final drive

[brad d]

changed final drive oil today alot of metal on mag plug what should i do

[riceburner]

changed final drive oil today alot of metal on mag plug what should i do

did you take a picture??

[boxermania]

How many miles?

How long since last changed?

Was it a lot of metal bits or a greyish sludge with tiny metal specs?

[Boxer]

changed final drive oil today alot of metal on mag plug what should i do

Answer Mr. Mania's questions for us in your next post. We'll go from there.

Al and Riceburner: Stop waking up so early in the morning just to check R1150R.NET. Not good for your health. You need more sleep.

[jfslater98]

Al and Riceburner: Stop waking up so early in the morning just to check R1150R.NET. Not good for your health. You need more sleep.

It was 10:20 am for Rice, he's across the pond. Al does have a problem, however.

[riceburner]

Al and Riceburner: Stop waking up so early in the morning just to check R1150R.NET. Not good for your health. You need more sleep.

It was 10:20 am for Rice, he's across the pond. Al does have a problem, however.

what he said - I'd been up for HOURS by the time I posted that....

[boxermania]

Thank you all for your kind words......I have this bad habit of checking email first thing in the am, I know that some of you, the lucky ones, have banker hours jobs or better yet are retired.

Unfortunately in my case, I have to hold two jobs to keep up with the ample buying pleasure of my lovely spouse, of course she blames me.

My second job is exciting and most of you would not have known about it as I have purposedly kept it under wraps.

Need to get up early in the morning, pack my .22 rifle and locate some road kill. As the buzzards come in for the feast I take them out. I have to collect 12 birds before I go into work.

So you want to know what I do? I shoot dead birds (with a neat cannon) against airplane windshields to insure the integrity of the glass. Yep, it does make a mess, fortunately I don't have to clean it up as they have a crew of "bird disposal specialists"

It's a 4 hour job, pays well and fills my time......what can I say.

[brad d]

thanks for the reply. 55000 miles on bike. 12000 since last oil change in drive 21 months ago there were metal shaveing i could see and feel i did not take a picture

[sjbmw]

Thank you all for your kind words......I have this bad habit of checking email first thing in the am, I know that some of you, the lucky ones, have banker hours jobs or better yet are retired.

Unfortunately in my case, I have to hold two jobs to keep up with the ample buying pleasure of my lovely spouse, of course she blames me.

My second job is exciting and most of you would not have known about it as I have purposedly kept it under wraps.

Need to get up early in the morning, pack my .22 rifle and locate some road kill. As the buzzards come in for the feast I take them out. I have to collect 12 birds before I go into work.

So you want to know what I do? I shoot dead birds (with a neat cannon) against airplane windshields to insure the integrity of the glass. Yep, it does make a mess, fortunately I don't have to clean it up as they have a crew of "bird disposal specialists"

It's a 4 hour job, pays well and fills my time......what can I say.

What can I say?
What a gig!
I was watching Dirty Jobs, and Mike Rowe complained that his viewers were no longer sending in ideas.
Can I send that in?
I would love to see you on DJ, shooting buzzards out of a cannon.

sorry for the hijack.

[bransan]

Brad, by Your description it does sound like You may have a problem. Check the side to side play as mentioned here many times. I would be concerned if you can feel grit between your fingers when examining the drain plug. I have 35k on My 04' and I change the fd fluid every other oil change, upon very close examination I have found only a very fine build-up on the magnet. Large shiny pieces are definitely cause for concern.

[machew01]

Al, Virginia and North Carolina could certainly use your vulture-killing talents. We have way too many of them!

mac

[boxermania]

brad d writes:

thanks for the reply. 55000 miles on bike. 12000 since last oil change in drive 21 months ago there were metal shaveing i could see and feel i did not take a picture

I side with bransan recomendation as you might be in line for a FD bearing replacement.

With the bike on the center stand, engine off and in neutral, grab the rear tire and rotate forward, can you detect some roughness as the tire rotates? This should give you another data point.....

[riceburner]

Thank you all for your kind words......I have this bad habit of checking email first thing in the am, I know that some of you, the lucky ones, have banker hours jobs or better yet are retired.

Unfortunately in my case, I have to hold two jobs to keep up with the ample buying pleasure of my lovely spouse, of course she blames me.

My second job is exciting and most of you would not have known about it as I have purposedly kept it under wraps.

Need to get up early in the morning, pack my .22 rifle and locate some road kill. As the buzzards come in for the feast I take them out. I have to collect 12 birds before I go into work.

So you want to know what I do? I shoot dead birds (with a neat cannon) against airplane windshields to insure the integrity of the glass. Yep, it does make a mess, fortunately I don't have to clean it up as they have a crew of "bird disposal specialists"

It's a 4 hour job, pays well and fills my time......what can I say.

Do you need an assistant?

[brad d]

well it died last week felt like i had a flat stopped looked nothing 2 more miles oil everywhere coulnd fell it when coasting with clutch in luckly i was only 50 miles from home the tow was coverd by insurance got home took off final drive dropped off at bmw dealer they rebuilt got back one week later $938.00 put it back together today all seems fine. a new final drive is $1400.00 and they would have to order from germany.

[Boxer]

soundslike the metalin your final drive wasthe signalthat your fianl drivebearing was going or had already gone and you probably should not have ridden itany more but since you did and they charged you so much for the repairit makes good sense to stop and replace the bearing before the bikedoes that grease vomiting thingit sounds like an expensiverepair from the dealer also did you have them save the ruined bearing didthey replace the final drive pivot needle bearings when they went in mine soon is going to need this work just as cyclerob is having problems with his i hope my parts arrive from Chicago bmw soon since I wanted to ride to Kentucky next week but may not be able to i might just ride the smaller bike my f650gs would be fine for this trip but the seat is very uncomfortable well i hope they got your bike working fine there sure are a lot of final drive problems lately

[Biped]

soundslike the metalin your final drive wasthe signalthat your fianl drivebearing was going or had already gone and you probably should not have ridden itany more but since you did and they charged you so much for the repairit makes good sense to stop and replace the bearing before the bikedoes that grease vomiting thingit sounds like an expensiverepair from the dealer also did you have them save the ruined bearing didthey replace the final drive pivot needle bearings when they went in mine soon is going to need this work just as cyclerob is having problems with his i hope my parts arrive from Chicago bmw soon since I wanted to ride to Kentucky next week but may not be able to i might just ride the smaller bike my f650gs would be fine for this trip but the seat is very uncomfortable well i hope they got your bike working fine there sure are a lot of final drive problems lately

As a courtesy to your readers, the smallest attempt at punctuation and capitalization would make your post much easier to comprehend.

[CycleRob]

3 mugs of coffee for breakfast then 4 power drinks for lunch gets you going, but we can't keep up!!

Taking FD apart now to see how many bearings have failed. I had wheel movement about .050" at the tire and the straight ahead stability was not there. It seemed to be wandering without any steering input. Very annoying to ride. Also there was a low volume growling sound on right curves. This happened gradually over about 1,000 miles, starting first with a barely perceptible additional noise on right turns. Almost like a tire tread rumble, but it didn't do it cornering left. I knew it was beginning to fail the last time I rode it (yesterday) the straight ahead instability appeared during our 2-up ride. That was the red flag and it's parked since then. A bad bearing allows the gear teeth to mesh tighter and looser than normal and could easily damage them ($$$). Since the lay-up will be several days at the very least, the transmission is also coming off for clutch spline clean/inspect/molygreasing. I drained the FD Mobil-1 GL-5 gear oil I just changed 554 miles ago and it was brand new clean. My Casio Z-55 camera will be used a lot for the outline to come. My fingers are crossed . . . . it's a 2002 model.

.

.

[riceburner]

soundslike the metalin your final drive wasthe signalthat your fianl drivebearing was going or had already gone and you probably should not have ridden itany more but since you did and they charged you so much for the repairit makes good sense to stop and replace the bearing before the bikedoes that grease vomiting thingit sounds like an expensiverepair from the dealer also did you have them save the ruined bearing didthey replace the final drive pivot needle bearings when they went in mine soon is going to need this work just as cyclerob is having problems with his i hope my parts arrive from Chicago bmw soon since I wanted to ride to Kentucky next week but may not be able to i might just ride the smaller bike my f650gs would be fine for this trip but the seat is very uncomfortable well i hope they got your bike working fine there sure are a lot of final drive problems lately

... Aaaand breathe!

[Boxer]

Sorry. I thought this was a NON-punctuation thread.

[sjbmw]

gilardi the class action lawyer beat Honda, maybe he needs to take a look.

Hello,

I am writing because I was a beneficiary in your class action with Honda, and did get my windshield replaced. Thank you.

I also own a 2004 BMW motorcycle, and although I have not had problems with mine (knock wood), the number of final drive (motorcycle shaft) failures is reaching epic proportions in the BMW motorcycle community.

There are no hard statistics on the failure rate, as BMW North America is absolutely silent on the problem, as the disintegration of one’s drive shaft leaves motorcyclist stranded, and with repair bills up to 20% of the cost of the motorcycle.

Since there is not central repository for statistics (remember, BMW refuses to acknowledge it) riders have started blogging and recording themselves. Not every rider who has suffered a final drive failure is aware of the website below.

http://www.bmwfinaldrive.com/

http://www.bmwfinaldrive.com/fd_failure_list.php

Since you had success with Honda, perhaps you would be interested in examining this issue.



Thanks