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Gearbox Oil - '05 R1200RT

danvestedbb

New member
I have an '05 R1200RT that needs to have its gearbox oil changed. Chilton's recommends a GL5 SAE 90 oil. I can only find the synthetic in as high as 75w140 GL5. Is this acceptable? What is everyone using?

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I have an '05 R1200RT that needs to have its gearbox oil changed. Chilton's recommends a GL5 SAE 90 oil. I can only find the synthetic in as high as 75w140 GL5. Is this acceptable? What is everyone using?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

75w-140 G5 rated synthetic is what the gearbox uses. Not for use in the final drive. That is 75w-90 G5 synthetic.
 
You should be able to find 75-90 Synthetic oil (Mobil or Valvoline is available at Autozone). This would be preferred.
 
Dan,

Per http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?46055 - I've added year and model to the thread title. I'm not certain what the spec's for later year hexhead/camheads is from BMW, but it might be significant.

FWIW - I run 75W-140 in my transmission. I found it helped keep the shifting smooth when the temperature starts to climb and I get stuck in traffic. Under those conditions, with the catalytic converter living right under the transmission I believe the oil may be thinned excessively if using a 75W-90. I do use 75W-90 (actually the "official new BMW oil by Castrol") in the rear drive. That oil is now available at BMW dealers.
 
I can't tell by the diagram, but is there a crush washer that needs to be replaced when changing the gear & final drive oil?

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I have an '05 R1200RT that needs to have its gearbox oil changed. Chilton's recommends a GL5 SAE 90 oil. I can only find the synthetic in as high as 75w140 GL5. Is this acceptable? What is everyone using?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

I have used 75 - 140 Spectro full synthetic GL5 sense the bike was new. it now has over 147,000 miles with no problem.
The master tech at the BMW shop where I worked told me to use that, in both the gear box and rear drive.
 
If I have it right, some say use the 75-90 in both the rear end and the transmission.
But I don't know if anybody every said use the 75-140 in both.
I use the 75-140 Valvoline full synthetic in the transmission, put in last week. It was the only one I could find around here.
And last time I put the 75-90 from BMW, the SFX0 or whatever in the rear.
dc
 
If any dealer tech tells you to use 75w140 gear oil in your final drive demand to see that in writing in a BMW specification. They will not be able to show it to you. And don't buy the "but they told us in school" line either. It simply is not an accident that virtually all except the most recent specifications which spec 75w90 BMW say 90W GL 5 gear oil - 80w90 is an acceptable substitute - in the finald drive. They say the same thing and add 75w140 as acceptable in transmissions.

And we wonder why final drives fail .... !
 
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