Potential problem

[Lost Rider]

Good for you Don, ride like the wind!

I would love to show you around SoCal sometime.....

[deilenberger]

Good for you Don, ride like the wind!

I would love to show you around SoCal sometime.....

I'll be there in July, but unfortunately - 4 wheels, not 2. My son's wedding is July 23rd in LA.. But be great to meet for dinner..

[Lost Rider]

Don, my bike is your bike... If you can get away for a ride, I can facilitate it.
Hell, you can take my bike for as long as you need.... maybe extend your trip and take a ride up the coast.

You'll have a choice, 12R, or 800R or 800 GS. You won't want to ride the GS after I'm done rebuilding it though...


Let me know, consider it a retirement gift.

[hjsbmw]

I have not taken the ring and cap off the bike but removing two screws revealed an unmistakable rust color on the screws.

Took that ring off today and didn't have any rust. It turns out there is some red paint, I presume a rust preventive coat, in that area which may have come out with the screws earlier. Since I was in there I cleaned it well and made sure the vents are free. Knowing feels good.

[MrPMS]

Just saw Don's post, and plug for Boeshield T-9. It should work well for this application and I'm going to look at my gas cap tomorrow...FYI, I ride a R1200R (crystal grey 2008) and an R90S that I bought new.
To Don, Congrat's on the impending retirement!!

[Neil]

I think people should take this problem quite seriously my bike is just over 2 years old and out of warranty and can not be unblocked BMW charged me $100 to try and then informed me the only solution is a new tank $2000 to $3000 they then said they would try for a GOOD WILL warranty I very much hope that is successfully if any one has found a way of unblocking these breathers a lot of people will be much richer. As the photo hear indicates that your tank potentially could corrode wright through at very least you run the risk of water in the tank that has pooled every time you refuel

[deilenberger]

As promised, I looked at mine today. I suspect if you have a problem, it was due to inadequate painting of your tank. What I found when I removed my cap was - it was wet around the outside of the recess in the tank. There was some funky gray munge there - which I assume was leftovers from soap when I wash the bike. What there wasn't - was ANY sign of rust at all.

The red color others have spotted is the standard BMW steel tank interior finish - an anti-rust finish (probably containing zinc oxide - giving it the red color..) Over it on mine was a quite thick layer of clear-coat. It was shiny enough that even after I dried everything and cleaned all the munge off - it appeared wet. It was simply very shiny clear-coat.

There are two cap drains - I'll point out where they are in the recess. Neil, I'd suggest that you attack this yourself. Find some weed-wacker string, and use it to clear out the drain holes. That combined with compressed air for the outlets of the drain should clean it out. Push the weed-wacker down through the holes. Use high-pressure air up from underneath (put a rag over the top so it catches whatever blows out.)

The drains only drain the plastic part of the cap - specifically - the trough around the metal ring that seals the filler neck:



If you see the small slot - at about 1PM in the photo, between two screws. There are two of these on opposite sides (at 9 and 3 positions) on the cap. These feed through a hole in a gasket to the drain ports built into the tank.

Here is the photo of mine right after I removed the plastic part of the cap:

You can see the gray munge - but also note where it is not. It is not near the actual filler for the tank, the reason being the gasket mounted to the bottom of the plastic part.

You can see the gasket in this photo, with the two drain holes going through the extended tabs on it:

and in:


Here is what my recess looked like after cleaning out the munge:

If you notice the holes - unthreaded - between the two screw holes - that's the drains. That's what I'd suggest snaking out using some weed-wacker string if it gets plugged up.

These will not drain the tank recess. It appears the assembly purposely is open to the air so any water that gets caught there will evaporate. I think the drains are there to take any gas spill away and to the ground where the hose ends up..

I saw nothing on mine that would concern me - but mine has also always had a tank bag over it, so it's exposure to wet is limited to when I get ambitious and wash the bike. Even parked overnight outside - it gets a cover over the bike.. so it is a case of YMMV, and you may want to take a look.

BTW - can anyone come up with any idea of what the dongle hanging down from the cap assembly is there for? I sure can't.. (mebbe it blocks the fuel pump intake if the bike is on it's side?)

[Neil]

Don if the red plastic part is removed as in your post and you were siting on the bike the hole on the right is to let air into the tank as fuel is used it has a one way valve in it .
The hole on the left is a drain hole to let water out that gathers around the filer cap that hole is completely blocked about 6 inches down inside the tank.
I and BMW dealer have had the tank off and tried to unblock from both ends top and bottom. I have tried wire weed wacker line solvent and compressed air both top and bottom all to no avail.
The result is if it remains blocked water will never drain away, nearly all the red coating has gone of mine and it is starting to corrode BMW in oz are defiantly aware of this problem but chose to ignore it hoping customer just go away or ac least my dealer dose. After some discussion and charging me $100.00 to try and unblock it they agreed to try for a GOOD WILL warranty clam for me for a new tank.

[Bob Ain't Stoppin']

Don, I'm gonna guess here that the dongle is part of the tank vent system. There to shut off the vent in the event of a tip over. This would prevent gas from spilling out during an accident.

[deilenberger]

Neil,

If you're going to get a new tank.. before installing it, if it was me (and it's not, so take this as potentially stupid advice) - if the recess in the tank doesn't look like mine (rust-paint with a thick layer of clear-coat), I'd think about using RustOleum fish-oil based anti-rust primer on it.

You can only paint over this primer with some other RustOleum paints (most paints won't stick to the fish-oil), but it's a very good anti-rust treatment. Since it would be under the cap and out of sight, appearance isn't real important, function is. Some tape on the inside of the big hole would prevent getting any inside the tank, and dribbling a bit down the drain tube doesn't sound like it would be a bad idea too.

Just a thought.

[CapeBeemer]

Don,
Thanks for checking, I have a little can of rustoleum waiting for when the weather warms up a bit. I think I will look for the primer as well.
I got a nice ride in this weekend in the Hudson Valley where I now live. If you are ever up this way give a shout,great roads with very little traffic.
Brian

[Neil]

Don if BMW do give me a new tank the dealer will fit it as they believe oner's should book in for a service to fit the valve caps. Your tank is as it should be with that coating, mine still has some of it manly on the inside of the rubber seal were it attachés to the red section of the cap assembly. If they do not come good with a new tank then I will be looking for some of that paint to try and re coat it.

[hjsbmw]

Anybody attempted a fix for this? I'd like to paint mine over, but it needs to be a 100% fuel proof coating.

I looked closer and saw there is some rust after all. I think what happened, at least in my case is that water seeps down the screws and causes rust from there under the red paint. I also thought about the possibility of using a THIN plate of aluminum that replicates the holes and openings in the tank and then seal it in there with silicone or something other that's fuel proof.

[deilenberger]

Anybody attempted a fix for this? I'd like to paint mine over, but it needs to be a 100% fuel proof coating.

I looked closer and saw there is some rust after all. I think what happened, at least in my case is that water seeps down the screws and causes rust from there under the red paint. I also thought about the possibility of using a THIN plate of aluminum that replicates the holes and openings in the tank and then seal it in there with silicone or something other that's fuel proof.

Harald,

Probably not a good idea. Electrolysis will make rust look simple.. and you'd have three different metals all in contact with each other in a damp environment (steel tank, aluminum and the stainless screws..)

I would go back to using RustOleum primer followed with their paint. The fish oil they use in the primer is very effective in forestalling rust.. but painting it - you can only use their paint (anything else will simply fish-eye terribly.) There are also "rust-converters" - a chemical treatment that changes iron oxide (aka RUST) to an inert non-oxygen bearing form of iron that I'd use to treat any existing rust before doing the RustOleum.

Then think about getting a tank bag..

EDIT - there is no reason to paint the part of the recess that is covered by the gasket. Even in the worst case, that isn't exposed to water - and the coating BMW uses appears to be quite fuel resistant.

[CapeBeemer]

While out on a ride Sunday I ran into a fellow with a 1000RR, that bike appears to have the same cap and tube set-up as ours, with one major difference. There is now a rubber? seal/ gasket between the tank and tube to keep water out of there. Guess they found there was a problem with the original setup. I am wondering if that part is interchangable.

This is off topic but I found it interesting . BMW may have been going for the youth market with the 1000 but my new friend is 67. He owns seven bikes all of which are more comftorable to ride, but when he goes into the garage to head out for a ride he always takes the RR.

Brian

[hjsbmw]

While out on a ride Sunday I ran into a fellow with a 1000RR, that bike appears to have the same cap and tube set-up as ours, with one major difference. There is now a rubber? seal/ gasket between the tank and tube to keep water out of there. Guess they found there was a problem with the original setup. I am wondering if that part is interchangable.

Interesting. The cap and tube are the same part number for the two bikes, so I would think it fits. At any rate, the rubber gasket is only around $3. I'll order that when I need other parts also to try it out.

Thanks for the heads up about galvanic processes, Don. Putting in an aluminum piece seemed like a good idea at the time...

[Neil]

Gents I think you are missing the point hear the reason the corrosion appears is the water drain blocks up. If it is blocked no mater what you do water will still pool you must make shower that the drain is draining if it is not try to clear it and if you can not go back to BMW and demand it be fixed this is very much a design problem as the inside diameter of drain tube is less then 3mm or 1/8 of an inch. I would suggest that if your drain is not blocked your bike is very new or you are very lucky

[CapeBeemer]

Neil,
I think there are two issues here. One, like you say is the blocked drain tube. When that gets blocked water that gets under the cap will potentially get into the tank with your gas.

The other issue is the gap between the tank and filler tube at the top of your tank, any time it rains or you wash your bike water will probably make it's way in gap. There is no drain hole there to let that water drain out, as the drain hole is seperated by the gasket at the bottom of the tube. At least that water will not get inside your gastank, it just sits there until it evaporates. But if you live and ride in a rainy area chances are it will rust your tank where the water is sitting. That is why the seal (BMW calls it a tank cover) Has been added to the filler on the 1000rr.
Don't ask me why it was not added to the same design on the new 1200r

Hope that helps

Brian

[Neil]

If you look at the third and forth photo Don posted you will see the words MADE IN ITALY perhaps it is a DUCATI part it is RED and if so we can just call all short comings CHARACTER I apologies to all DUCATI owner's now but I just could not resist.

[hjsbmw]

I installed the S1000RR 16117681038 ABDECKRING TANKCOVER. It fits like a glove and seals the gap around the filler cap. No idea why they don't install it from the factory. It's a $3 part.

I'd really recommend this to anyone. If you already have rust you should get rid of that first and repaint the area.