Wheel Flange recall

[mogu83]

Did anyone else hear or read about this:
http://www.visordown.com/motorcycle-new ... 26384.html

[Dr. Strangelove]

Thanks for the heads up. Is this a Britain only thing?
Certainly the report prompted a trip with flashlight to inspect the flanges and no cracks were seen, still...
Maybe because I am the one to remove and reinstall the wheels, and I use a torque wrench? To paraphrase Otis Redding, I "worry" the torque just a smidge over the rec.

[PhilSB]

My bike is in for service on Thursday so I'll have to check. It is also having a pump recall mod, letter came October time-ish but I haven't been riding. I'm taking out the RR demo bike whiile the service is done. This could be an expensive loan bike experience

Phil

[Steve H.]

I received my bike on 23.apr.2012.It has been manufactured/essemled/in Berlin 2012 march.If there is any recall,I should be notified.

[uncle BS]

wheel flange recall is -OFFICIAL. contacts to owners by bmw begin 3rd week of april.

[deilenberger]

I asked about this at my friendly local dealer. I was told the official US recall is likely a few months out. Worldwide there are something like 300,000 bikes that need the flange replaced. There are ~50,000 in the USA. That's a LOT of parts to get made.

[sykospain]

Hi Don and the guys - the recall only affects hexheads. If you don't have a star-shaped flange thingie with the five attachment holes, you're not affected. Look at the drawing in the link below. It didn't have a question mark on the picture when my German BMW contact first sent it to me.

Incidentally, this is the first time ever I've seen BMW Berlin use the German equivalent of the word "Recall" !

The notice below actually quotes the German word "Rückruf" - literally "call-back" taken from this source:--

http://www.motorradonline.de/motorradbr ... 011/647996

If you don't read German, the notice basically says that on affected bikes, people were torque-ing up the wheel attachment bolts too hard after a wheel or tyre change routine, such that there was a road accident here in Spain when someone nearly lost a rear wheel and rider and pillion were slightly hurt. It wasn't me.

The firm is now in the business of replacing the flanges on around 370,000 bikes with a component that's "more robust".

Maybe they will now do a recall of all the flipping naff dry clutch friction plates that don't fully cover the gearbox input shaft on thousands of Boxers with 6-speed hydraulically-operated R-series clutches. I should co-co..

Notice incidentally that all new Boxers now have quietly had WET clutches from China installed. Buggers.

AL in s.e. Spain

[deilenberger]

Hi Don and the guys - the recall only affects hexheads. If you don't have a star-shaped flange thingie with the five attachment holes, you're not affected. Look at the drawing in the link below. It didn't have a question mark on the picture when my German BMW contact first sent it to me.

Incidentally, this is the first time ever I've seen BMW Berlin use the German equivalent of the word "Recall" !

The notice below actually quotes the German word "Rückruf" - literally "call-back" taken from this source:--

http://www.motorradonline.de/motorradbr ... 011/647996

If you don't read German, the notice basically says that on affected bikes, people were torque-ing up the wheel attachment bolts too hard after a wheel or tyre change routine, such that there was a road accident here in Spain when someone nearly lost a rear wheel and rider and pillion were slightly hurt. It wasn't me.

I believe it covers ALL big-hole drive bikes, which includes a number of K bike models (even though their drive is mounted on the opposite side.)

The firm is now in the business of replacing the flanges on around 370,000 bikes with a component that's "more robust".

"More robust" = steel

Maybe they will now do a recall of all the flipping naff dry clutch friction plates that don't fully cover the gearbox input shaft on thousands of Boxers with 6-speed hydraulically-operated R-series clutches. I should co-co..

Which models does this pertain to? I vaguely remember hearing some noise about this - but given the almost non-existent failure rate of R1200xx bike clutches, I don't believe it applies to our bikes (but I might be wrong on that - if so - enlighten me please..)

Notice incidentally that all new Boxers now have quietly had WET clutches from China installed. Buggers.

AL in s.e. Spain

Best regards,

[sykospain]

Hi again Don,
Surprised you haven't seen the acres of chat about clutch friction plate hub spline / gearbox input shaft spline issues that are all over the ADVRider, BMW Sport Touring, UKGser and several other such forums.

Without wishing to further bore the a...s off our band of buddies here, the unfortunate fact is that when Berlin introduced the hydraulically-operated clutch for 6-speed Getrag gearbox'ed vehicles, the designer inadvertently ( or maybe he just didn't give a damn ) placed the full-engagement position of the clutch friction plate in a position that doesn't completely cover the full 24mm (approx) length of the gearbox input shaft.

These machines inherently surge, snatch, judder and shake whenever 6th gear is engaged under load at below a speed of about 140 kph, and thus the friction plate hub dances around on the partly-covered shaft, tearing the bejabers out of both the plate's hub and to a lesser extent the input shaft over time.

The redoubtable colourful-languaged New Hampshire wrencher Chris Harris has noted failures resulting in no further forward motion on some bikes as early as 12K Kms, and on average, failures often occur at around 40K Kms.

Search the ADVRider forum for Clutch Hub Spacer and read the full story as to whether the cause is that issue or alternatively, factory machining misalignment of bell-housing to motor housing. Acres of stuff.

Meanwhile spend a coupla mins watching these 2 videos :-

https://youtu.be/dRW6SP9eMYs

and...

https://youtu.be/QYJ7SYa924E

...and then spend a few sleepless nights worrying...or get an "Esmir-Spacer" installed on your clutch disk hub, which my metallurgist expert friend tells me after she analysed it, is made of "Chinese Pig Iron".....but stamped on the friction plate itself are the words "Sachs AG" - of Austria. Capitalism....

Buena suerte,

AL in s.e. Spain

[deilenberger]

Al - wrong bike. That's the "oilhead" (as in R1100/R1150xx bikes.) Different transmission. Clutch splines have not been a problem on the much superior in many ways - R1200xx series of bikes (which started in 2004 with the R1200GS, then the R1200RT in '05 and the R1200R in '07). I started the "hexhead/camhead" forum on the MOA website back in 2007, and have kept an eye on it since then. There was ONE reported clutch spline failure that I can remember out of the many thousands of bikes owned by members of that forum. And that one was very early on in the life of the bike. It certainly doesn't indicate any pattern of failure, and it's yet another thing BMW "fixed" with the newer bike design.

There were problems for sure with the R1150 series splines, but I'm not sure the video you posted is actually accurate as to the cause. Some last forever, others fail repeatedly. Some people went to the trouble of measuring the offset between the center of the transmission input shaft and the center of the engine output shaft, and found in some instances - the shafts were slightly offset, causing excessive fast wear of the splines. Simply replacing the splined input shaft and the clutch disk did not "fix" the problem on these bike - they repeatedly had spline failures. One guy actually had a business of making offset transmission to engine mounting pins made to correct the mistake on the part of BMW. About when all this was going on was when I decided the R1150RS I owned was a bike I absolutely hated (it buzzed) and I sold it and stopped paying attention to "oilhead" problems.

Failing clutch splines on my bike is not something that would ever cause me to lose a minutes sleep.. it simply doesn't happen on the R1200R's.

Best regards,

[sykospain]

Yes, sorry Dan you're right - perhaps I didn't make it clear that I was concerned with the 6-speed 1150 boxers that have hydraulically-actuated clutches. "Steptoe", Neil Harrison in London says he encounters spline failures on those bikes, I have a 2004 Rockster, each and every month in his GSShop.biz workshop.

Altho' I can't see that the factory went to the trouble of redesigning the clutch friction plate's full engagement position when introducing the 1200cc series. Maybe they just nickelled the shaft's splines to a better Rockwell hardness, 60 or so, leaving the plate's hub as an entirely sacrificial wear item.

Fact remains though that such an antiquated single-plate back-to-front dry clutch that lacks even the simplest of pilot bearings to keep things in line, as characterises all those bikes, should never, ever be slipped, whether it's an 1150 or 1200cc series boxer made before Berlin introduced the new Chinese-made glycol/water wet clutch.

Best,

AL in s.e. Spain

[sykospain]

Ooops - just looked at the Real OEM component pages for the pre-2015 series of 1200cc Boxers and it's a COMPLETELY different dry-clutch design.

Sufferin' succotash....

"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, especially where a bet is concerned..." - Groucho Marx, "You Bet Your Life" TV Show, NBC Hollywood -1956.

AL in s.e. Spain

[Steve H.]

Wet clutch made in China??...So,most of our underwears are made in China as well

[Steve H.]

NO POLITICS!!!!

[Steve H.]

As I remember....F800 Rotax engines were bilt/and/or/manufactured in China a while ago.Than cancelled manufacturing ower there....Now the wet clutch......Well something should be learned from history.I know cheep labour....NO POLITICS!!!!!!!!!!!The quality of parts ?????Who give a damn,when it is cheep.??More profit with NO POLITICS!!!!!If I am not right,please kik me out.

[MTBeemer]

Pretty sure it is the G650 engines being made in China. Have not heard of any significant issues with quality.

[Steve H.]

BMW revoked those engines made in China and returned them to be made in Austria.

[MTBeemer]

BMW revoked those engines made in China and returned them to be made in Austria.

Would like to know why you think that. I believe since 2011 they are assembled by Loncin in China instead of Rotax in Austria, but still using parts manufactured by Rotax in Europe. Have seen nothing that changed that.

[deilenberger]

Just to bring it back on-topic..

I now have a new wheel flange. It IS steel. Appears to be cast and machined and quite magnetic. They also replace a spacer and an O ring, and the rotor bolts.

I have to thank my friendly local dealer for intervention with BMW to get it done before I leave on a month long trip (my old one was cracked from one of the rotor mounting points, and appeared it had been cracked for some time based on the corrosion in the crack - which is what let me spot it..) Dunno how long the swap takes, it didn't require R&R of the rear drive (can be done with it on the bike apparently) - they had the bike for 2 days - they realized when it arrived that it would require the new rotor bolts so they overnighted those from the BMW parts warehouse in PA.

[Oaktown]

I've been dragging my feet to schedule the wheel flange replacement. While I'm no apologist for BMW (fuel strip), I think they may have gotten screwed on this recall. I have carefully inspected my aluminum wheel flange with a 10x jeweler's loupe and it is fine. I have always followed the BMW torque specifications with my Snap-On torque wrench and deliver the wheels to the dealer for tire replacement in order to save $. The dealer has had the rear wheel off a few times for other service, but apparently they've been paying attention also. Germans are very disciplined (Autobahn) and likely made the assumption that others would not not be carelessly tightening well beyond specification and therefore designed an aluminum part that was actually strong enough for the task as long as it was not abused. Anyone care to agree or disagree? I'm not a metallurgist, so it's entirely possible that I'm completely incorrect.

Regards,
John