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

Can anyone tell me what the FD OEM fluid color is? I replaced it as a second owner and it was red (but do nto know if the original owner had it changed-not on the records he gave me), just switched to redline shockproof oil and it is red too.

I believe the original color was somewhere between light caramel and natural amber. Not trying to be a smart-ass here just hard to describe a color - maybe straw-brown is a better choice of words.

chibbert wrote:I believe the original color was somewhere between light caramel and natural amber. Not trying to be a smart-ass here just hard to describe a color - maybe straw-brown is a better choice of words.

Okay, because the fluid I removed from the FD was red and rather thick, original owner must of had it replaced with the redline fluid.

Not to imply that they are related...but, I thought the Redline Shockproof gear oil would be the best I could do to lube my final drive. Seemed cool. A long time later, after seeing some leakage, then on my way to the repair shop, there was a repidly increasing grinding noise and feel. Indeed, it was a final drive failure. Lotsa metal shavings. Fortunately, the gears were all ok. "Just" needed new seals. $800 later, I was back on the road.

I would never say that Redline was not an ok oil to use. I thought that once I put it in, it would be ok for a long time. I had read in this forum where some riders changed their transmission and rear end oils seemingly TOO often - I thought "BAH! too often". I think that's where I went wrong. I don't know how many miles I had on the fluid - but it was clearly too many. The mechanic suggested I use the BMW brand of rear end fluid (as well as transmission fluid). Clearly, change these fluids st the specified intervals! I would like to continue to use the Redline oils, but I can't tempt fate at this point.

dnat928 wrote:Not to imply that they are related...but, I thought the Redline Shockproof gear oil would be the best I could do to lube my final drive. Seemed cool. A long time later, after seeing some leakage, then on my way to the repair shop, there was a repidly increasing grinding noise and feel. Indeed, it was a final drive failure. Lotsa metal shavings. Fortunately, the gears were all ok. "Just" needed new seals. $800 later, I was back on the road.

I would never say that Redline was not an ok oil to use. I thought that once I put it in, it would be ok for a long time. I had read in this forum where some riders changed their transmission and rear end oils seemingly TOO often - I thought "BAH! too often". I think that's where I went wrong. I don't know how many miles I had on the fluid - but it was clearly too many. The mechanic suggested I use the BMW brand of rear end fluid (as well as transmission fluid). Clearly, change these fluids st the specified intervals! I would like to continue to use the Redline oils, but I can't tempt fate at this point.

The Redline is a very viscous oil compared to Valvoline 80/90 weight (even though they say it is a 75 weight). When I first removed it (after the previous owner) there was a little redish-grey paste around the magnet on the drain plug, but after running the Valvoline 80/90 semi-synthetic I found there was more grey paste around the drain plug magnet than with the Redline. Not sure what to make of it so far.

And it takes more than 230 mL to bring the oil up to to the bottom of the filler threads, were you low?

I was not seeing any leakage...til it was too late. When the first leakage was seen, the level was still ok. I believe I had a brain fart regarding the fluid change intervals.