I recently acquired a very clean 07 R1200RT from a good friend with 36,000 on the clock. The bike has been dealer maintained, garage kept, and looks almost new. I rode 250 miles home, and the bike performed perfectly. Yesterday, we did a 240 mile ride, and had a strange issue about half way through. I’d appreciate any thoughts some of you more experienced BMW riders may have concerning what the problem may have been. This is what occurred:
About 120 miles down the road doing about 60mph, the brake warning light came on. No big deal, even I know this means a failure of the ABS, but brakes will still work fine. About a minute later, the ASC caution light illuminated intermittently. About a minute after this the engine started losing power for a split second, and then would surge back to life. It felt like it became fuel starved for a second, and then back to normal very quickly. It probably did this 10 times before we stopped about 10 miles down the road. We were stopped at a light, and when the light turned green, and I went to go, the engine completely died. We pushed the bike off the side, took our helmets off and scratched our heads for about 15 minutes. When we re-started the bike, all faults cleared, and it ran flawlessly for 120 miles to our destination. Here are some questions I was hoping you all could help me with:
The brake failure light and ASC light came on within a minute of each other. It does not seem to me these systems are interrelated. Am I right about this, or am I missing something here?
I couldn’t think how the engine cutting out could be related to either of the other two problems, but after sleeping on it, I had an idea. I assume the traction control works by sending a signal to the engine (reducing fuel) to stop the rear wheel from losing traction. Is it possible the malfunctioning ASC was sending that signal to reduce fuel, and making it feel like the engine cut out?
If I take the bike to a dealer, would the stored error codes possibly shed some light on what was going on?
I’m happy all the faults cleared after restarting the bike, but my confidence level is a bit on the shaky side. We will be riding from Sarasota, FL back home to NE Florida in a few days, and would love to get a better idea of what happened before we make that ride. If any of you have seen similar problems, or have any insight into the issue, I’d love to hear from you. Thanks in advance for your help.
Happy Holidays,
Steve
07 RT
About 120 miles down the road doing about 60mph, the brake warning light came on. No big deal, even I know this means a failure of the ABS, but brakes will still work fine. About a minute later, the ASC caution light illuminated intermittently. About a minute after this the engine started losing power for a split second, and then would surge back to life. It felt like it became fuel starved for a second, and then back to normal very quickly. It probably did this 10 times before we stopped about 10 miles down the road. We were stopped at a light, and when the light turned green, and I went to go, the engine completely died. We pushed the bike off the side, took our helmets off and scratched our heads for about 15 minutes. When we re-started the bike, all faults cleared, and it ran flawlessly for 120 miles to our destination. Here are some questions I was hoping you all could help me with:
The brake failure light and ASC light came on within a minute of each other. It does not seem to me these systems are interrelated. Am I right about this, or am I missing something here?
I couldn’t think how the engine cutting out could be related to either of the other two problems, but after sleeping on it, I had an idea. I assume the traction control works by sending a signal to the engine (reducing fuel) to stop the rear wheel from losing traction. Is it possible the malfunctioning ASC was sending that signal to reduce fuel, and making it feel like the engine cut out?
If I take the bike to a dealer, would the stored error codes possibly shed some light on what was going on?
I’m happy all the faults cleared after restarting the bike, but my confidence level is a bit on the shaky side. We will be riding from Sarasota, FL back home to NE Florida in a few days, and would love to get a better idea of what happened before we make that ride. If any of you have seen similar problems, or have any insight into the issue, I’d love to hear from you. Thanks in advance for your help.
Happy Holidays,
Steve
07 RT