BMW Motorcycle Reliability Quality Support Failure

[Dr. Strangelove]

exactly, Bob. Leave the crash out of it. I admit it's arguable.
The had 14280 miles, is a 2009, and bought in November of 2012. As I said, if they had just done something different re customer relations it would have gone a long way.

My point in this is how a customer was treated locally and corporately over what everyone here says is a Known Defect.

Caveat Emptor

John

[Karamazov]

Hi Don,

For the record, my fuel strip was replaced under warranty in 2007 and has worked fine ever since. These gauges work perfectly well in most of the world. It's not BMW's fault that Americans put corn in their gasoline.

Cheers, Tom

This issue has been discussed at lenght in several posts on several boards. It is generally accepted that ethanol has nothing to do with fuel strip failure. The only person who will ever tell you corn juice is a contributing factor is your dealer. I can guarantee he will spit out the phrase "it's the ethanol" before you finish telling him your fuel strip failed. Somewhere, at some point, a BMW Representative or Dealer decided ethanol in the fuel was a good enough explanation for failure (because poor design is out of the question ) and ever since, it's been Gospel at the dealerships. It' is patently false. It's an easy scapegoat that shifts the root of the problem to the customer.

Failures happen all over the world and to people who don't use gas with ethanol (like me).

[Bill Stevenson]

John,

There is nothing like a lively discussion such as this. I hope your comment about ad hominem attacks was not meant for me, I apologize if you took it that way. To answer your questions: Would I have signed that release? No, but I would not have sought help from BMWNA for this piece of crap fuel strip. As I said, mine failed more than once and I learned to live without it. In terms of what you could have done differently when you ran out of gas at speed on the highway, we used to teach SIPDE when I taught MSF classes more years ago than is worth thinking about. I seem to recall that SIPDE has changed to something simpler, but I can't recall the new model. SIPDE stands for Scan, Identify, Predict, Decide, Execute. While we are riding along we should be constantly Scanning our environment as things are in constant flux on the road. Look ahead, check the mirrors, look at the instruments, don't fixate, keep your eyes moving. Identify anything that might be a hazard to your health. In your example, if you had been aggressively scanning you could perhaps have identified the speed bumps on the shoulder at any time and knowing they were there Predicted that they would knock your filings out if you had to pull over. Having Scanned, Identified, and Predicted possible outcomes, you Decide that they pose no immediate threat and Execute your decision to stay in your lane. Then down the road you suddenly lose power and Execute plan B, which is: If your motor conks out for any reason, your reaction should always be to pull in the clutch. You agree with that from your comments, so it should be automatic if this ever happens to you again. Next you apply the brakes while moving over as far to the right as possible, but not into the bumps. As you stop you put your left foot down on the ground, covering the rear brake with your right foot. This stopping technique should be used every time you stop and be done without thought.

In my experience going through the thought process of riding a motorcycle allows us to react to sudden threats automatically. That is we don't have to think about it if we have already thought through what to do in a given situation. Motorcycling is more mental than physical. It doesn't matter how many years we have been riding or whether we have ridden 100,000 miles, or 1,000,000 miles or whatever. The thinking rider has the edge.

Bill

[deilenberger]

Hi Don,

For the record, my fuel strip was replaced under warranty in 2007 and has worked fine ever since. These gauges work perfectly well in most of the world. It's not BMW's fault that Americans put corn in their gasoline.

Cheers, Tom

Tom,

While most of us aren't fans of corn in gasoline, that's not the cause of the failures.

The first failure I experienced was on a brand new bike I was going to buy during the test ride. The bike had about 80 miles on it at the time. I didn't buy that bike because of that failure. The last fuel strip that was replaced on my bike (#7) was replacing a strip that failed on installation. They installed it - and it was broken right out of the box it came in.

Crappy QC and bad engineering is the cause of the failures. And BMW is selling bike to a world market, there are other countries besides the US that have ethanol in their fuel, and BMW should be designing systems that work with any anticipated fuel. And there are reports of failures in countries that don't add ethanol to the fuel.

[Caroanbill]

John

First, I love your rambling tales and if I ever meander across the Pacific and get two wheels under me on your side, I'll be re-reading your tales for inspiration!

Second, commiserations on your experience - hope the wrist is now all healed up.

Third, your dealer is a clown and BMWNA should have a better attitude to dealer consistency. But you know all that. BMW Australia isn't much better at times (but they've been OK to me, as has my dealer).

I've had two strip failures on my 2007 ... I've never trusted bike fuel guages, so the trip meter is always my friend. But, yep, I've run out too ... thankfully in embarrasing rather than dangerous places.

My third strip works for the most part. It does occasionally get the over-optimistic reading you experienced. I still don't trust it, ever. Onh the days when it seems to be behaiving well, I may take it somewhat seriously and try to stretch the envelope .. but for me it's fill before 300km (185m) if it's a fast / hard ride, or take it out to about 340km (210m) on a 'lope-along' day. That's filling up the filler neck once or twice (don't put it on the side-stand after this, it will spill), and with 98RON (super-premium) fuel .. a little less for 95 RON.

So, looking through this thread, I can't see mention of the "reset" many of us do and I'm wondering if you had noted it in your travels around this board. At the grave risk of an umpty-teenth repeat, reset your ave fuel consumption after each fill up. When I forget to do this, my fuel strip sometiems does that same "I can run forever" thing. When I remember, it's a little more cautious (yeah, yeah, don't anthropomorphise your bike parts, they don't like it) ...

I'm more often on the Modern Vespa site these days, and so I'd forgotten the "harden up, suck it up" responses you can get here - but as you've found, these folk are more clear-eyed than caustic, straight-shooting than sarcastic, and still very helpful overall .. still, a little fellow feeling might've been more warm and mellow!

Lastly, like us you'll have to accept the fuel strip is unreliable. Yeah, it should work prefectly .. but it doesn't. the best you get is with the reste-every-time lark. At least we have two trip meters: I don't have even one on my PX150 Vespa, and the reserve tap is a loooong way down (eyes-off-the-road down).

.. and I'm looking forward to more travel stories!

[Dr. Strangelove]

Greetings, Caroanbill,

I do what you say. But if you have one that has gone bad, the best efforts are still a wild a$$ guess, albeit an educated one, still...

Thanks for the compliments on my "meanders." I just got home from a meander yesterday. 6500 miles in the last couple of weeks to S Oregon. My third fuel strip seems to be working as "properly" as can be hoped I think. In that time I saw the low fuel light illuminate at 47, 45, 43, 37, and twice at 37 no light. The light comes on when 3 liters are left, as I understand it, and the mileage left only reflects your fuel economy, it is secondary. To put it another way, when you are getting poor mileage because of whatever, it will illuminate at 3 liters left, but the mileage shown when that happens will vary because the bike's computer will tell you, based on your mpg, how many miles you would have left, with that volume, if you continued to ride in the same way. So, in those two episodes when the light did not illumine at 37, I would assume that when it did I had fewer than 37 miles left.
To put it another way, the worse your mileage, the fewer miles you have left when it does come on.
Sort of a fuzzy on top of fuzzy, or as a computer scientist would say, garbage in, garbage out. Over stating it. I have to emphasize that I will admit that a more or less working fuel gauge is a wonderful thing. I can take the fuzziness of it all because a trend is there that is more or less reliable. That was 100% lacking in the previous two strips.
On this trip, yes, I reset the fuel consumption, often on the fly, I saw a low of 33 mpg and a high of high 50s, that's a difference of high 20s miles per gallon in a 5.+ gallon tank, lots of 36s, lots of 49s. That's a significant difference. I made it to 261 on one tank, the high, and a low of 170 on another. That variability makes the odometer about as valid as an aunt giving you advice at graduation. You take it with at least a grain of salt.

I did carry gas with me. I came close to running out only once, but I knew it was a possibility because my working fuel gauge was warning me. I was coming out of Westwood, ca on 36 (great road) and heading toward Susanville, Ca where I experienced my first earthquake that evening. Fuel gauge had been working fairly well, and it said 80 something miles left on the tank. I passed a sign that said 62 miles til next gas and I knew it would be close. Showing 12 miles left, I felt the now familiar "sputter,' but still had power. I pulled the clutch in and coasted to a still-powered stop, safely, on the wide smooth shoulder. Put in a quart of gas--I had with me another 1.25 gallons as I was crossing Nevada twice--and rode in to the Shell 4 miles away, so technically I did not run out. The odometer showed 261.1.

I do accept the strip as unrelaible; but even a "mostly" working one is far better, understandable, and working solution to one that is totally bizarre.

Thanks

And the wrist was never more than an annoyance and is long since better.

[Steve H.]

I am fueling up after 200-250mls. I do not give adamn whot fuel strip showes.Doing that scince 1970,s.

[Caroanbill]

Greetings, Caroanbill,
Thanks for the compliments on my "meanders." I just got home from a meander yesterday. 6500 miles in the last couple of weeks to S Oregon. IAnd the wrist was never more than an annoyance and is long since better.

John, you inspired me to post a couple of trip stories .. I'm a writer rather than a photographer, so they're word-pictures.

And yes, I also notice the great variability in fuel consumption: I generally have a good feel for its since I only ride my R12R out where the riding days are a few tanks long ..

Bill