Lessons Learned:
1: 14 year old fuel pump relays DO go bad.
2: 4 of the relays are the same model number.
3: BMW Dealers shops do not always have your best interests in mind, especially ones which are tagged on to a big Harley Dealer.
The BMW is a 2000 R1150GS with a TourTech 41L gas tank, with over 110,000 miles. Maintenance has been consistently done by the BMW Dealer in Southern Oregon. Farkles have been added to the GS but original BMW electrics are intact. A fuse block has been added to power the added equipment separate from the CanBus system.
The failure occurred 16 miles out of Grand Junction, Colorado on I-70, 800 miles into a 1,000 mile day. Running at 5 over the speed limit, the GS just quits firing and will not restart at the side of the busy freeway. I cannot hear fuel pump noises when the ignition is turned on, which I attribute to the noisy surroundings and my profound hearing loss. Fast forward.... Next day the GS and I are at the service entrance to the HD-bmw shop at 9 AM. Competent service guy says 1 of their 2 BMW techs is in the hospital and the other one has 3 travelers' BMW to deal with first thing but he says they can do a "diagnostic" later in the day.
The next day I find out the "diagnostic" shows that the fuel pump is OK but I need a whole new wiring harness only available from Germany and retails at over $1,800 AND 9 shop hours (at $99 per) for installation. It will be weeks before they can get the part shipped in. I said to the Service Guy that I am guessing the BMW tech really doesn't want to work on my GS.
Fast forward..... Rental car costs to get to my meeting in Denver, rental truck cost to get the GS home (over 1,000 miles), and a lot of ancillary costs and messing about. GS is sitting in my yard on the trailer waiting to go to the local BMW dealer, and I know the fuel pump is not kicking on, so I start tracing the power to the fuel pump. I found that the fuel pump relay and the horn relay are the same so I switch them, turn on the key and the Horn will not honk......huh???? Then I turn on the ignition again and the fuel pump makes it's little purring sound until it gets up to pressure, I push the starter button and the GS fires up!
The dollar decimal place just got moved 2 places to the left, a new BMW relay is a little over $18.00. So I ordered 2 of them, cancelled my local appointment, bulb-greased all the relays, and labeled everything. Now that I have a spare under the seat, it will never happen again.
Moral to the story; if the fuel pump is not kicking on, first switch the horn relay into the fuel pump slot and try again. I had other lessons here, including but not limited to, calling a BMW tech that I trust to help with the diagnostics, if I had called Craig Hansen (or Hansen's Dave) from Colorado, I likely would have ridden the GS home to Southern Oregon instead of that Budget Truck.
Question: Who do you call from the side of the freeway?
John Harelson
Grants Pass, Oregon
1: 14 year old fuel pump relays DO go bad.
2: 4 of the relays are the same model number.
3: BMW Dealers shops do not always have your best interests in mind, especially ones which are tagged on to a big Harley Dealer.
The BMW is a 2000 R1150GS with a TourTech 41L gas tank, with over 110,000 miles. Maintenance has been consistently done by the BMW Dealer in Southern Oregon. Farkles have been added to the GS but original BMW electrics are intact. A fuse block has been added to power the added equipment separate from the CanBus system.
The failure occurred 16 miles out of Grand Junction, Colorado on I-70, 800 miles into a 1,000 mile day. Running at 5 over the speed limit, the GS just quits firing and will not restart at the side of the busy freeway. I cannot hear fuel pump noises when the ignition is turned on, which I attribute to the noisy surroundings and my profound hearing loss. Fast forward.... Next day the GS and I are at the service entrance to the HD-bmw shop at 9 AM. Competent service guy says 1 of their 2 BMW techs is in the hospital and the other one has 3 travelers' BMW to deal with first thing but he says they can do a "diagnostic" later in the day.
The next day I find out the "diagnostic" shows that the fuel pump is OK but I need a whole new wiring harness only available from Germany and retails at over $1,800 AND 9 shop hours (at $99 per) for installation. It will be weeks before they can get the part shipped in. I said to the Service Guy that I am guessing the BMW tech really doesn't want to work on my GS.
Fast forward..... Rental car costs to get to my meeting in Denver, rental truck cost to get the GS home (over 1,000 miles), and a lot of ancillary costs and messing about. GS is sitting in my yard on the trailer waiting to go to the local BMW dealer, and I know the fuel pump is not kicking on, so I start tracing the power to the fuel pump. I found that the fuel pump relay and the horn relay are the same so I switch them, turn on the key and the Horn will not honk......huh???? Then I turn on the ignition again and the fuel pump makes it's little purring sound until it gets up to pressure, I push the starter button and the GS fires up!
The dollar decimal place just got moved 2 places to the left, a new BMW relay is a little over $18.00. So I ordered 2 of them, cancelled my local appointment, bulb-greased all the relays, and labeled everything. Now that I have a spare under the seat, it will never happen again.
Moral to the story; if the fuel pump is not kicking on, first switch the horn relay into the fuel pump slot and try again. I had other lessons here, including but not limited to, calling a BMW tech that I trust to help with the diagnostics, if I had called Craig Hansen (or Hansen's Dave) from Colorado, I likely would have ridden the GS home to Southern Oregon instead of that Budget Truck.
Question: Who do you call from the side of the freeway?
John Harelson
Grants Pass, Oregon
