what's the typical life for an R1100 transmission?

[hydranyc]

hello,

i'm curious to know how long the transmission's in the boxer's typically last?
i just sold my R11GS w/28k mi which i bought new in '94. i kept that bike in excellent technical condition. but he told me the tranny went a week after he picked it up. not sure what to think as i've never had any symptoms that the tranny was going. i never felt it slip, just the occasional mis-shifts, but that's it.

this seems to be a rare problem as i've never heard of a boxer's tranny failing after so few miles. anyone ever have to replace their's with similar mileage or heard of anyone else doing so?

thanks

 

[jingdog]

Happens all the time. The PO of my 96 GS installed a BMW rebuilt transmission when the bike had 66k miles. But Ive also read about a couple who bought a brand new R1150R and rode it from Quebec to Newfoundland and back. The tranny went before they got back to Quebec! I AM suprised the NO came back and said the trans went so soon though. Usually the problem manifests itself by popping out of gear or acting like the clutch is slipping. Perhaps some idjit dealer got ahold of him and talked him into it. I sold my R90/6 with 153k miles on it and the guy called me back a couple months later complaining the dealer told him it needed a new clutch. I never had any trouble with it and it worked fine at the time of sale. It DID drip oil a little from the main seal and perhaps that is what the dealer saw.

 

[Rinty]

oiler transmissions

Hydra:

The '94 to '97 transmissions were problematic. You can read all about it in Anton Largiader's website.

Some of them do go long distances, but some crater at low mileages.

It's just a risk that you take when buying an early oiler.

Rinty

 

[robsryder]

Doesn't Voni have a 94 R11RS? Although I recall a couple of issues with her bike over the years (cam chain guides failing and drive shaft issue) I do not remember ever hearing about a transmission failure. I think that Voni's 94 RS is well over 300k miles at this point.

 

[belquar]

hello,

i'm curious to know how long the transmission's in the boxer's typically last?
i just sold my R11GS w/28k mi which i bought new in '94. i kept that bike in excellent technical condition. but he told me the tranny went a week after he picked it up. not sure what to think as i've never had any symptoms that the tranny was going. i never felt it slip, just the occasional mis-shifts, but that's it.

this seems to be a rare problem as i've never heard of a boxer's tranny failing after so few miles. anyone ever have to replace their's with similar mileage or heard of anyone else doing so?

thanks

Yep. 99 GS. 36, 581 on the odo. Probably rebuilding the trans in my immediate future.

 

[ANDYVH]

I have a 94 R1100RS. I had tranny issues at 50,000 (clutch throwout bearing) and again at 60,000 miles (internal bearing failures). BMW NA actually gave me a brand new 96 spec tranny after being well past the warranty period. To date I have 125,000 miles on the bike, 65,000 on the tranny with no problems.

Voni Glaves has over 300,000 miles on her 94 R1100RS, and I have not read that she has had any trnnay problems. But then, she has Paul Glaves as her live-in mechanic so that might have some bearing on that result.

 

[darrylri]

I have a '94 R1100RS. The current tranny (4th) has nearly 50k miles on it with no issues.

The previous tranny (3rd) went 110k miles before developing the "skip" in third gear.

The second tranny was a '95 model that was a lemon from the start, and was replaced under warranty.

The original tranny went about 40k miles with no problems. However, it was the original, noisy-in-neutral box, and a dealer offered a warranty "upgrade", so I took it.

I got a new clutch with the send transmission as a part of the warranty replacement. I paid for a new clutch when I paid for the 4th transmission at 150k miles, even though the mechanic said it was ok and still had more than half its lifetime left.
-----
I had an '02 R1150RS. I put 86k miles on that and never had a transmission problem.

 

[robsryder]

I have a '94 R1100RS....

The original tranny went about 40k miles with no problems. However, it was the original, noisy-in-neutral box, and a dealer offered a warranty "upgrade", so I took it.

I also have a 94R11RS with the original "noisy-in-neutral" transmission. I traded an 88 R100GS in for the first year oilhead in 1994. The "noisy-in-neutral" transmission wasn't any noisier than was the airhead in neutral - in my opinion. [Also I've found that good earplugs make a lot of little noises go away ]

The noise is a resonance causing the gears to rattle together. I find that by pulling in the clutch and lightly blipping the throttle followed by release of the clutch the noise goes away. All that is needed is to slightly alter the vibrational mode of the transmission and the resonant noise ceases. This has worked for going on 13 years for my oilhead - still with the original transmission.

 

[darrylri]

I certainly regret taking the warranty upgrade to the 95 transmission. The original one probably would have gone 100k miles and more. The noise didn't bother me at all -- I bought the bike as a demonstrator in 1994, so I knew full well about the "noisy" transmission issue. But if you have 40k on a bike and a dealer offers you a brand new transmission, with a new clutch thrown in, you'd be tempted, right?

Anyway, I've only paid for one transmission in 197k miles.

 

[PGlaves]

Voni's original transmission had problems at about 50,000 miles and was replaced under warranty. This was still so early that it was replaced with another M94 transmission. She bought the bike in May '93 and hit that 50K mark in early '94.

I replaced that box at just over 300,000 miles (250,000 on the transmission) because the input shaft was worn enough to be a problem mated to a new clutch hub. With 250,000 miles on it it was going to cost as much to rebuild as a new box, and the dealer provided one at his cost.

I wish I could get 335,000 miles out of one but had to settle for 250,000. But that was one of the noisy good ones

 

[hydranyc]

thanks for everyone's replies. from your feedback, 28k is quite low for the tranny to fail. especially since i had not felt any indication that there were any problems. in fact she felt better than new before i sold her.

i'd still curious to hear about any other tranny incidences and corresponding mileage....

thanks again.

 

[ANDYVH]

Like the tranny in Voni's R1100RS, mine went sour at between 50k and 60k. I pulled the tranny myself and BMW gave me a replacement 96 spec tranny which I installed myself. I now have 60k on that tranny, and so far shifting it good with no slip in any gear. Hope it stays that way.

So, in the event I need to replace the tranny again, would I be better off ot get a 97 or 98 spec tranny?

 

[Rinty]

oiler transmission

My understanding (I don't want to drag my source into this, in case I have misquoted him) is that one of the later version transmission cases accomodates a different input shaft or output shaft bearing.

The other detail I remember is that the later case affords the bearing a bit more room, for improved lubrication.

Perhaps one of our resident experts can elaborate on this, or correct me.

Rinty

 

[PGlaves]

Start by saying I don't remember exactly when they did it - but BMW did something that struck me at the time as so counterintuitive as to be dumbfounding.

Somewhere about '97 or '98 they began installing sealed greased bearings into a transmission filled with gear oil. They called it a "clean bearing" design.

Apparently they had discovered that metal debris splashing about in the oil was damaging shaft bearings, so they used sealed, greased bearings to keep the oil and debris out of the bearings.

I think the strategy works. There are other reported design and build issues, but the "clean bearings" seem to do what they were intended to do.

 

[lkchris]

An interesting solution that sounds a bit like treating the symptom and not the disease, i.e. why is there metal floating around in the first place?

 

[guitardad]

I bought my '94 R1100RS with about 37k miles, and it already had the "classic" oilhead transmission failure. So I don't know exactly when it happened. The bike did show some signs of a hard drop on the left side, which could have bent the shift fork when the shifter hit the ground. But who knows for sure.