Fuel Sensor Strip Warranty

jayjay said:

Maybe it helps, maybe not, but the third strip has held since last summer.

JayJay

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Your early failures sound like luck of the draw.. not fuel additives. As far as your third strip - sounds like it was replaced after BMW pulled all the in-stock strips from dealers and replaced them (around April of 2013 I believe.) My friendly local shop service manager when last I checked still hadn't had to do any "redo's" on strips replaced since then. He thinks the vendor (who likely also made the fuel pump) might have found a fix.

deilenberger said:

Your early failures sound like luck of the draw.. not fuel additives. As far as your third strip - sounds like it was replaced after BMW pulled all the in-stock strips from dealers and replaced them (around April of 2013 I believe.) My friendly local shop service manager when last I checked still hadn't had to do any "redo's" on strips replaced since then. He thinks the vendor (who likely also made the fuel pump) might have found a fix.

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Well, that's what I'm hoping. My failures happened last summer (2013) so maybe the first replacement was old stock. I remember the service advisor telling me that he had some strips that failed right out of the box in installation. My first replacement at least lasted 100 miles (;-)). I guess I was lucky to get 50K+ and almost 5 years from the original.

I have a full container of the additive so I'll keep adding it every once in a while, can't hurt. I seem to recall that it's 20 oz, so at 5 oz/3000 miles I'm set for a year or so. After that, who knows.

JayJay

deilenberger said:

Your early failures sound like luck of the draw.. not fuel additives. As far as your third strip - sounds like it was replaced after BMW pulled all the in-stock strips from dealers and replaced them (around April of 2013 I believe.) My friendly local shop service manager when last I checked still hadn't had to do any "redo's" on strips replaced since then. He thinks the vendor (who likely also made the fuel pump) might have found a fix.

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I'd like to hope so, Don, but the one that just failed on my bike was installed June 7, and failed completely after about 250 miles. I just made an appointment for next Saturday to get another one. Unless Jack caves in and decides to ditch his Rallye Edition to move up to Nambia Orange. I told the dealer when I made the appointment I think this one will be the good one. (I'm foolishly optimistic by nature.) Maybe I need to go to your dealer, if he's got all the good strips.

Sportland in Urbana just got a bunch of new strips. Still works...a couple weeks now

cjack said:

Sportland in Urbana just got a bunch of new strips. Still works...a couple weeks now

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Well, I can tell you I'm calling Gateway in the morning to make sure they're not using year old stock. Just in case.

I like the guys at Gateway. Shannon and Ryan have always treated me well. But I would have got this next one at Sportland if they'd work on Saturdays. That's the first dealer I've ever seen that didn't work on bikes on Saturday.

20715 said:

Well, I can tell you I'm calling Gateway in the morning to make sure they're not using year old stock. Just in case.

I like the guys at Gateway. Shannon and Ryan have always treated me well. But I would have got this next one at Sportland if they'd work on Saturdays. That's the first dealer I've ever seen that didn't work on bikes on Saturday.

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I think it varies. They are closed on Mondays except during the summer months. So I think they do service on Saturday in the winter. In the summer the mechanic puts in 5 days and Saturday would be all overtime.
No dog in the hunt, just saying.
I like the Gateway guys too and have known Ryan since he was a baby Dink. But I like Sportland too and it's a mile away.

My dealer just confirmed the 12 year warranty.

deilenberger said:

As far as your third strip - sounds like it was replaced after BMW pulled all the in-stock strips from dealers and replaced them (around April of 2013 I believe.) My friendly local shop service manager when last I checked still hadn't had to do any "redo's" on strips replaced since then. He thinks the vendor (who likely also made the fuel pump) might have found a fix.

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I had my 07 RT at Sandia BMW in Alb for some other work and the service manager and I discussed my fuel film strip - this one was number six I believe. Mine "worked" but was generally inaccurate and unreliable. It wasn't unusual for me to fill the tank and the display never reach much more than between half and three quarters of a tank. Topping up from my fuel cell while under way with this fuel film strip never showed more than a quarter of a tank of fuel. It should have shown at least a half a tank once the fuel was transferred to the main tank.

While the bike was there, the shop did the recall replacement of the fuel pump, a warranty replacement of the fuel film strip and calibrated the fuel film strip. Testing the fuel film strip, the shop comments were "Found Fuel Gauge Implausible. Tested Fuel Film Strip - Pins 1and4 "OL". Faulty Fuel Film Strip."

I fueled in Alb and immediately noticed that no sooner did I have the key on and the fuel display was at full within abut 10 seconds - if that. Riding home [240 miles] I paid attention to the behavior of the fuel display. Unlike any previous fuel film strip, this one actually shows a gradual display of fuel used that appears to actually track what I would expect a fuel gauge to as fuel was consumed. When it showed just over a quarter of a tank, I opened the valve to start the transfer of fuel from the fuel cell [it's a gravity feed system]. Very slowly, roughly at a reasonable rate I would expect based on experience using the fuel cell - the display gradually increased to slightly more than half a tank before I decided to shut the transfer valve off.

I would agree that it is possible based on that experience yesterday, the vender may indeed have actually gotten this nuisance issue finally resolved. Only time will tell.

I read in another forum that BMW may reimburse owners of failed fuel strip if they paid out of pocket for the replacement. Have any of you had any experience getting a refund?

Gads, a fuel gauge that actually works; I'd be thrilled. I'm on my third one on my '09 GSA and it's about as accurate as a $2 watch. I'll contact my BMW dealer in Eugene and see if I'm eligible for a replacement. My work around, is just to start looking for fuel at 275 miles, look harder at 300 miles, and become desperate at 320 miles.

tinytrains said:

My R1200R runs almost exclusively on Chevron with Techron, and the fuel strip still failed. So I don't that helps the fuel strip.

The plus side, it Chevron has excellent stability. It takes me a 2 months to use a tank of fuel in my K75 and pick-up truck, but I never have "bad gas" problems or fuel system clogging in either.

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+1 on my '09 2 strips replaced now, almost exclusively run Chevron w/Techron

Got my new 12 year version of the fuel strip today. Old one mostly worked, but I was getting the fuel pump replacement recall done so I had the fuel strip done also. Hopefully it works as well as the old one. Old one got inconsistent from half tank down (sometimes would show 2 bars, sometimes 4) but as I got to were it should be showing 2 bars (300 miles on my GSA) it would settle down and was fine for the rest of the tank. Since this is my first bike with a guage, I just rely on the odometer anyway.

Actually, just checked my reciept and it looks like they only did the fuel pump warranty and mounted tires. Guess I'm headed back for a fuel strip.

siman00 said:

I read in another forum that BMW may reimburse owners of failed fuel strip if they paid out of pocket for the replacement. Have any of you had any experience getting a refund?

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Not on the fuel strip - however, I just received reimbursement for the replacement fuel pump I paid for in 2012 on the way to the rally.

Is this warranty extension for US bikes only?
I spoke to a dealer in Montreal today because mine failed and he wasn't aware of any warranty extensions on fuel strips.
Has anyone in Canada had their fuel strip replaced under this extended warranty?
Can I bring my Bike to a US dealer and have them replace it?

Canadian Fuel Strip Replacement Policy
A friend of mine had his replaced (2008 GSA - long after warranty) but it was done ex gratia after he wrote a nice letter to BMW Canada asking why it was covered in the US and not in Canada. In trying to get it fixed he also found out that the US extended warranty only applies to bikes with US VIN's. (A US dealer that we both use thought that it would be no problem to do the work and found out differently). There is no official recall/warranty extension in Canada. I had one fuel strip replaced after the first year on my 2008 GSA (warranty). In that case the gauge might not read full after filling up (it took a long time, if ever, to light up the last segment of the display, but worked fine otherwise). I did notice in the seven years that I had the bike that after extended trips into the US the new strip would be slow to register full but after a week or so of sitting with a full tank of 94 Octane no ethanol Chevron gas it would go back to working normally. Not sure why but that always seemed to be the case. When I had the original one replaced I had just been to the rally in Gillette.

Paladinwest said:

Canadian Fuel Strip Replacement Policy
A friend of mine had his replaced (2008 GSA - long after warranty) but it was done ex gratia after he wrote a nice letter to BMW Canada asking why it was covered in the US and not in Canada. In trying to get it fixed he also found out that the US extended warranty only applies to bikes with US VIN's. (A US dealer that we both use thought that it would be no problem to do the work and found out differently). There is no official recall/warranty extension in Canada. I had one fuel strip replaced after the first year on my 2008 GSA (warranty). In that case the gauge might not read full after filling up (it took a long time, if ever, to light up the last segment of the display, but worked fine otherwise). I did notice in the seven years that I had the bike that after extended trips into the US the new strip would be slow to register full but after a week or so of sitting with a full tank of 94 Octane no ethanol Chevron gas it would go back to working normally. Not sure why but that always seemed to be the case. When I had the original one replaced I had just been to the rally in Gillette.

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I sent an email to BMW Canada about it.
I'm waiting for their response...

Paladinwest said:

...I did notice in the seven years that I had the bike that after extended trips into the US the new strip would be slow to register full but after a week or so of sitting with a full tank of 94 Octane no ethanol Chevron gas it would go back to working normally. Not sure why but that always seemed to be the case. When I had the original one replaced I had just been to the rally in Gillette.

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My 2005 RT is new to me and until recently my fuel level would take a while to come up and my "miles remaining" would take forever to reset.

I ran 2 tank fulls of fuel with some Techron through the bike because it was buzzy when riding on the highway (my first BMW R bike, so I didn't know if this was normal) and not only does it run a little smoother, but the fuel gauge resets fast now.

Fuel Strip Warranty

I got the notice in August 2014 that there was a warranty on my 2007 RT. I put in a claim for reimbursement and was told today that BMW wouldn't pay anything because I did not have an authorized dealer do the replacement. I was only seeking reimbursement for the part. After I got off the phone I re-read the warranty letter. It says that BMW will reimburse the out of pocket expense for the fuel strip if the work was not done at an authorized dealer. I've send another email to the customer service department telling them that I thought they were wrong in denying my claim and I quoted the language from the August letter. I haven't heard back yet.

Has anyone else been denied their claim? What were the reasons given?

I personally think that the labor should be reimbursed in my case because I did use an authorized service shop, just not a dealer.

This is the answer from BMW Canada:

While there is not an extended warranty released by BMW Motorrad Canada for the fuel strip, we are reviewing assistance requests on a case-by-case basis. To determine if assistance is available for your motorcycle, please consult your Service Manager when you have your appointment with your local BMW Motorrad retailer. During your appointment, please speak with the Service Manager, who will then submit your request for assistance.

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I went to the dealer and BMW will replace it as a goodwill gesture.

I have an appointment next week.