So the general consensus seems to be that the R1200R (or some R1200Rs) will burn a bit of oil. And that some R1200Rs will burn more oil all the way up to 10,000 miles or so, until the piston rings fully wear in.
Now that I'm approaching 12,000 miles, though, I'm getting a bit concerned. The oil consumption (which seems high to me, broken in or not) seems to be continuing unabated. I've been keeping track of it since I had the 6,000 mile service done, dutifully recording every ml of oil I add.
Here's the chart:
There are no visible leaks, no oil stains where I park, and I have a sooty tailpipe. I check the oil in the same level spot (within two inches -- the center stand leaves a mark on the ground) and generally try to target the halfway-full mark on the site glass, though as you can see on the chart I have occasionally gone over.
So is this a problem? Over 400ml per 1000 miles (averaged over the whole 6,000 miles) seems pretty high. And if it's a problem, what are some likely culprits?
(I mentioned this to my dealer at the 6,000 mile service -- they chalked it up to break in, quoting a service bulletin from BMW that states some engines take up to 10,000 miles to fully break in. I'm over that mark now...)
It's not awful. One thing that seems to help the rings seat in is using engine braking. Mine seated at about 3,500 miles while riding the hills of WV. LOTS of up/down 2nd gear stuff on tight twisty mountain roads. After that trip the bike started using almost no oil (about 300-400cc's between 6k changes.)
What has your riding consisted of?
(That said - before the R12R, my '04 R1150R still was using oil in about the quantity you describe at 24,000 miles.. so apparently there is no magic number when they stop. I never did get to do a mountain road run for a few days with that bike, and the former owner of it was an older gentleman who I know was not an aggressive rider at all [Joe Katz from Florida..].)
Don Eilenberger - NJ Shore
2012 R1200R - I love this bike!
If you look at your highest consumption it is only .366ml/1000km
BMW allow 1000ml/1000km. Only once it goes over that amount will they acknowledge you have a oil problem!
I have had 2 x R1100S which used similar consuption to what you are getting.
My R1200S did about the same. My R1200R which I have had for a year from new with only 5,800km on the clock does not use oil at all.
I ran all bikes in in the same manner. I have know explination to why eack bike used oil and the R12R did not other than maybe I got a Wednesday motor build and it was put together better!!!
Hi Jess:
From 9k miles to the 12k mile service, I used 1.2 qts in my 2009 R. About exactly the same as yours. Considerably better than the ~5 qts BMW would allow (max). I like your graph.
The good news, you're clearly on top of the oil consumption, so I tend to doubt you're likely to run it dry.
That would be bad.
The other good news is, the consumption seems to be pretty steady. You might not be happy about it - understandably - but so long as it doesn't start accelerating, there's a very good chance there's nothing really wrong. It's not a lot, but if there were an external leak, I'd expect you'd see something, somewhere.
Some motors just ... use more oil than others do. Tolerances add up, small differences in break-in, (insert handwaving argument of your choice here).
The bad news is, you're unhappy about it. For which I am sorry and can't really offer solace. But, at this point, I would definitely *not* recommend any of those oil additives supposed to help with oil consumption. :-) Nor, more seriously, would I consider a rebuild unless the consumption starts to get noticeably worse.
Good roads,
- Lewellen
Ask not why we should do a thing; rather, ask why we should not.
You didn't identify what oil you are using so we know if its the same we are using. BMW 20W-50 Conventional? You could try a different oil, some burn off faster than others.
I've been meaning to ask the same question. From 14 miles to ~6,000 miles, I went through a quart of BMW dino to maintain a half-full sight glass. Break-in included W.V. twisties as per Chairman Eilenberger. I switched to synthetic at the ~6,000-mile service. Today, I'm at around 8,500 and have emptied a quart of BMW synthetic to maintain a half full sight glass. My riding consists of stop-and-go traffic during the week and spirited weekend rides of 100 to 300 miles. I primarily brake with the engine. No obvious leaks, oil stains and it's always garaged-parked on the center stand. It appears synthetic is the variable in my case — my riding style hasn't changed.
DeltaDagger wrote:You didn't identify what oil you are using so we know if its the same we are using. BMW 20W-50 Conventional? You could try a different oil, some burn off faster than others.
You could try a different oil, some burn off faster than others. That's true!!
Oil consumption with my 2009 R1200R is about where yours is. I have approximately 6,000 miles on the bike. I bought it in February.
However, the 2005 R1200RT I owned prior to my R1200R purchase was an entirely different story. That beast literally ate oil! I followed the BMW break in (run in) to the letter, but the RT was using about 1 1/2 quarts per 1,000 miles, up to 12,000 miles. It then levelled off to about 1/2 quart every 1,000 miles. From the 15,000 mile mark up to when I traded it in with 16,600 miles, it used about 3-4 ounces.
I always use engine braking and rode the RT in the mountains of NC and northern GA on several trips. My friends laughed at me because I carried a quart of oil in my right side case and had to pull over many times to add oil. On one trip, the oil reminder light came on two days after the 6,000 mile service was performed and I had only travelled about two hundred miles.
I have read on the forums that the R1200 engines should only be switched to synthetic oil after they stop using any dino oil. I waited patiently for that to occur on the R1200RT, but it never happened. The bike performed flawlessly in the five years I owned it, except for the voracious appetite for oil.
On the other hand, I have a BMW automobile (530 xi) that has run synthetic from the factory. It has used one quart of oil in about 62,000 miles and that was at about the 15,000 mile mark.
Jess, like you I had similar concerns. " my bike's broken!!" However now that I have reached 30,000km... yes 30k! The oil consumption has fallen off significantly .So much so my routine knee to the ground AFTER my ride to check the level has been lacking of late. 30,000 km to get run in ...well there's a motor! I think it has something to do with the cylinder lining.
vodka wrote:Jess, like you I had similar concerns. " my bike's broken!!" However now that I have reached 30,000km... yes 30k! The oil consumption has fallen off significantly .So much so my routine knee to the ground AFTER my ride to check the level has been lacking of late. 30,000 km to get run in ...well there's a motor! I think it has something to do with the cylinder lining.
Your absolutely right.
I have mentioned this before on another thread but I'll say it again.
Our Police service in this State use BMW motorcycles R1200RT's.
The cops do about 120,000 to 140,000 before they turn that bike in and recieve a new one.
I have spoken to quite a few on differant occations, and they are all unanimous that the bikes all stop using oil and also get better petrol consumption too at around 40,000km so that does say that the engine does enjoy a very long running in period.
Thanks for the considered answers, I very much appreciate it. It sounds like the consensus is that this isn't that much oil for this engine. So though it's a minor annoyance, I feel a lot better that this isn't indicative of something awry.
To answer the question above, I'm using non-synthetic 10W-40, which is what my dealer recommended when last I spoke to them about this issue. At this point, I may just switch to synthetic regardless.
jess wrote:Thanks for the considered answers, I very much appreciate it. It sounds like the consensus is that this isn't that much oil for this engine. So though it's a minor annoyance, I feel a lot better that this isn't indicative of something awry.
To answer the question above, I'm using non-synthetic 10W-40, which is what my dealer recommended when last I spoke to them about this issue. At this point, I may just switch to synthetic regardless.
Dino 20-50 will slow the burning, synthetic will just prolong it since it will prevent the engine from breaking in.
I followed gentle riding rules when breaking in my R1150R back in '03. It used oil at the rate of 300ml for every 1000kms for the 99,000kms I put on it. If I kept the level high (middle of window) it would burn down to low quite quickly but then sit on low for a long time.
When I got my R12R I revved the heck out of it from 200kms. Now at 35,000kms it uses no oil and is just getting more and more torquey.
In 2500kms of hard riding down to Phillip Island (MotoGP) I spent a lot of time on the rev limiter in 3rd gear chasing mates on GSXR1000s, Aprilia Tuono and a Ducati Streetfighter. The Beemer did a great job in the twisties and wasn't disgraced in the high speed stuff. I put about 300mls of oil in once I got back.
My advice is run 'em in hard and stay with Dino oil !!
I used to work (only as a sales rep mind) for a company that was a Distributor for Castrol Lubricants here in the UK quite a few years ago. This gave me access to their technical engineers for advice & recommendations with oil for applications. So, while I make no claims to be an expert, i think it's fair to say that the advice I got was from a pretty good source.
It seems us motorcyclists are v keen to put the absolute "best" lube in our engines, and tend to want to put high-end full synthetic in our motors as a matter of course. I know many motorcyclists who ASSUME that better oil MUST be better for their bike, regardless of what the recommended oil is. The information I was getting back then was that this is simply NOT the case, and can be detrimental to your engine. The advice I work with was simply to use the specification, type and grade of oil that the manufacturer recommends (switching brand to an equivalent is not the issue - just the make-up of the oil).
Using the API spec system as an example, then if your manual states you use say API SF/CD then that's what you should use (the 'SF' part being relevant as the 'S' stands for spark-ignition', while the later the 2nd letter in the alphabet, the higher the spec. of the lube). You should not be tempted to use an oil with a higher spec (later 2nd letter), as your engine was not designed to cope with the better lubricating qualities, so the motor stands a higher chance of suffering from bore-glazing, which leads to increased oil consumption (basically the oil scraper rings aren't sealing properly, so you get oil getting past the pistons into the combustion chamber). As I understand it, a bore-glazed engine has basically polished the cylinder bores rather than bedded-in the bore and rings, so there is an inefficient combustion seal between piston ring and bore).
(as a side note - I ran an XJR1300 Yam - a 2000 yr model with cast iron bores, not nikasil-plated bores for 5 years and about 30k miles. I ran that on good quality mineral oil of the correct API spec and it was fine. I was warned by an engineer not to use synthetic in it as that engine was designed initially back in the 1970's for the XS100 - well before synthetic oils, and so synth was not really suitable).
Jap bikes generally (not these bikes of course) also have wet clutches and gearboxes using the same oil as the engine as it's a combined assembly. This means that the oil gets sheared and broken down more quickly by being chewed up through the gearbox clusters, and it suffers from increased contamination (and can mean using a 'too good' oil can make your wet clutch slip!). As the boxer motor is segregated from the clutch & gearbox, then it has an easier time and the oil's molecular structure won't break down as quickly anyway.
I was also told that the molecular structure of synthetic oil can mean that it can increase bore-glazing as a factor over mineral-based or semi-synthetic lubes due to it's improved lubricating properties. So, given that the boxer engines have a reputation for being slow to bed in, I'd have to say its possible that using fully synthetic oil while the motor is still using oil is only going to prolong this, and could even prevent the motor bedding-in properly. If the engine is used too gently, then this will make the situation even worse (I see the effect of light-loading etc. often on generating set engines that the firm I work for repairs. The engines suffer bore-glazing, which manifests itself in the symptoms of burning oil, carbon deposits through the combustion area, valves and exhaust areas of the head and pipes, plus piston blow-by, reducing power and causing crankcase pressurisation, which then leads to oil leaks from gaskets and seals).
Given all that stuff above, then personally I'm quite happy to be using mineral based oil in my 19,000 mile R1150R Rockster engine (which still uses a small amount of oil - I don't keep track, just keep an eye on it so can't quote consumption figures. It did only need about a quarter litre after a 2,350 mile trip touring recently though).
Please don't take the above as absolute - it is based on second-hand information that isn't up-to-the-minute. But if nothing else it'll add to the debate eh?
jess wrote:Thanks for the considered answers, I very much appreciate it. It sounds like the consensus is that this isn't that much oil for this engine. So though it's a minor annoyance, I feel a lot better that this isn't indicative of something awry.
To answer the question above, I'm using non-synthetic 10W-40, which is what my dealer recommended when last I spoke to them about this issue. At this point, I may just switch to synthetic regardless.
Dino 20-50 will slow the burning, synthetic will just prolong it since it will prevent the engine from breaking in.
Oh, definitely. I've been sticking with non-synthetic solely because the rings have apparently not fully seated yet. True that I could use a heavier oil to reduce the burn, but my goal is really to get the rings to seat so that someday I won't have to be annoyed by the oil consumption.
