BMW R1200R R1150R/T F800 K1200R R1100R/T R1250R RnineT Message Board

I am sure this has been brought up many times, I just can't seem to find the topic. Does the fuel tank need to be removed or can it be lifted in the back to get to the air filter. It seems every Beemer I have had makes the filter and battery hard to get too, but I wouldn't have any other.

You can indeed remove the airfilter on a 1150 by pulling the rear bolt and lifting slightly. Actualy you can do it without but its a real pain and the stock filter is large and hard to fit. If you use a K&N its eaiser. Much eaiser to lift the rear of the tank a few inches. Some like to cut down slightly the rear tabs on the filter lid (make thinner) to make it easier to refit. I have not, as I just raise the tank slightly.
cheers

Thanks Kirby. I do intend to put a K&N filter in. I tried getting the stock one out, but it was to tight a fit.

I have never been able to get it out without taking the tank off. I have heard you can trim the tabs on the lid of the airbox cover so it will make it possible to slide the cover off while the tank is propped up.

I have the K&N filter and it's literally a one minute process to remove or replace it.

Agree with Buckster. Far easier that way. And even getting the cover back on can be a little tricky. It's not that you're going to screw something up, it's just tight in there.
K&N filters...another whole topic

John

Same here, I have never been able to get the stock filter out without removing the tank, although I've heard others have, I don't know how...why is a K&N so much easier to remove, is it that much more flexible?

it's flatter so you don't need as much space to access area, if it's like the one I just removed from my 12. By being flatter it would also be more flexible, I think.
Could be corrected though.

Flatter, as in not as tall?
If so, how does it make the seal to the top of the airbox (underside of the cover) to keep dirt out of the engine?

Sunbeemer wrote:Flatter, as in not as tall?
If so, how does it make the seal to the top of the airbox (underside of the cover) to keep dirt out of the engine?

Yes the height is the same, it is the overall diameter that is significantly larger on the OEM filter. Here are pics for comparison.



http://www.teileineile.de/images/produc ... 1619_0.JPG




http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5 ... SY300_.jpg

Ah! I see. Thanks Oilhead.
If I were a K&N fan, that would simplify changing it!
However I believe they don't filter out fine particulates as well as paper, especially after the oil dries out of them which happens in about three weeks here in summer, but they do breathe better!

So I guess it comes down to a question of performance vs. longevity, and I'm keeping mine!

Got around to changing the air filter finally. I ended up lifting the tank slightly to r & r. Thanks to sweatmark's video it was a breeze. I didn't even have any left over screws.

If you keep the stock filter I have no idea how you would swap it out without at least lifting the gas tank up if not fully removing it.

Tank removed:

I took mine off today as I was diagnosing a fuel leak on my 3 week old '04 R1150R. Once the fuel tank is up and out of the way, it's easy to swap out the air filter by removing the two screws that keep the air filter secure:

However, to Dr. Strangelove's earlier point - it is a royal PITA to put the cover back on in such a way that it locks the front tabs of the top cover in addition to forming a tight seal with the top half of the air filter - the reason being is that the clearance is just that tight and there's a long guide on the underside of the air filter cover that guides the filter in place but is just tight enough to not fully allow you to close the top air filter easily. Very tight tolerance on this. I was surprised at how long it took me to get it to fit. I finally got it to work but it wanted to fight me the whole time:

Not easy- but lift the tank up and screw the bolt back into the higher up tapped hole. Filter removal is then easy- vacuum up all the debris first. Seeing where the tabs are to be inserted on replacement is the biggest PITA but I have put a bit of Tippex (correction fluid) on the tabs and mating holes (ooh Matron) to assist.