters (had a spare) - can buy them at any place that sells cookers from big box stores to speciality shops. Or take one out of someone's junk cooker.

This has got to be one of the coolest fixes ever for an annoying problem on these bikes. Big thanks to Joel at Advrider who started it all by publishing his experiences with using a megger and capacitor to do this fix (a megger can be bought for about $150 but Joel was using an over $500 Fluke model). His seed was morphed into the piezo device that accomplishes the same thing for way less $...Way too cool!!!!
 
I made my version of the piezo tool needed for the fix not from a butane containing piezo lighter like shown on Advrider but from one of those red push button barbecue starters (had a spare) - can buy them at any place that sells cookers from big box stores to speciality shops. Or take one out of someone's junk cooker.

This has got to be one of the coolest fixes ever for an annoying problem on these bikes. Big thanks to Joel at Advrider who started it all by publishing his experiences with using a megger and capacitor to do this fix (a megger can be bought for about $150 but Joel was using an over $500 Fluke model). His seed was morphed into the piezo device that accomplishes the same thing for way less $...Way too cool!!!!

Grill lighter and gas tank, why doesn't this sound good:)
 
Maybe, but we science geeks know why it can be done.

All flammable gases have a range of flash concentrations above which or below which they cannot be ignited in air. The fix strongly suggests doing this trick with a piezo lighter with a full tank and the cap on. That ensures minimum air contamination in the tank and the essentially saturated gasoline fumes effectively prevent ignition, though the spark created by the piezo travels internally in the strip layers anyway. Believe it or not, as far as flammable liquids go, gasoline has a rather narrow range of flash concentration and that's what makes this possible. (And why a proper air/fuel ratio is so critical to driveability of a gasoline engine)

An example of a flammable liquid that ignites at an enormous range of vapor in air is ethyl ether. It is that precise property that makes it so good as an engine starter in an emergency and why every chemist on earth knows it is the lab chemical most likely to create an accidental explosion if handled carelessly (it also can form explosive peroxides under some circumstances). If you've ever tried to use sprayed gasoline for engine starting , you already know spraying it into a carb doesn't work well at all compared to ether. The only way I know to make it work decently is if the engine has sidedraft carbs with wire mesh air cleaners- then you can pour it over the wire mesh, let it drip through, evap for a few seconds and then start the motor- that creates a suitable concentration in cold weather. And even then, it will never light the air cleaner on fire (did this several hundred times with old Brit sports cars with SU carbs that had no accelerator pumps in below zero NY winters).

Don't see any reason this fix can't be done on a removed strip if you're paranoid, but also see no real need. I expect we'll see a lot of folks do this fix over the next few years without problems as long as they stick to proper practices.
 
Maybe, but we science geeks know why it can be done.

All flammable gases have a range of flash concentrations above which or below which they cannot be ignited in air. The fix strongly suggests doing this trick with a piezo lighter with a full tank and the cap on. That ensures minimum air contamination in the tank and the essentially saturated gasoline fumes effectively prevent ignition, though the spark created by the piezo travels internally in the strip layers anyway. Believe it or not, as far as flammable liquids go, gasoline has a rather narrow range of flash concentration and that's what makes this possible. (And why a proper air/fuel ratio is so critical to driveability of a gasoline engine)

An example of a flammable liquid that ignites at an enormous range of vapor in air is ethyl ether. It is that precise property that makes it so good as an engine starter in an emergency and why every chemist on earth knows it is the lab chemical most likely to create an accidental explosion if handled carelessly (it also can form explosive peroxides under some circumstances). If you've ever tried to use sprayed gasoline for engine starting , you already know spraying it into a carb doesn't work well at all compared to ether. The only way I know to make it work decently is if the engine has sidedraft carbs with wire mesh air cleaners- then you can pour it over the wire mesh, let it drip through, evap for a few seconds and then start the motor- that creates a suitable concentration in cold weather. And even then, it will never light the air cleaner on fire (did this several hundred times with old Brit sports cars with SU carbs that had no accelerator pumps in below zero NY winters).

Don't see any reason this fix can't be done on a removed strip if you're paranoid, but also see no real need. I expect we'll see a lot of folks do this fix over the next few years without problems as long as they stick to proper practices.

Cool your heels, I understand the physics.

But, I also recall the local guy "Tim" that worked as a gas jockey, back in the day. While I'm pretty sure I understood why Tim's cigarette didn't ignite the gasoline while he pumped, no matter how close we waved his cigarette near the tank spout, I know that Tim had no clue of the physics, but just "knew" that his cigarette wouldn't ignite the fuel in the tank.

So, when I think of interesting things like the grill lighter replacing a functionality of megger (I've been around those things), I think of how a "Tim" would apply that knowledge.
 
Wowweeee!

Lots of big words up there!

All I know is that the fix works. It might take more than one "click" to fix it, but it works.
 
Read it only works on the false low reading failures; that it does not work for the "you've got plenty of gas" failures. I think that's in the linked thread.

corroboration? I catch the latter unfortunately, at least 2/3 were.
 
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