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My RT had 48,832 miles when the pulleys broke. The dealer quote was $1,304 but I negotiated that downward a few dollars. Can't find the receipt but it was over $1,200.
Since the repair I am careful to avoid rolling on the throttle to the hilt.
BING was good to me. No charge. I had a lengthy email conversation with them over a matter of weeks and as much as anything, perhaps they wanted to see the broken pulleys because they stood their ground with their belief that their design and manufacturing process was solid. I was elated that they worked with me on this matter.
In my opinion, the pulleys and pulley shafts should be available in the aftermarket. Together they should be a relatively inexpensive item. It is insane to have to install new throttle bodies because of a flaw that could easily be corrected. A steel pulley swaged onto the shaft would be an easy retrofit. With retrofitting it would be important to balance the left and right TB functions.
I contacted Bing and they referred me to the Bing Agency. Oh well.
OK. Bing Agency (in Kansas) is the North American distributor for Bing. So I would contact them by telephone and tell them you need new shafts with pulleys and that Bing said you should contact them.
Back in the early days of the R1100 and worn throttle body shafts the parts were not available through BMW. But with sufficient requests Bing Agency got them into their parts inventory.
Using the zoom feature on eBay to look at throttle body pictures shows a lot of them have visible cracks in the plastic pulleys!
Looking at what pictures?
There are numerous (used) throttle bodies listed for sale on eBay. Some of them have good pictures of the pulleys. Of those, some show stress cracks when you use the "mouse over zoom" function.
Examples:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/05-06-07-08...08f308&pid=100033&rk=1&rkt=4&sd=231456127836
http://www.ebay.com/itm/07-BMW-R120...0&pid=100005&rk=4&rkt=6&sd=231456127836&rt=nc
Some fair sized cracks there. Having 3 pairs from 07-09, that's not a warm-n-fuzzy.
But they're Unstoppable!
Reading this makes me wonder why some enterprizing genius isn't
CNC machining pulleys and selling rebuilt TBs......I ponder if the problem has more to do with plastic
reaction to environment/contaminants. Or perhaps a bad batch of plastic?
Whole lots of vehicles with plastic in comparable situations out there. Certainly another thing to inspect
for during routine maint. Thanks to Ponch for pointing it out.
I'd feel better about this if replacement parts were available from the manufacturer.
On the other hand, wouldn't replacing the pulley shafts defeat the purpose of the "verboten" blue-sealed screws - leaving you with an "unmatched" set of TB's?
Haven't seen one first hand, just the pix here & the e-bay links, but may I propose a possible fix...
This could be just an emergency get-ya-home thing, or maybe if it really works, just keep it:
Could a dollop of JB Weld epoxy (or JB-Quick) be schmeared over the pulley, and worked into any cracks, to reinforce (or even repair) it...?
When BING Power in Nuremberg repaired my throttle bodies, I assume the techs set them to factory standards and matched the function between the left and right hand units. They do have the blue sealant paint on the threads, perhaps indicating proper balancing.The units are in reserve in case I ever need them.
BING's franchise in Council Grove, Kansas could likely make the repairs and balance the units if they had the repair parts, even if they had to import the parts from Nuremberg. In correspondence I had with the Kansas franchise, before I turned to seeking assistance inNuremberg, I was informed that if they had the parts, they could set me up. But, I chose to engage principals in Nuremberg because that is where the mother company is located. Furthermore, I wanted to speak with the very people in charge of quality control, and I did, to some satisfaction. One should not have to buy new throttle bodies for lack of an open market repair part worth but a few dollars.
Is it not reasonable that a qualified BMW technician at any reputable shop could balance the units - and seal the threads - once repaired?
Pity the poor soul who might buy the partially broken units seen on ebay. Those pulleys will surely fail in the short term and I doubt any kind of epoxy would save them from failure.
As I said in the beginning, BMW needs to recall and retrofit all plastic TB pulleys before their failure gets someone killed or disabled or just injured.
Bart
When BING Power in Nuremberg repaired my throttle bodies, I assume the techs set them to factory standards and matched the function between the left and right hand units. They do have the blue sealant paint on the threads, perhaps indicating proper balancing.The units are in reserve in case I ever need them.
BING's franchise in Council Grove, Kansas could likely make the repairs and balance the units if they had the repair parts, even if they had to import the parts from Nuremberg. In correspondence I had with the Kansas franchise, before I turned to seeking assistance inNuremberg, I was informed that if they had the parts, they could set me up. But, I chose to engage principals in Nuremberg because that is where the mother company is located. Furthermore, I wanted to speak with the very people in charge of quality control, and I did, to some satisfaction. One should not have to buy new throttle bodies for lack of an open market repair part worth but a few dollars.
Is it not reasonable that a qualified BMW technician at any reputable shop could balance the units - and seal the threads - once repaired?
Pity the poor soul who might buy the partially broken units seen on ebay. Those pulleys will surely fail in the short term and I doubt any kind of epoxy would save them from failure.
As I said in the beginning, BMW needs to recall and retrofit all plastic TB pulleys before their failure gets someone killed or disabled or just injured.
Bart