astrobmw1250
New member
Aloha 1250 Owners
I wanted to Share with everybody my experience with my 2019 1250GS and its Engine part failure!
My bike had a hard start and it wasn't a hard start that I had heard of or had seen videos of were people would start their bikes sounding like its a dead battery cranking but not starting and then throwing error codes, mine did that as well but it would also make a clack clack clack sound as it would turn over. I contacted numerous BMW dealers on the mainland because I live on the island of Maui HI none of them could give me a definitive answer as to what was going on without seeing the bike which of course was going to be cost prohibitive because I live on Maui and shipping the bike each directions over $1000 plus the down time that would occur so I wasn't really willing to ship the bike and it wasn't bad enough that it stranded me or anybody else I used the bike as a rental and my personal bike is a 2022 GSA but I didn't want it to strand anybody so I bought an Endoscope so that I could look inside the engine and see if I could find out what was going on and I couldn't find anything telltale there was in the beginning a small amount of metal flake in the oil but nothing to be too concerned about it was just tiny little flakes so I didn't think too much of it and doing a little research I was finding people who were saying that a tiny bit of flakes of metal are normal you'll find them every once in a while and even my 2022 GSA granted it's new had little tiny flakes of metal in it, the oil was changed at the 600mi service the bike has 3000mi on it. The metal in the oil got a bit worse but still just little flakes no big chunks...or so i thought. If there was ticking time bomb i didn't want metal floating in the oil system so I had placed rare earth magnets on the bottom of the crank case to trap any large pieces of metal if there was any and when i opened the engine up I found there was more than i wanted to see.
For the last few months the problem progressively got a little bit worse the clacking sound would be intermittent sometimes it would start totally fine sound like a normal bike other times it would just go clack clack clack clack and then start up. When it would make the clacking sound it would not throw a code like it would if it sounded like it was draining the battery which it never drained the battery and I replaced the battery thinking that it was the problem because so many people had said their bike had a hard start and they replaced the battery and it solved it. I bought a 340 cold cranking amp lithium ion battery just to make sure that that wasn't the case I even replaced the starter at one point and that didn't solve it. It wasn't until I was downtown coming home and I tried to start the bike that I thought it was going to strand me it just turned over but it wasn't starting and when it did i drove straight home.
When I did get home I decided that I would take a look at the valve clearance again even though I'd done it half a dozen times thinking that I missed something or I hadn't got the valve clearance correct didn't tighten a bolts something and after taking the valve covers off checking the timing and the valve clearances with the help of the tools I bought from BoxFlyer I determined that everything was within tolerance if not better I put the bike back together turned the engine over it still had the hard start but it fired up and I ran it for about 4 minutes then I turned it off when I went to turn it back on there was just starter noises it didn't turn the engine over at all so I thought perhaps the starter had gone out so I took the cover off the right side of the engine got my endoscope out took a good look inside the engine and to my horror I saw what looked like a bearing race that had split and at the time I didn't know what it was it wasn't until I sent the picture to Brad over at BoxFlyer and him and I discussed it that we both came to the same conclusion that the one-way starter clutch bearing had gone out...I finally know what the issue is!
Talking with Brad I asked him what he would do if he was in my situation and he said that he had not taken a bike apart that far or at least to do that repair and that I would be best served to send it in if I could afford to and have it fixed. So I contacted three different dealerships on the mainland and got quotes within a few hours of what it was going to cost to fix and the quotes range from $2300 to $3200 parts of labor that didn't include me shipping the bike to the mainland at a cost of about $1000 each way plus the month or two of down time that it would occur because the bike would have to be shipped by boat and it takes 10 to 14 days plus transit time to the dealership.
I did contact the BMW dealer on Oahu on several occasions not just when the bike finally broke down but in the months leading up to it seeing if I could get anybody to tell me what might be the problem and if I could get it in to have serviced. I never got a return phone call nor did I get a return email. But that's a whole separate subject that I don't want to go into because it's just upsetting how unhelpful they were through the whole process.
I only had two major obstacles in my way.... First I'm not a motorcycle mechanic! I've never taken a motorcycle apart I've definitely never taken my motorcycle this far apart removing the engine transmission and a lot of major components to fix something that is way above my pay grade. I'm a bicycle mechanic by trade I'm mechanically inclined but still this is a petrol fired 600 pound beast that I had no idea how to take apart. With really with no other good option for me I decided that I was just going to tear the bike apart myself and fix the problem. I contacted Brad from BoxFlyer him and I discussed what tools I might need and he was very helpful in finding a couple specific BMW tools that I would have to have and getting me part numbers for that and turning me on to a place that I could buy the parts from.The second obstacle.... I dont have a shop to work in and I don't own my house I rent so I asked my landlord if I could build a work area in the shop and because he's 72 years old and never use the garage he said be my guest build whatever you want as long as it was in the colors of his high school Gray and red.
So that's what I did I built a shop and bought all the tools and most importantly the PDF Service manual for my GS/GSA .I purchased all the replacement parts put my bike on the center stand and started disassembling the bike, at one point I even hung it from a strap system so that I was able to remove the engine a lot easier. I'm not going to go into all the details of the tear down and the rebuild I've made a comprehensive video it's very long 43 minutes but it highlights what I thought was interesting or important in doing this and because I wanted to share with everybody the process that I took in doing so and also be able to show that even if you're not a motorcycle mechanic if you have a mechanical aptitude the proper tools and the time you can pretty much accomplish almost anything you set your mind out to do.
CONCLUSION:
The only real question is this... in the end is did it work was I able to fix the problem? You bet your ass I did!
The bike has been running like a champ ever since No more hard start No more Clack Clack Clack...no errors and no more wondering what is happening.
I do wish i had taken the problem more serious the metal in the oil was a bad thing...but i had NO good place to take the bike here on Maui and No mechanic to trust.
This was a challenging project and extremely rewarding. I am proud that I was able to take the bike apart identify the problem and fix it , with No Motorcycle mechanics to speak except the Help from BoxFlyer it was a solo effort....Ok my Wife and Dog pitched in!!
I wanted to Share with everybody my experience with my 2019 1250GS and its Engine part failure!
My bike had a hard start and it wasn't a hard start that I had heard of or had seen videos of were people would start their bikes sounding like its a dead battery cranking but not starting and then throwing error codes, mine did that as well but it would also make a clack clack clack sound as it would turn over. I contacted numerous BMW dealers on the mainland because I live on the island of Maui HI none of them could give me a definitive answer as to what was going on without seeing the bike which of course was going to be cost prohibitive because I live on Maui and shipping the bike each directions over $1000 plus the down time that would occur so I wasn't really willing to ship the bike and it wasn't bad enough that it stranded me or anybody else I used the bike as a rental and my personal bike is a 2022 GSA but I didn't want it to strand anybody so I bought an Endoscope so that I could look inside the engine and see if I could find out what was going on and I couldn't find anything telltale there was in the beginning a small amount of metal flake in the oil but nothing to be too concerned about it was just tiny little flakes so I didn't think too much of it and doing a little research I was finding people who were saying that a tiny bit of flakes of metal are normal you'll find them every once in a while and even my 2022 GSA granted it's new had little tiny flakes of metal in it, the oil was changed at the 600mi service the bike has 3000mi on it. The metal in the oil got a bit worse but still just little flakes no big chunks...or so i thought. If there was ticking time bomb i didn't want metal floating in the oil system so I had placed rare earth magnets on the bottom of the crank case to trap any large pieces of metal if there was any and when i opened the engine up I found there was more than i wanted to see.
For the last few months the problem progressively got a little bit worse the clacking sound would be intermittent sometimes it would start totally fine sound like a normal bike other times it would just go clack clack clack clack and then start up. When it would make the clacking sound it would not throw a code like it would if it sounded like it was draining the battery which it never drained the battery and I replaced the battery thinking that it was the problem because so many people had said their bike had a hard start and they replaced the battery and it solved it. I bought a 340 cold cranking amp lithium ion battery just to make sure that that wasn't the case I even replaced the starter at one point and that didn't solve it. It wasn't until I was downtown coming home and I tried to start the bike that I thought it was going to strand me it just turned over but it wasn't starting and when it did i drove straight home.
When I did get home I decided that I would take a look at the valve clearance again even though I'd done it half a dozen times thinking that I missed something or I hadn't got the valve clearance correct didn't tighten a bolts something and after taking the valve covers off checking the timing and the valve clearances with the help of the tools I bought from BoxFlyer I determined that everything was within tolerance if not better I put the bike back together turned the engine over it still had the hard start but it fired up and I ran it for about 4 minutes then I turned it off when I went to turn it back on there was just starter noises it didn't turn the engine over at all so I thought perhaps the starter had gone out so I took the cover off the right side of the engine got my endoscope out took a good look inside the engine and to my horror I saw what looked like a bearing race that had split and at the time I didn't know what it was it wasn't until I sent the picture to Brad over at BoxFlyer and him and I discussed it that we both came to the same conclusion that the one-way starter clutch bearing had gone out...I finally know what the issue is!
Talking with Brad I asked him what he would do if he was in my situation and he said that he had not taken a bike apart that far or at least to do that repair and that I would be best served to send it in if I could afford to and have it fixed. So I contacted three different dealerships on the mainland and got quotes within a few hours of what it was going to cost to fix and the quotes range from $2300 to $3200 parts of labor that didn't include me shipping the bike to the mainland at a cost of about $1000 each way plus the month or two of down time that it would occur because the bike would have to be shipped by boat and it takes 10 to 14 days plus transit time to the dealership.
I did contact the BMW dealer on Oahu on several occasions not just when the bike finally broke down but in the months leading up to it seeing if I could get anybody to tell me what might be the problem and if I could get it in to have serviced. I never got a return phone call nor did I get a return email. But that's a whole separate subject that I don't want to go into because it's just upsetting how unhelpful they were through the whole process.
I only had two major obstacles in my way.... First I'm not a motorcycle mechanic! I've never taken a motorcycle apart I've definitely never taken my motorcycle this far apart removing the engine transmission and a lot of major components to fix something that is way above my pay grade. I'm a bicycle mechanic by trade I'm mechanically inclined but still this is a petrol fired 600 pound beast that I had no idea how to take apart. With really with no other good option for me I decided that I was just going to tear the bike apart myself and fix the problem. I contacted Brad from BoxFlyer him and I discussed what tools I might need and he was very helpful in finding a couple specific BMW tools that I would have to have and getting me part numbers for that and turning me on to a place that I could buy the parts from.The second obstacle.... I dont have a shop to work in and I don't own my house I rent so I asked my landlord if I could build a work area in the shop and because he's 72 years old and never use the garage he said be my guest build whatever you want as long as it was in the colors of his high school Gray and red.
So that's what I did I built a shop and bought all the tools and most importantly the PDF Service manual for my GS/GSA .I purchased all the replacement parts put my bike on the center stand and started disassembling the bike, at one point I even hung it from a strap system so that I was able to remove the engine a lot easier. I'm not going to go into all the details of the tear down and the rebuild I've made a comprehensive video it's very long 43 minutes but it highlights what I thought was interesting or important in doing this and because I wanted to share with everybody the process that I took in doing so and also be able to show that even if you're not a motorcycle mechanic if you have a mechanical aptitude the proper tools and the time you can pretty much accomplish almost anything you set your mind out to do.
CONCLUSION:
The only real question is this... in the end is did it work was I able to fix the problem? You bet your ass I did!
The bike has been running like a champ ever since No more hard start No more Clack Clack Clack...no errors and no more wondering what is happening.
I do wish i had taken the problem more serious the metal in the oil was a bad thing...but i had NO good place to take the bike here on Maui and No mechanic to trust.
This was a challenging project and extremely rewarding. I am proud that I was able to take the bike apart identify the problem and fix it , with No Motorcycle mechanics to speak except the Help from BoxFlyer it was a solo effort....Ok my Wife and Dog pitched in!!
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