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Fuel strip poll

Have you had at least ONE fuel strip fail?


  • Total voters
    835
Fuel strip failed - original equipment

My original equipment fuel strip on my 2009 R1200R failed at 33,000 miles. My tank was running low with about 39 miles to empty. I was looking for a gas station on the right side of the road, to avoid left turning, and the low fuel light came on and the miles to empty reading showed ---.
I have an appointment with the dealer to have it replaced.
I always reset my trip odometer and my GPS fuel gauge at each fill up, so I have never run the tank dry.
I would leave the fuel strip unrepaired, but the low fuel light is annoying and I want to have that thing turned off.
 
How come I didnt get the multiple strip question

the only question I saw was , have you had at least one failure. I have had 4 and the one in my bike now made it from the dealer to my house. epic fail! didn't feel like I was represented properly in the pole though. Oh FYI 31K miles on bike and ready for strip #5
 
I've seen a lot of repeated failures and also failures shortly after the repair. How much of the is from older stock...and more importantly, has their been an upgrade to the strip? And if so, we're the older strips recalled?
The key antenna went thru at least three part numbers for the same part while the parts were being upgraded. And the older part numbers were recalled. But then, the key antennas left the bike stranded and the fuel strip does not (except for blind reliance on it's reporting of fuel level). So it is about cost of warranty coverage. We get that, just wondering about customer satisfaction. Ever get to vote on satisfaction with BMWNA or do we just get to vote on the dealers?
 
the only question I saw was , have you had at least one failure. I have had 4 and the one in my bike now made it from the dealer to my house. epic fail! didn't feel like I was represented properly in the pole though. Oh FYI 31K miles on bike and ready for strip #5
It's a multiple choice poll - you can check both the year of your bike and that you've had more then one strip.

The '07 R1200R had 7 of them. The "new" '12 R1200R one has started flaking out - at around 5,500 miles. Getting replaced later this month. The last one in the '07 has lasted almost 2 years now - zowzers!
 
It finally happened to me.

2009 R1200GS about to turn 30K. The previous owner said it was replaced under warranty shortly before I bought it. A little over 15 thousand miles and a year later it happened to me. I have a weekend trip planned to Grass Roots BMW to have it swapped out. It feels kind of like an initiation.
 
Fuel strip shot

2009 R1200GS about to turn 30K. The previous owner said it was replaced under warranty shortly before I bought it. A little over 15 thousand miles and a year later it happened to me. I have a weekend trip planned to Grass Roots BMW to have it swapped out. It feels kind of like an initiation.

06 GSA at second wind bmw being replaced for the first time 27,000 miles
 
2011 rt

No fuel strip problems, YET!, however I try to keel 100% gas running through it as much as possible
 
No fuel strip problems, YET!, however I try to keel 100% gas running through it as much as possible

The 100% gas will make the engine happier - but it has no effect on the fuel strip failures (rented bikes in Europe last year and asked the dealer about it.. even bikes that have never seen ethanol fail with great regularity. Standard instructions to the renters "Never go more then 300kM without filling up..")
 
The 100% gas will make the engine happier - but it has no effect on the fuel strip failures (rented bikes in Europe last year and asked the dealer about it.. even bikes that have never seen ethanol fail with great regularity. Standard instructions to the renters "Never go more then 300kM without filling up..")

Wow -good to know -I'll always reset my trip #1 odometer also as a back up!

Thanks much!
 
Mine failed last week on my '08 K1200GT. It shut my bike down as I was riding. Just coated over to the side of the road like I had run out of gas but I still had 1/3 of a tank remaining. BMW dealer fixed it under warrantee but told me it may or may not continue to work. I hope it doesn't shut my engine down next time!
 
Mine failed last week on my '08 K1200GT. It shut my bike down as I was riding. Just coated over to the side of the road like I had run out of gas but I still had 1/3 of a tank remaining. BMW dealer fixed it under warrantee but told me it may or may not continue to work. I hope it doesn't shut my engine down next time!

It shouldn't have shut your engine down. There is no link in the computer systems for that. BMW typically biases their engineering to the opposite - keep the engine running no matter what (ie, no oil-pressure loss, no tipover - shutdown.)

Something else was going on if your bike shut down. You might ask the dealer what it was (they may be able to retrieve a failure code from the ECU.)
 
Unfortunately the BMW dealer says they weren't able to get a failure code at all. They replaced the crank sensor because the engine light was flashing but that didn't fix the problem. BMW Germany looked at the problem and had them replace the fuel sensor which fixed the problem. They told me that the computer will shut off the fuel pump if it senses that the bike has no fuel. That's their story and they are sticking to it.
 
Unfortunately the BMW dealer says they weren't able to get a failure code at all. They replaced the crank sensor because the engine light was flashing but that didn't fix the problem. BMW Germany looked at the problem and had them replace the fuel sensor which fixed the problem. They told me that the computer will shut off the fuel pump if it senses that the bike has no fuel. That's their story and they are sticking to it.

This must be unique to your model. Look at this thread - well over 300 reported failures, the majority fail indicating empty, and people just keep on riding them. I don't believe there is a reported failure like yours in the thread. I can't speak to the K1200GT model - since the survey is located in the Hexhead/Camhead forum - but if this was true, given the number of bikes of all models using the fuel strip that experience failures - I'm amazed we haven't heard of this before. It also makes very little sense to engineer a bike that way. If you run out of fuel - the engine WILL stop. No need to have it check the fuel level to stop it, and actually as you experienced - a real unnecessary risk to the rider if it does this erroneously.

I don't doubt what the dealer told you, but I'd love to know what transpired between them and BMW Germany.
 
I'd like to know what went on also and what was really wrong. I had only driven 165 miles at slow 55-60mph speed since I had filled up and was not out of gas. They were supposed to email me a copy of the repair work for my records but still haven't done it. Seems I'll have to be a little more firm next time I call them.
 
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