Look what's attached to my magnetic oil drain plug - 2008 K12GT

https://youtu.be/YhKCRR0CMP4

Drained oil today - think it's an oil passageway plug - anyone know where this originated & cause for concern? 11k on the clock & she's been running great.

Not exactly sure what it is but there is no marks on it from it going thru a gear or causing any motor damage. Also there was no other metal shavings on the drain plug

What to do?

+1 on oil gallery plug. Problem dunno, I've never seen one of those come out.

Did you ever find out what that little was?

K1300S Drain Plug

Looks like it's a part of the Fetzer valve...

No, it's the drain plug for the blinker fluid.

A lifeboat for the oil munchkins?

Seriously guys, you kind of diminish the value of the forum with stuff like that. That's what poisoned the Pelican forum IMO. Last time I was there it was the same handful of guys hijacking every thread with the same old banter, and people got tired of it. I'd hate to see that happen here.

AntonLargiader said:

Seriously guys, you kind of diminish the value of the forum with stuff like that. That's what poisoned the Pelican forum IMO. Last time I was there it was the same handful of guys hijacking every thread with the same old banter, and people got tired of it. I'd hate to see that happen here.

Click to expand...

Yep.
Someone with a problem? Help 'em out.
OM

I agree, and sorry. So, who knows what it is?

PGlaves said:

who knows what it is?

Click to expand...

http://www.i-bmw.com/showthread.php?t=58506&highlight=drain+plug

AntonLargiader said:

Seriously guys, you kind of diminish the value of the forum with stuff like that. That's what poisoned the Pelican forum IMO. Last time I was there it was the same handful of guys hijacking every thread with the same old banter, and people got tired of it. I'd hate to see that happen here.

Click to expand...

My first reaction is 'Relax, this place is big enough to withstand a few jokes, and life's too short anyway so chill.."

and...What's a Pelican forum?

Follow Up

After Das Rally, I decided I wanted a K12GT and as much as I love the K75 just wanted to up my game on another K bike - heated grips, seat, abs . . .

Found a 2008 K12GT with 10,000 miles and cosmetically a "10" - owner was pretty motivated and had dropped price on BMW Marketplace by 1k and lived about an hour away.

Anyway, brought bike to a friends house who'd followed me in my car to pick up the bike - in order to register a motor vehicle in MN we need to provide VIN and Engine # - engine # was not in paperwork so friend and I had to remove the right fairing to access the engine - up until that point, bike had run amazing!

We got what we needed, buttoned things up and when I started bike, the red brake failure light stayed on and never went off - it didn't do that when I bought the bike. My wife had made plans to visit friends in Iowa so we rode down as our maiden voyage with the ABS out - brakes still worked and since riding my '87 K75s for many years w/out ABS, I wasn't concerned. Bike is a rocket on wheels and wife really liked it as do I.

To confirm it was the ABS pump that failed, visited a friend with a GS911 and we got the report that confirmed it. This wasn't the bike I was going to wrench with so I contacted an Independent BMW mechanic, who turned out to be amazing - a 26 year old and very gifted - he'd earned/won a scholarship from BMW Motorrad and had been trained at the factory on East Coast and worked at Mischlers in Beaver Dam WI before returning to MN to be closer to home - he now works out of his home. At any rate, I dropped bike off at Kevin's place (Kevin Johnson) and he pulled ABS pump and we shipped it to Module Masters a shop in MT that repairs these units - if I'd taken it to a BMW dealer, from what i'd read on the forums, they'd replace the ABS unit for about $1800.

While ABS unit was out I asked Kevin to go through bike - changing all fluids and a thorough "go through" so I could establish a baseline - bike is 8 years old but seller didn't have repair receipts - I'm owner #3.

I got a call from Kevin with a short video showing me the plug attached to the magnet - he didn't think it was a big deal, that probably whoever changed the oil previously set the plug on workbench and the plug attached itself and didn't notice it when replacing plug - I posted on the K Bike forum and the decision I made was to have Kevin drop the pan to make sure, what turned out to be a freeze or welsh plug didn't fall off the oil pump - why the oil pump? because the plug was in perfect shape and had not made any contact with the engine parts. Oil pump was lowest point beneath engine oil pan - anyway, Kevin ordered needed parts (spark plugs, gasket(s), air filter, coolant) He R&R oil pan and everything checked out okay - in order to removed oil pan, radiator, exhaust had to be removed so I asked him to check valves and change plugs and air filter since he was in that far - service manual did not indicate bike had valves checked at 4k miles.

The guard on the cam chain, fuel pump, and fuel strips had been replaced under warranty by local BMW dealer - those were the only records I had.

I got a call from Module Masters and it seemed someone other than the dealer had been into the ABS pump and used a press to remove & replace brushes but in the process used too much force and moved the armature up the shaft to the point it came into contact with the brushes making the repair impossible. Fortunately, they had a spare to sell and repair wound up being $350 vs. a new ABS pump and I have a 5 year warranty.

Based on whe way the repair was done on the pump, I conclude the person at the shop doing the repair (before I acquired bike) was fairly careless and it's likely the freeze plug came from that shop.

While bike was at Kevin's place I contacted seller asking if he'd ever had trouble with the ABS unit and he said when he bought bike it wasn't working and seller took it to an indy shop in MN to have it fixed - he said he never had a problem with it. When asked about the freeze plug he had no idea - it was a kick in the pants for me aka disappointment to buy a bike and start off with problems like this but I've done a fair amount of work and one restoration and persevered - what else was there to do?

Thanks for asking - bike is now operational and everything works as it should - it's a really nice ride!

Ken

ps - I can breathe a sigh of relief and joke about it now but while in the moment, it was no laughing matter!

Glad it worked out.
Great to have the follow-up.
OM

PGlaves said:

A lifeboat for the oil munchkins?

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I thought it was funny. I'm sorry.

Thanks for the update. I have followed on both forums and was curious. Glad you got the good independent mechanic this time around!!