• Welcome, Guest! We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMW MOA forum provides. Some forum content will be hidden from you if you remain logged out. If you want to view all content, please click the 'Log in' button above and enter your BMW MOA username and password.

    If you are not an MOA member, why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on the forum, the BMW Owners News magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMW MOA offers?

Replaced the fuel strip and it worked forever after?

temesvar

New member
Was just wondering...
Is there anyone that has replaced the fuel strip and had no issues with it afterward?
I can't help noticing that many have replaced the strip multiple times, and the strip failed
over and over again. Even if it is free, is time consuming. Is it really worth it?
 
The now-gone OK City BMW dealer replaced my OEM fuel-strip on a 2008 RT at 9K miles, and when I traded in 2015, it was still working fine with 52K on the ODO. But, as we all say: YMMV.
 
The now-gone OK City BMW dealer replaced my OEM fuel-strip on a 2008 RT at 9K miles, and when I traded in 2015, it was still working fine with 52K on the ODO. But, as we all say: YMMV.

Sure hope you are not the only one! Thank for the replay.
 
My 09 GS strip was replaced in 2010 and was still working last year when I sold it.
 
On my 2008 R1200R I replaced 3 fuel strips. I replaced one on my 2013 R1200R and that one went out about after it was installed. Now I just use the trip meter. It is too much of a pain to take the bike back to the dealer to get it replaced.

Roger L
 
You have probably already seen my posts but I am now on my forth and playing the wait and see game. Two months and so far okay. But I do agree with you, if you have an hourly wage and you wait for the strip to be replaced, it adds up pretty quickly.
 
2010 R12RT.

My fuel assembly was replaced for some recall (cracking plastic??) around 2013. All works fine. Don't know that it matters, but I avoid gas with ethanol and I always keep it stored with ethanol free gas at my home. On the road, you get what you get, but once home I switch back to ethanol free which I keep on hand here at my house (I have a 20 gallon dispensing tank).
 
My dealers will not do it while you wait. The bike needs to be dropped off so now I need to get someone to pick me up and drop me off to get the bike back. During peak season the bike might be in the shop for a few days waiting its turn. Like I said a real pain in the A$$. I just use the trip meter.

Roger L
 
My dealers will not do it while you wait. The bike needs to be dropped off so now I need to get someone to pick me up and drop me off to get the bike back. During peak season the bike might be in the shop for a few days waiting its turn. Like I said a real pain in the A$$. I just use the trip meter.

Roger L

Don't understand why the dealer can't replace it while you wait! How long does it take to perform the surgery?
In my case, the closest dealer on this side of the border is at 200 km.(120 ml) On the other side, is the hustle
at the border I would rather do without! That is actually why I started this thread. The strip works so far, on my
2008 rt so am not sure if I would go thru the trouble if it goes down. And considering that it would be just a temporary
fix, I don't understand why even bother? Am glad to see that some has replaced it only once and it worked!
 
My dealers will not do it while you wait. The bike needs to be dropped off so now I need to get someone to pick me up and drop me off to get the bike back. During peak season the bike might be in the shop for a few days waiting its turn. Like I said a real pain in the A$$. I just use the trip meter.

Roger L

Perhaps it's time to find a different dealer.

My local dealer (~50 miles away) replaced the strip in my '10 R1200R in about 1.5 hours or so while I waited. I also had the fuel filter replaced. I did need to schedule an appt about 2 weeks in advance (they're busy this time of year).

P.S. Three weeks or so on and it's still working. ;)
 
I had my fuel strip on my '09 replaced in '10. Never failed again and I sold the bike in '16 with 140K miles. Never worried about it.
 
The fuel strip on my 07 was replaced in 2015 at 95,000km on BMW Canada's "Good will gesture" The extended warranty applies only to the US.
In Canada, they treat each case independently.
It's still holding up 48,000 km later
 
'11 R1200r with 38K miles and having the third strip installed now. I have no illusions this will be a lasting repair nor will it prove accurate readings. I will continue to have new ones put in at every failure, not in hopes of a lasting repair, but as a reminder to the mother-ship of their obligation to quality and the consumer. Sometimes a financial sting is all people can understand.
 
'11 R1200r with 38K miles and having the third strip installed now. I have no illusions this will be a lasting repair nor will it prove accurate readings. I will continue to have new ones put in at every failure, not in hopes of a lasting repair, but as a reminder to the mother-ship of their obligation to quality and the consumer. Sometimes a financial sting is all people can understand.

I agree with you if have a reliable dealer near by, are retired and have not much else to do with your time. As in my case, have to take the day off work to
ride two hours to the closest dealer. wait (providing he is willing to do it while I wait, with appointment!) at least two hours, (can it be done in two hours?)
than ride back two hours. There goes the day, and am not sure if it is worth it.
 
I'd again like to encourage people who've experienced the strip failure to report it to NHTSA/DOT as a safety issue. It is possible that some clever German engineers could design a replacement using a float and some circuitry to plug it into the existing circuit. It's been done privately. There really isn't any excuse for BMW not to - except it's less bother and cost to let the supplier of the strip pay for replacing them. The 12 year warranty on the strips will be expiring on some bikes soon. The only hope people who are in that position have is that they have a failure within the 2-year parts warranty BMW has (which does still apply to strips replaced under the 12 year warranty), and that from then on their strip fails before the next 2 year warranty period is up.

There are very explicit directions on how to do this in the fuel-strip poll thread. If it's too much bother to look it up, I'll repeat it here:

Don Eilenberger said:
Here is what I filled out (after selecting the on-line form found at: https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/VehicleComplaint/) <---- LINK UPDATED 10/3/16

  • VIN: Entered my VIN#
  • VEHICLE: BMW R 1200 R 2007 (this is on the drop down screen once you enter BMW.. it's down a ways.. look for your bike if it's not there use the ones that are there as a pattern to create a new model listing.)
  • APPROXIMATE DATE: I entered the date it first happened (as the instructions say to.)
  • CRASH: No
  • FIRE: No
  • FATALITY: No
  • VEHICLE MILEAGE: I put down the approximate mileage it first happened at
  • SPEED: I put down 65 for good luck.
  • AFFECTED PARTS: FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM <-- this is the important one. This is how the complaints get lost.
  • TELL US WHAT HAPPENED: Fuel gauge stopped responding, leading to running out of fuel while moving. This is a common failure on many bike models from BMW from 2005-2013. I have had this happen 5 times so far, and each time the fuel level measuring strip in the fuel tank was replaced. This is an unsafe condition since loss of engine power from running out of fuel can be quite dangerous on a motorcycle.

I then filled in my personal info.

My suggestion - if you've experienced the failure - take 10 minutes to fill in the form... it might just help, and it can't hurt. Fell free to ignore this if it doesn't seem reasonable to you.. and I have no delusions about getting a "Friend of the Marque" for posting this up.. If anyone wants to point the K bike forum (of models that used the fuel strip) to this post, please feel free to.

Reporting it here might make you feel better - reporting it to NHTSA can actually make something happen. They have required numerous other motorcycle manufacturers to issue a recall and a real solution for the exact same fuel gauge failure - since it's rather obviously a real safety hazard if your engine stops running in heavy high-speed traffic.

Help make something happen - don't just complain here. You paid for this feature on your bike - it's your right to expect a faulty design should be rectified.
 
Fuel Strip Failures

I replaced my own fuel strip using the GS-911 before BMW came out with the 12 year warranty extension on my 07 K1200GT. It required removing the Tupperware and the tank so not something you could wait for while a dealer performed it. Also, the strip is supposed to be bone dry when you calibrate it so placing it in a tank without letting the tank dry is not conducive to a quick job. Someone may correct me but I think the reason BMW has not done more is this is supposedly related to alcohol in the fuel so this is not a problem in Europe. The strip is just a piece of plastic with wires which I assume works on electrical capacity like large aircraft fuel systems. Of course there is no conclusive evidence that I have seen. After I replaced mine, I had access non ethanol fuel which was much more expensive but doable when I used the bike for commuting. It did not fail for the two years after I replaced it.

Just another reason why I traded in a bike I really liked. Too many little nits to deal with that I have not had on my other BMWs. Any failures on that bike is not only a financial challenge but a technical challenge to resolve.
 
Back
Top