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Leaking Fork Seals and Warranty

D

DANIMAL

Danimal
Does anyone know if leaking fork seals are covered under the 3year/36,000 mile factory warranty. I have a 2016 R12GS with 17,000 miles. I’ve searched several forums and it seems variable whether the item is covered or not. My dealer is checking, but why would this not be covered? The bike is still under warranty.
No off road with this bike either.
 
I had a leaking seal on my 2017 R12GSA. Called my dealer in Missoula and the service manager said it is covered I gave a shot at cleaning it with a SealMate and it has not leaked for over 4,000 miles. Since I started using the SealMate in 2009 or so I have not had to replace a fork seal. https://sealmate.net
 
Right fork seal wept at around 8,000 miles on a '17 GSA. Dealer repaired under warranty, no questions asked.....
 
crucian said:
Right fork seal wept at around 8,000 miles on a '17 GSA. Dealer repaired under warranty, no questions asked.....
Click to expand...

+1

Left front seal on '17 GSA at 6000 mile service covered by warranty. (They also replaced the water pump which was leaking beyond BMW tolerance.)
 
Just had the right front seal replaced on the XR, a week before warranty runs out. However the front disc pad was contaminated and since BMW considers this a wear item they would not replace the pad.
 
Mine went at about 20,000 km and the dealer said it wasn’t covered - until I made a fuss! It was fixed under warranty.
 
SealMate

akbeemer said:
I had a leaking seal on my 2017 R12GSA. Called my dealer in Missoula and the service manager said it is covered I gave a shot at cleaning it with a SealMate and it has not leaked for over 4,000 miles. Since I started using the SealMate in 2009 or so I have not had to replace a fork seal. https://sealmate.net
Click to expand...

I concur. I've had fork seal issues on my R90s since I can recall. New seals seemed to improve things for a bit before the weeping/leaking started again.
Bought the sealmate tool over the winter and so far this year, my forks are completely leak free.

So for once, it appears we have a expensive tool that appears to actually work. :)

RickR90s
 
RPGR90s said:
I concur. I've had fork seal issues on my R90s since I can recall. New seals seemed to improve things for a bit before the weeping/leaking started again.
Bought the sealmate tool over the winter and so far this year, my forks are completely leak free.

So for once, it appears we have a expensive tool that appears to actually work. :)

RickR90s
Click to expand...

I've not learned anything about leaking fork seals but from looking at a youtube video about sealmate it strikes me that the way to prevent them from leaking in the first place may be to keep the exposed upper tubes very clean--just a quick wipe a few times a week or more often. Isn't it just debris the gets stuck between the outer surface of the oil seal and the tube that is the culprit? From the looks of it the sealmate is just a simple way to fish out debris without hurting the oil seal. Mine are OK so far it appears with 40K miles OTC. I keep the bike quite clean maybe that's helping.
 
fork seals

ncpbmw1953 said:
I've not learned anything about leaking fork seals but from looking at a youtube video about sealmate it strikes me that the way to prevent them from leaking in the first place may be to keep the exposed upper tubes very clean--just a quick wipe a few times a week or more often. Isn't it just debris the gets stuck between the outer surface of the oil seal and the tube that is the culprit? From the looks of it the sealmate is just a simple way to fish out debris without hurting the oil seal. Mine are OK so far it appears with 40K miles OTC. I keep the bike quite clean maybe that's helping.
Click to expand...

I would agree. Just look at older Airhead's with the big thick accordion boots, and their seals lasted forever.

My 04 R1150RT is still on it's original seals with 106k, and I'm quite impressed. No leaks, no weeps, but I believe there is a dust seal involved in the design.
 
There is night and day difference between bikes with telelevers—where your suspension shock absorption is actually the single shock absorber mounted to the center of the a-arm—and bikes where the shock absorption is indeed actually in the forks. On telelever models, the quantity of fluid in the forks is not critical and there is no particular fluid change requirement. It’s just an annoying leak.
 
Last edited:
BMWs are not designed to have leaking fork seals. If it is leaking and you are within warranty, get it fixed under the warranty.
 
lkchris said:
There is night and day difference between bikes with paralevers-where your suspension shock absorption is actually the single shock absorber mounted to the center of the a-arm—and bikes where the shock absorption is indeed actually in the forks. On paralever models, the quantity of fluid in the forks is not critical and there is no particular fluid change requirement. It’s just an annoying leak.
Click to expand...

Agreed - the fluid is just to make the fork easily slide up and down. The problem is that it could contaminate your brake pads/dics - then it becomes even more annoying...
 
drneo66 said:
Agreed - the fluid is just to make the fork easily slide up and down. The problem is that it could contaminate your brake pads/dics - then it becomes even more annoying...
Click to expand...

And even more than annoying when enough of the fluid leaks out to cause the forks to begin to seize.
 
Last edited:
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