2013 1200RT reliability

[Hadabadachada]

I’ve been trying to find a reliability post on the 2013 RT and just seem to find topics of issues. 
I guess that says something, but I’m curious how they really get on with the high mileage?

 

I have an 04 1100S with high mileage and was looking to upgrade.

I really want a 2016+ 1200RS but they are a bit out of my spending range. 
always wanted an RT. Found a few with say 20,000 miles that are priced right. 
 

how does this year compare to my oil head? Smoother, better fuel mileage, less issues? 
 

or maybe more potential issues?

 

youd think most things would be sorted this many years into development.

 

thanks for your input.

[Hadabadachada]

I guess I’m also curious how this 2013 would compare to a 2007 as well. 

Im looking at a couple of each of these bikes all in the 20,000 mile range.
the 07 is only a few years newer than my 04, but maybe it’s potentially better than the newer 2013? 

I put a lot of miles on my bike each year and am looking for the best option for reliability.

please advise, thank you!

[DaveCinNO]

I’m on my 3rd RT having an oil head, hex head and now a ‘13 cam head. Without a doubt the 2013 is the best I’ve owned both from a fun to ride and reliability stand point. I’m at 70k and have done nothing but regular maintenance, tires and a battery. I don’t think you can go wrong with a cam head and ‘13 was the last year for RTs. 
 

good luck

[Hadabadachada]

4 minutes ago, DaveCinNO said:

and ‘13 was the last year for RTs. 
 

good luck

I suppose they should be the best they ever were. 
id really like the RS, i like the way they put a multi plate clutch right in the front real easy. I dread having to do a clutch on the S. One of the things I’d probably pay big bucks and have someone else do. Unless I have another bike.

[DaveCinNO]

On the ‘07 question, I also had an ‘06 and had a some problems with it, mostly with recalls but the final straw was as the brake modulator dying and that year they cannot be rebuilt. That’s when I got the ‘13. 

[lkraus]

I don't really consider mileage to be an issue with any of the boxer twins.  Some years had components with design or supplier issues, but those are pretty well known and remedied. Might want to watch the driveshaft U-joints after 75-80K miles, otherwise I'd just expect to need regular scheduled maintenance.  20K miles is just broken in.

[M Novack]

I don't have a 2013, mine is a 2010 RT, early year production so only difference is fuel strip (mine hasn't failed but seems to never read full) and I think the forks were revised. I purchased mine with 53,000 miles on it. Not absolutely sure of previous owner buut I was told he kept it maintained. Mileage is now 99,870, could turn over 100,000 miles this weekend. Bike has been absolutely reliable. I am fairly religious on maintenance - oil changes, gearbox oil changes, rear differential fluid changes and spline lubrication, spark plugs, air filter and belt. All I have done myself. All these maintenance tasks are fairly easy and don't require any real fancy tools.  Bike has not failed me or had any breakdowns. I usually end up replacing tires every season as I log an average of 12K a year. Done rear brake pads 3 times and have not needed to do front brake pads, not sure if previous owner did, appear to be BMW brand pads. At 95,300 I did do the clutch, it was slipping but I was still riding it, and it was worn out. Clutch is not a cheap job, can be done by many on own, just a lot of work to access but not highly technical.  Newer wet clutch RT's much easier but I understand other repairs like alternator are worse. Also add water cooled so one more "system" to repair and leak.  Not as complex as far as electronics on newer RT's so probably less to fail in that aspect and maybe easier to work on from the owner viewpoint. Many have said the 2010-2013 is the best years for RT.  At 20,000 miles this bike seems like still in childhood and besides maintenance, likely many years of trouble free riding. Of course any machine can have failures or you can get the "lemon" but I'd have no second thoughts about a 2013 with 20K on the clock as long as I know maintenance was done and not abused. I figure I can probably get 200,000 miles out of my 2010 if I don't get a newer one before, although I'd consider keeping it as a back-up bike if I did.

[9Mary7]

12 hours ago, M Novack said:

Many have said the 2010-2013 is the best years for RT

Absolutely!  

[jdub53]

Last month I traded a 74k mile 2014 R1200GS on a 38k mile 2013 R1200RT. Some would consider that going backwards (from the newer liquid cooled engine with wet, multi-plate clutch to the air/oil cooled motor) but having many years and miles of experience with all of the older Boxer engines (Airheads, Oilheads and Hexheads) I'm quite comfortable with everything about those bikes including their reliability and prefer a few things over my LC GS. This is my first Camhead, and I have no reason to doubt this is the best of the pre-LC bikes. I consider this RT just a pup with its mileage, although the shocks are pretty well gone. With about 1,000 miles on this RT now I have it pretty well sorted for me and am very happy with it.

 

If you're moderately competent as a mechanic, accessing/changing the clutch on a pre-LC bike is well within your ability. I had to replace the worn-to-the-rivets clutch on my '94 R1100RS at only 30k miles (early build first year bike with bad/soft friction disc material), pulled the gearbox on my '99 R1100S at 46k miles to check/lube the clutch splines because I was bored one winter and did the same on my '07 GSA at 68k miles. I replaced the GSA's clutch three years later at 133k miles, with actual wrenching time on each bike about six hours start to finish. A couple of pics below from the S and GSA events.

 

 

Good luck on your RT quest.    

[MichiganBob]

My 12 rt was much more reliable than my 02 which had slave cylinder,  clutch, and headlight wiring issues.  I'm not sure if the 13 had a recall on handlebar switches like the 12 did.  When I had it done it was an open recall.

[Hadabadachada]

My clutch still seems to work. It does make an awful lot of racket at idle spinning around.

slaves cylinders have been an issue on my bike. Sometimes i wonder if a lot of that racket is the push rod thing vibrating around. 
can I pull that straight out with the slave off?

final drives has been my latest issue. Wish I had more tools. 
I’m just letting the current one leak from the pinion seal. I gotta top it off today. 
 

other than that, I’ve taken my 04 S from 26k in April 2020 when I got it to 76k currently and it’s been pretty great aside from those things. 
 

would just like to get something newer/lower mileage since I put so many miles on. 

[jdub53]

2 hours ago, Hadabadachada said:

My clutch still seems to work. It does make an awful lot of racket at idle spinning around.

slaves cylinders have been an issue on my bike. Sometimes i wonder if a lot of that racket is the push rod thing vibrating around. 
can I pull that straight out with the slave off?

final drives has been my latest issue. Wish I had more tools. 
I’m just letting the current one leak from the pinion seal. I gotta top it off today. 
 

other than that, I’ve taken my 04 S from 26k in April 2020 when I got it to 76k currently and it’s been pretty great aside from those things. 
 

would just like to get something newer/lower mileage since I put so many miles on. 

 

Once the clutch slave cylinder is removed you should be able to pull the pushrod directly rearward. The pushrod on my '94 RS was stuck fast, but I was able to pull it out with pliers with a small piece of leather wrapped around the aft end. Once removed it was evident a small bit of corrosion had the pushrod stuck to the diaphram spring tapered mating surface, so it was reinstalled with a dab of grease on that mating surface. No such issue on my '99 S; it came right out.

 

The clutch slave cylinder release bearing on my R1100S failed at about 38k miles, as did the clutch release bearing on my '94 R1100RS at about 35k miles. In both instances just prior to failure I felt the clutch engagement point changing during several successive shifts, and then pulling the clutch lever did nothing (just like a broken clutch cable) but both times I was able to ride home doing clutchless shifts. 

 

Both times I found the bearings had failed due to being completely dry/empty of grease. After that second failure (the one on the S), I realized the commonality and started greasing that little release bearing every 30k miles on each bike so equipped and never experienced another failure. I sold my '07 GSA with 145k miles and never had that bearing fail due to my greasing intervals. The replacement slave cylinder bearings from BMW only have a wee little dab of grease which obviously only lasts so long, and you may want to check the condition of the release bearing in your slave cylinder.

 

Pics from my R1100S slave cylinder's bearing failure, and note how the bearing inner race is cocked due to balls coming out of it:

 

 

 

 

[Hadabadachada]

Yup, same thing here. 
tried doing preventative maintaining and replaced the original slave at like 60k? 
The bearing in the EME replacement felt kinda rough, but whatever, greased it up, installed, worked fine for 2000 miles then failed on the way home, made it back without issue thank goodness. Put the original back in, which failed me a few thousand later, managed to get home again thank goodness. 
replaced with an OEM. Greased it real good, guess I should check on that every 20 or 30k like you. 
 

the final drive seems to be the biggest issue for me.

on this old oilhead it’s almost impossible to get rebuilt, no one does it.

and on the newer ones it potentially COULD be an issue. 
a lot of the used bikes I look at are in the 50k range, I’ll double that in a few years….what’s the chance I’m going to pick up someone’s future issue for my own on a higher mileage bike. 
so many gambles lol

I just love to ride.

 

[abush357]

I bought a 2012 with 165,000 miles on it last summer. Runs and drives great, original clutch, most common issue the PO seems to have had was replacing the headlight bulb connectors, that was done several times. 165K isn't low miles, but there are certainly RT's out there with higher miles.

[jdub53]

12 hours ago, Hadabadachada said:

the final drive seems to be the biggest issue for me.

on this old oilhead it’s almost impossible to get rebuilt, no one does it.

 

 

 

Have you checked here for final drive work on your S? Not sure he does it, but worth a try and good luck.

 

BMW motorcycle repair in Charlottesville, VA (old site) (vamotorrad.com)

[dirtrider]

17 hours ago, Hadabadachada said:

My clutch still seems to work. It does make an awful lot of racket at idle spinning around.

slaves cylinders have been an issue on my bike. Sometimes i wonder if a lot of that racket is the push rod thing vibrating around. 
can I pull that straight out with the slave off?

final drives has been my latest issue. Wish I had more tools. 
I’m just letting the current one leak from the pinion seal. I gotta top it off today. 
 

other than that, I’ve taken my 04 S from 26k in April 2020 when I got it to 76k currently and it’s been pretty great aside from those things. 
 

would just like to get something newer/lower mileage since I put so many miles on. 

Morning Hadabadachada

 

On your clutch noise, see if you can define the root-cause a little better?  With the clutch noise present try very lightly pulling on the clutch lever, not enough to disengage the clutch but j-u-s-t enough to take the slack out of the slave piston to push rod. If that doesn't stop the noise then very possibly  your clutch noise is just transmission neutral gear rattle  (pretty normal).

 

If the clutch noise stops with very light pressure on the clutch lever then possibly your pushrod felt is missing or beat to death & not doing it's job of quieting pushrod rattle. There is supposed to be an anti-rattle felt on the pushrod to stop it from rattling.

 

You might also try using the twist grip to slightly raise the engine idle RPM & smooth the engine idle firing pulses out. If this helps that usually points transmission neutral gear rattle (again pretty normal).

 

 

 

 

[dirtrider]

19 hours ago, Hadabadachada said:

 

final drives has been my latest issue. Wish I had more tools. 
I’m just letting the current one leak from the pinion seal. I gotta top it off today. 
 

Morning Hadabadachada

 

On the final drive pinion seal  leak,

 

I haven't seen that many pinion seals that actually LEAK on their own. I have seen a lot that have a continuous slow seep though. 

 

Before sending out for a rebuild, there are a couple of things to try or look at. 

 

Start by popping the vent cap off then making sure the vent hole under it is not restricted or plugged. A plugged vent can easily cause a pinion seal seep. 

 

Next easy thing to try is IF you are currently using a synthetic gear oil, or if you are using a 75WXX anything they try draining the drive overnight then re-fill with plain old Dino (non-synthetic) GL-5 80w90 gear oil.   I have seen a number of old 1100/1150 drives quit seeping, or almost quit seeping, when switched over to a non-synthetic gear oil as the older Dino gear oils typically have more seal conditioner in them.  It does take a while for the seep to slow or stop after switching to Dino gear oil so give it some time. 

[Hadabadachada]

Great info as always. 
I believe you had told me to check the vent previously, which was clear. 
I then peeled the boot back to have a look, did not see any oil coming down the swing arm, so that’s good.

 

I would consider my leak a slow seep.

i do use a regular dino Lucas 80-90 in the final drive so, not much I can do about that, just keep cleaning up the drips. Just topped it off this morning with maybe like 5-10 table spoons of oil, so not too much, just kinda messy and lingers in the back of my head.

 

I suppose if I didn’t ride 1-2000 miles a month I may not even notice, but since I do, I do. 
 

did the slight/barely pull of the clutch, seems like with just a bit of pressure the rattling stops, so I’d assume it’s the felt damper that’s gone to dust, maybe I’ll try and do something about that at some point.

[dirtrider]

2 hours ago, Hadabadachada said:

Great info as always. 
I believe you had told me to check the vent previously, which was clear. 
I then peeled the boot back to have a look, did not see any oil coming down the swing arm, so that’s good.

 

I would consider my leak a slow seep.

i do use a regular dino Lucas 80-90 in the final drive so, not much I can do about that, just keep cleaning up the drips. Just topped it off this morning with maybe like 5-10 table spoons of oil, so not too much, just kinda messy and lingers in the back of my head.

 

I suppose if I didn’t ride 1-2000 miles a month I may not even notice, but since I do, I do. 
 

did the slight/barely pull of the clutch, seems like with just a bit of pressure the rattling stops, so I’d assume it’s the felt damper that’s gone to dust, maybe I’ll try and do something about that at some point.

Morning Hadabadachada

 

Before giving up you might try a more mainstream conventional like Valvoline or Castrol  80w90 non-limited slip   (without limited slip additives). You don't want a limited slip gear oil if at all possible. 

 

Kind of a long shot but definitely worth an $8.00 try.  

 

 

[Hadabadachada]

I’m actually coming up on 6000 miles in the gearbox so I will be doing all lubricating fluids shortly, I will give that a go and see if there’s any difference, thanks for the pointers as per usual!

[MoPops]

First post here.  Looking at buying a 2011 RT.  Narrowed it down to one with 19,000 mi, and one with 45,000 mi.  Both are well sorted with all the aftermarket stuff I’d want.  Priced ok in my budget world.  Ha!   Reading lots of good things here about the 2010-13 bikes.  I’ve had BMWs before 96GS, 08 and 14GSAs, and a 04LT.  Just turning 69 this summer.  Want a bit more comfort on long rides, but don’t want to go back to the bigger 6 cyl bikes.  

[Hadabadachada]

35 minutes ago, MoPops said:

First post here.  Looking at buying a 2011 RT.  Narrowed it down to one with 19,000 mi, and one with 45,000 mi.  Both are well sorted with all the aftermarket stuff I’d want.  Priced ok in my budget world.  Ha!   Reading lots of good things here about the 2010-13 bikes.  I’ve had BMWs before 96GS, 08 and 14GSAs, and a 04LT.  Just turning 69 this summer.  Want a bit more comfort on long rides, but don’t want to go back to the bigger 6 cyl bikes.  

I’m trying to get one of those newer bikes too. Just tough to find a good one at a good price before someone else jumps on it. And I’m looking country wide. Preferably east coast, but I’m willing to fly and ride cross country. 
after reading some of the posts of people getting high mileage bikes, it helps because they kinda scare me off. Would hate to get a 50,000+ Mile bike and then have a FD go bad or something. 
 

I love the 04 I have, and it runs strong, great bike, but certain things get tough and pricey to fix or replace. 
 

hoping to find some good deals after the new year.

[freetime2247]

I have a 2012RT and living here in the south the engine does tend to get hot in stop and go traffic. I have about 55K miles and other than riding in really hot stop and go traffic its been a very dependable bike with only minor issues. I'd like to upgrade to the water cooled RT someday.

[MoPops]

3 hours ago, freetime2247 said:

I have a 2012RT and living here in the south the engine does tend to get hot in stop and go traffic. I have about 55K miles and other than riding in really hot stop and go traffic its been a very dependable bike with only minor issues. I'd like to upgrade to the water cooled RT someday.

I had a 2008 GSA, and it got hot also, but not bad.  Hottest it ever got was trying to go through Atlanta.   Big mistake. Never go through Atlanta..  I had a 14GSA also.  I guess it ran cooler, smoother, and had more power, but I honestly couldn’t tell.  I’m pretty sure I’ll be fine with the 2011 RT.  If I can get it to fit me.  

[009jim]

I wish they put the steering damper on the RT similar to the R.

 

[Hadabadachada]

Ended up getting a 2013 R1200R. Seemed like a sweet deal to me, low miles. No protection like the RT, but I figure for the majority of the riding I do it would be good. I like to take two road trips a year, but otherwise it’s all city/highway. 
 

so far I’m thinking the fuel strip isn’t right, left me on the side of the road in the first few days showing I had 28 miles left. Don’t know what to do about that, guess I’ll call the dealer and inquire.

I just replaced the starter. It always had a slow start, felt like the battery was weak but it all checked out. Got a replacement, fires right up. I’m sure the dealer has nothing to say about that oh well. Did the rusty fill thing. Hoping that S1000 gasket thing keeps the water out. Noticed the drain was clogged after a rain, water pooled up in the filler lip. Had to remove the tank to get it unclogged, removed charcoal canister and replaced/rerouted lines. Took the K&N out to put an OEM in. Want to change all fluids now. 
wondering if reverse pumping the brakes is okay? I saw a guy doing the clutch from bleeder to master with a syringe, can I do that with the brakes too? Seems maybe easier. 
 

Got a rack for my givi top cases. in the market for a seat now. Bike didn’t come with luggage, I’d like that for the road trips, pricey. 
Also engine guards, another thing to save for. 
 

nice bike though. Hope for many many trouble free miles.

 

[Hadabadachada]

Oh yeah, on the charcoal canister removal, I see there’s a wire/connector going to a valve or some kinda thing, I have the hoses on both ends disconnected, does that just sit there now? Do I unhook the connector?