• 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?

fuel pump recall

kthflieger

New member
Picked up a new (to me) ride a few weeks ago - a 07 1200GS. The ride home went all the way down the eastern seaboard. Toward the end I noticed the smell of gas, but not real strong. Parked the bike and came back to it a few days later. Started it up and watched the pump spray fuel all over the left side of the fairing and engine. Sure enough, the parts replaced 2 years prior as part of the recall had split again. This time it was the threaded fitting in the top of the fuel pump.
The pump was fine and after some digging I found the aftermarket kit at the Beemerboneyard. Instead of $$$$ for garbage plastic OEM parts, they have a chrome plated brass fitting kit that replaces the quick disconnect on top of the pump, both male and female ends as well as the quick disconnect at the bottom of the other side of the tank and all for only $75.

Simple, easy and inexpensive with better than OEM parts.

So much for the E.U.s mandate to make all those parts recyclable. Instead of really researching reliable compounds, the manufacturers just used the first products that they came up with and now they can keep re-selling limited life products. It's not just a BMW Motorrad problem. Their cars as well as VW and MB all have the same issue with decaying brittle plastic critical parts...... but I digress

Cudos to the guys at Beemerboneyard:)
 
So a new fuel pump installed by a BMW dealer last year still suffers from the same type of potential failure? They didn't redesign them to fix the problem? I ask because I had no choice when my failed on the road as I started a three week cross country trip.
 
So you're going to screw a metal fitting into a plastic flange. The fitting won't break, but if you over-tighten it, the flange will most probably crack.
 
The flange will crack if you over torque it. BBY supplies some fuel resistant thread dope that is supposed to seal it up without the need to over torque it. However, The female thread in the top of the fuel pump assembly is tapered and is plastic. It is very easy to crack it by threading in a metal quick disconnect fitting. If yours is already cracked, then you will need to replace the fuel pump assembly, not just the quick disconnect fittings. Sorry, BTDT.
 
So you're going to screw a metal fitting into a plastic flange. .

When I replaced the fuel disconnects on our K1300Ss I decided to only replace the male half.
I was worried about cracking the plastic fuel pump flange if I installed the metal female half.

I did the Beemerboneyard fix before the recall.
 
The fix the BMW engineers crafted, molded a metal ring around the female threads on the top of the fuel pump, thus making the top of the fuel pump a little more resilient. What got brittle on mine was the factory nipple (also replaced as part of the recall) that threads into the top of the pump. That is the part I replaced with the Beemerboneyard kit. Of course over torqueing can be an issue, so don't over torque that fitting and use the kit included thread sealant!!
 
Was the pump replaced or did they only installed a reinforcement ring on the old one?

They only installed a ring on mine at the time and it started leaking last fall.
I brought it back to the dealer and BMW replaced the fuel pump with a new one.
 
The flange will crack if you over torque it. BBY supplies some fuel resistant thread dope that is supposed to seal it up without the need to over torque it. However, The female thread in the top of the fuel pump assembly is tapered and is plastic. It is very easy to crack it by threading in a metal quick disconnect fitting. If yours is already cracked, then you will need to replace the fuel pump assembly, not just the quick disconnect fittings. Sorry, BTDT.

I did mine recently, the lower female and you have to use good judgement. The directions say half turn, I stopped at a quarter. It's been fine so far The threads weren't cracked, but it looked like whatever dope Victory BMW used when reassembling it when putting in that ring had dissolved and it was pissing out. I decided to put the metal one in anyway and replace the o-ring again.
 
I bought my 2011 RT in 2014 from Toronto BMW. At the time the 'repair' was done under the recall.

Last year I started to smell fuel. I thought it was the other cars in traffic.
This spring it was really smelling bad, so I took off the plastic and found the fuel pump well was soaked in raw stale gasoline.

I followed up with Grant the Service Manager at Wolfe BMW in London, as I now live in Sarnia Ontario. Grant followed up with BMW Canada who agreed to replace the fuel pump under 'goodwill'.

After a bit of a wait to get a service appointment, I brought the bike in and they replaced the fuel pump at no cost to me.

Hopefully this fuel pump is made of better materials that can handle whatever is cracking the plastic. My guess is Ethanol!

Kudo's to Wolfe BMW for going to bat for me with BMW Canada, even though I didn't buy the bike from them. I'm happy with Grant the service manager, and the new owner Mark Minnie.
 
Fuel leak

You should also consider replacing the OEM plastic fuel connection fittings, adjacent to the pump, with higher quality chromed, brass units from Beemer Boneyard. My 2011 started leaking at around 30k mileage on a trip thru Wyoming and Montana, over the Bear tooth Highway. Parts kit runs about $70. And takes about an hour. I did my own...
 
Back
Top