yet another fuel strip saga

[michael Tobias]

I have just had the 3rd fuel strip installed on my 08R12. this one, sadly out of warranty. I know that this is a recurring issue on top of being stupidly annoying from a company like BMW.... not to mention having to coast down hill several miles and end up in a cell phone dead spot late on a sunday afternoon out on Rt 28. I know, my bad for not using the trip meter rather than using the odometer and believing the gauge. fortunately a very nice Shandaken policeman took pity and went to the station and got me a gallon of gas so I could get home and not be a vagrant in his community ;>)

I talked with the service people at Max's today and they are reporting that the majority of issues are caused by ethanol. they suggest a product marketed by Chevron called Techron as an additive that will help keep this from happening...

I have intermittently used Startron which is supposed to mitigate or remove the ethanol from gas....maybe it is all voodoo and the fuel strip supplier to BMW is just not up to snuff.....

just thought i would pass this along...

[crazyhorse]

i don't see how it can be from a gasoline additive when out of the box on day one they can be inaccurate and let you run out of gas with 4 ticks left.

wes

[tinytrains]

Techron does not help. My bike runs on Chevron gas 90% of the time and it still failed. As I hear it, they fail in countries with out ethanol. My guess is thermal expansion issues with the strip. Since part of the strip is a heating element, the coefficient of expansion of the heating element and the substrate must be the same or something will fracture. Sounds to me like they got it wrong.

[deilenberger]

Max's is blowing "dealer blather" (the uncontrolable urge to sound like an expert, even if they're talking out of their asses.. no dealer is immune) at ya.

The strips fail at the junction of the plastic resistive circuits (there are two - a heater and a resistor) and the regular flex wire that goes to the connector. This junction is in a block of epoxy that has defied my most determined efforts to see what's going on in it. If someone had an x-ray machine, that might be helpful..

The plastic circuit strip is fine, resistances measure just what they are supposed to at the top (you have to scrape through a protective layer to get to the actual evaporated circuit wiring) at the input to the junction. They fail at the other side where the connector wires come out.

While BMW-Motorrad US is apparently following the usual BMW standard policy (1-blame local conditions - this never happens in Germany, or 2-blame the owner - dumbkoff, you must be overfilling the tank, and 3-never ever admit they were at fault..) by pointing fingers at ethanol, that doesn't explain the failure of the strips in countries that don't use ethanol. It's total BS. Techron is a cleaner for the engine that cleans carbon deposits off the intake valves. It will do absolutely nothing useful for the fuel strips by adding it to the gas. It won't do anything bad - but it also is a wasted effort.

The problem is a flawed design. I asked the head mechanic at my friendly local dealership (who likes to work on my bike - it's identical to his..) while he was installing my most recent strip, if BMW had made any changes or fixes to the strips. His reply was "Nope - they figure they'll just keep replacing them.."

Now - a really smart class-action attorney might be able to make a case of "Implied Warranty of Fitness" (meaning the thing should do what it claimed to do..) which might get BMWs attention, but I doubt if there is enough money in it to attract one on just greed alone. Have to be a BMW biking attorney who is on his 5 strip or so.. (revenge can be a great motivation.)

My latest strip seems quite optimistic.. it tells me I can go another 130 miles when I reach 200 miles (and fill up..) I put in around 4.5 gallons, which equals around 44-45 MPG, meaning it thinks there is another almost 3 gallons in the tank. Never knew we had 7.5 gallon tanks.. I continue using the tripmeter.

[Woland]

My 07 R with about 70k km on it has a fuel strip that's never failed and is surprisingly accurate And I regularly fill my bike with ethanol contaminated gas as well as overfilling it. So much for that theory. My best guess is that most of the fuel strips sux but some work. Nevertheless I don't rely on my fuel gauge and always use the trip meter instead.

My only fuel related problem is my current driving style which makes my mileage not so good Averaging 140km/h for long stints on the highway is not optimal for fuel consumption it appears...

[michael Tobias]

the explanation really did not sound good to me.....i was just passing along the "words of wisdom"....i will not make the mistake of counting on the gauge anymore.

i also got some super brite 1157's for my 08 R12 and for the 09R12 I got to replace the r1100rs who's parts now live on a mountain side near the entrance to the Cherohala...on the 09 it works just fine. on my 08 it causes a fault that keeps telling me a bulb is out...i am getting a load resistor to fix that.....since Max could not reset the warning.....all the technology is really cool but i am getting to the point where I think it is just more stuff to break. started thinking about looking for an airhead again...but they have their own sets of issues....ah the good old days.

the BMW company attitude is not unique...many years ago when Gibson first moved to Nashville and still had a plant in Kalamazoo they would put cheap...well at lest not state of the art tuning machines on their top of the line Les Paul's. the rationale was that it did not matter, people who love the guitars will buy the regardless of what we put on them...we love these bikes for many reasons despite their idiosyncracies.

sorry for rambling. thanks for all the input.

[deilenberger]

#3 failed on me Saturday.. lasted since April.. not a really good sign. It was always way optimistic (regularly thought I could go 350 miles on a tank..)

Have an appointment for my next one July 7th..

[michael Tobias]

too bad these things are so prone to failure.....you have to wonder what is going on.....where are you going for the replacement?

[GBag]

I agree that the dealers just feed you company rhetoric. On my '09 (which you now own Michael) I never had a problem. It's the original strip and was very accurate. I ran 249 miles on a tank and put 5.3 gals in to fill it and the miles to empty computation had just hit 0. At 5.3 gals it was moments away from starting to suck air. On my new '11 the strip failed at 2000 mi the 3rd week of ownership. The replacement strip tells me I have a 350 mi range just like deilenberger's. I gave up on it immediately and went straight to using the trip meter. I'm not even going to bother replacing this one if/when it goes. I'll just stay with the trip meter.

[BoxerSteve]

Mine stopped working a while back, took it to the dealer, they looked at it and it magically started working again. Been working ever since. Hope it stays that way!

I wouldn't care that much if mine went out again except it causes the low fuel light to be on all the time.

[Woland]

except it causes the low fuel light to be on all the time.

That's what tape is for

[deilenberger]

too bad these things are so prone to failure.....you have to wonder what is going on.....where are you going for the replacement?

As usual - the dealer. First one was under the factory original warranty. Each one since then has been under the factory parts/labor warranty. I'm guessing at this point BMW is getting the fuel strips free from the manufacturer, and is only paying the dealer for the labor.. that's how they usually handle this sort of disaster. If the manufacturer ever wants to sell another part to BMW - they cough up free replacement parts for their crap that failed - forever.

[michael Tobias]

"

On my '09 (which you now own Michael) I never had a problem. "

that is a really nice bike! I got it to replace the R1100RS that my son launched last summer but I think I enjoy it more than he does. My 08 has a Hannigan on it (that's another story) and being lazy it is really nice to have a nekkid one now and then!

the gauge is still very accurate ;D

[Mg1200R]

Hi guys.
Just picked my bike up. Took it to the service station next door to the dealer
And filled it up. Fuel reserve light stayed on. That happens occasionally I thought,
You know, you fill the tank right up and you have to use a bit of fuel before
The gauge sorts itself out and it registers full. After 50 Kim's, rang the dealer and
He said bring it in. Took it in and the workshop guy said they would order a new
Fuel sensor and we agreed they would sortit out at the first service.
Finally- my question. Is this part of the "fuel strip" issue you guys are talking about.
Am I to understand that effectively I may as well pretend it doesn't have a fuel gauge?
Apart from that the bike seems fine.
Cheers
Mark

[deilenberger]

Mark,

It always takes about 5 minutes for the fuel gage to figure out that you filled the tank... and that's 5 minutes with the engine on. More then that and the strip is kaput. The reason I'm riding black/white-pins is because the dark gray one I was going to buy ran out of gas on the test ride.. Can't say I'm sorry it happened, the black/white-pins is much classier and faster..

[nylife]

I replaced my fuel strip exactly a year ago, and today it failed again. i will replace it since it is still under warranty, i always pay attention to miles driven not the fuel strip, its just annoying to see the gas light

[Dr. Strangelove]

bumping this one too...
I'm convinced not to put much credibility in the miles remaining number, but regarding the low fuel light...

is it a separate mechanism from the fuel strip? Do they operate independently? Can the fuel strip fail and the low fuel light is still operational?

I've gotten wary of all the running out of gas stories, and thus far have not gotten a feel for how many miles in a tank. I've been filling at 170-190 or so. Lowest miles to empty I've seen so far was 52-53 and no low fuel light and two bars.
An electrically independent low fuel light would help.
Thanks again

[deilenberger]

bumping this one too...
I'm convinced not to put much credibility in the miles remaining number, but regarding the low fuel light...

is it a separate mechanism from the fuel strip? Do they operate independently? Can the fuel strip fail and the low fuel light is still operational?

No, no and no.

I've gotten wary of all the running out of gas stories, and thus far have not gotten a feel for how many miles in a tank. I've been filling at 170-190 or so. Lowest miles to empty I've seen so far was 52-53 and no low fuel light and two bars.
An electrically independent low fuel light would help.
Thanks again

You're quite safe at 170-190. I typically run to around 200, unless I am in an area with cheap gas and know I'm heading somewhere with no gas (or very expensive gas - like going into Canada, I fill as close to the border as possible.)

The low fuel light will turn on when 40 miles remains (or what the OBC thinks is 40 miles.)

[David R]

Thee low fuel light and computed miles to empty both go by the fuel strip.

Mine reads a little funny till 1/2 tank. The lower it gets the more accurate is.

I took gas with me. The low fuel light comes on at 37 miles to go every time.

The gauge reads 2 bars for a while then one. At about 10 miles to go the last bar disappears.

At 0 miles to go, I accelerated quickly and the bike stumbled. I gently drove 3 miles to A gas station

and CRAMMED 6 gallons into it. Would have been 5.3 if I filled it properly. Total miles on the tank, 263. 43.8 mpg.

I hope it stays like this for ever.

David

[Bob Ain't Stoppin']

Sorry David, but this isn't settled forever . . . or ever. This subject just keeps coming back, and coming back. I routinely go 225 plus miles before even looking for gas. Also routinely put nearly 6 gallons in, but I do admit to stuffing the tank for all it's worth.

Don't depend on the fuel strip. It works . . . and then it doesn't