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

Hi Folks,
First off I own a 1996 R1100R, as depicted by this forum. So for starters I am in the right spot.
I am new to this forum, just found it the other day. I have a question about oil and see that a post back in sumer 2014 was not addressed at all. It is the same type question I have.

I will ask it again.

I have owned my rig for a little over a year. I had been sold 75w-140 synthetic from the dealer for the tranny and final drive, trusting their guidence without looking in my manual first. The problem was that I had bought this, and developed other issues and put the oil change on the back bunner so to speak. So now 6 months later I am ready to change the oil and looked in my manual and found that the recomended oil from the factory is either 80 or 90 hypoid, or weight or 80w-90 hypoid. Not synthetic. Which oil have people been using on there rigs and how has the success rate been/final drive bearing failures? My rig has 50k on it.

I switched to all synthetic at about 20k miles on my R1150R. Never regretted it. Over 43k now, and the bike runs fine.

If you don't mind the extra cost, synthetic is great for high mileage boxers.

Owner's manuals will not recommend synthetic oils, but they do not hurt.

What you should pay attention to is the octane rating recommendation for fuel.

If I run under 89, my bike pings. And the manual says "89".

As far as drive failures go, they are not really related to oil, but factory installed shims.

2 things to watch for:

Weeping oil from the rubber boots on the drive, gathering on the rear wheel.
Mostly in the back due to gravity.

OR

Metal shavings on the magnetic final drive plug.

If either of these things happen, stop riding, and get a mechanic to inspect the drive.

I was able to save big bucks several years ago, as catching a problem early was the difference between a $125 repair, vs. thousands for a new drive. There is a MCN article by Paul Glaves that explains the shim issue, and sure enough, my mechanic described the same exact problem, without ever reading the article.

I don't recall 1996 models suffering from this much though, it came on in later models, but I could be wrong.

Welcome to the board!

Mine is low mileage. I JUST did both and used 75/90 dinosaur oil. What came out of mine was nice and clean. Synthetic is great for those who use the crap outta their bikes, it is tougher. But, flip side of the coin, can be slightly tougher on seals over time.

I decided to use the dino 80w-90. Just changed the FD, oil was clean and no metal on the mag plug.