Changing FD oil

[FuzzyRider]

I recently bought a 2013 with 48000 miles on it. It had been sitting at a dealer for a  year and a half for some unknown reason so I decided to change all the fluids. Oil and tramission went fine but when it came time to change the final drive oil I could not fine the fill plug. I had seen several videos about how easy it was, but none of them mentioned that for 2013 and prior this task would be a real chore. Who in their right mind would design something like THIS?

 

In any case I am quite happy with the bike. As I was doing my work I noticed that the battery was 6 years old and made a mental note to replace it but at that point did not. The next day started off at 50 degrees F but I had to make a 400 mile trip. So I got caught in a huge traffic jam on I 75 with the seat and grip heaters going full blast. Move foward 30 feet and stop and then repeat over and over. I eventually made a mistake with the clutch and killed the engine. I then discovered that the battery would not start the bike. I called the insurance company and discovered that I had not included emergency road service. I then called a towing service in a town I had just passed. They said fine but where are you because we can't send a truck unless we know where you are. I could not see any mile markers so I began walking. Finally found a billboard which noted how many miles to the next exit so I started back to the bike. When I got there I tried one last time to start it and wonder of wonders it started. Called the towing service back and offered to pay them for their trouble but they said no problem. In the end this turned what should have been a 6 hour trip in almost 9 hours Moral : when the manual says that the warmers can drain the battery BELIEVE it.

 

[Hati]

1 hour ago, FuzzyRider said:

Oil and tramission went fine but when it came time to change the final drive oil I could not fine the fill plug.

 

The fill plug on a cam head is the ABS sensor hole. You need to take the wheel off, sensor out and use a large syringe if you want to make it easy. Some cheap tool/general goods stores have small engine oil change kits that include a nice 90cc syringe that is great with the FD.

[6speedTi]

10 minutes ago, Hati said:

 

The fill plug on a cam head is the ABS sensor hole. You need to take the wheel off, sensor out and use a large syringe if you want to make it easy. Some cheap tool/general goods stores have small engine oil change kits that include a nice 90cc syringe that is great with the FD.

The 2013 has a fill port plug.  Do not use the ABS sensor to fill the final drive. 

[6speedTi]

[6speedTi]

It is easier to get to the fill plug by removing rear wheel. 180 ml. of gear oil is the current capacity. Do not fill to overflow. 

[6speedTi]

Use a 6 mm hex wrench. Do not use a torx wrench. I've made that mistake. 

[szurszewski]

3 hours ago, Hati said:

 

The fill plug on a cam head is the ABS sensor hole. You need to take the wheel off, sensor out and use a large syringe if you want to make it easy. Some cheap tool/general goods stores have small engine oil change kits that include a nice 90cc syringe that is great with the FD.

 

 

As very well shown above, the later final drives do have a fill hole. The early 1200s came with FDs that had "lifetime" oil - or so BMW said - and thus no fill/drain holes. Even those BMW eventually said, yeah - that oil isn't really lifetime after all, thus the dance moves to change it. The FDs can be swapped either way though, so at this point, with the "newest" of the 1200s being ten years old, it's possible to find either type of FD on any given bike from that model range. 

[dirtrider]

23 minutes ago, szurszewski said:

 

 

As very well shown above, the later final drives do have a fill hole. The early 1200s came with FDs that had "lifetime" oil - or so BMW said - and thus no fill/drain holes. Even those BMW eventually said, yeah - that oil isn't really lifetime after all, thus the dance moves to change it. The FDs can be swapped either way though, so at this point, with the "newest" of the 1200s being ten years old, it's possible to find either type of FD on any given bike from that model range. 

Afternoon  szurszewski

 

The final drive fill plug was pretty well phased in when BMW went to the Gen2 final drives after 08/06. That was done when the brake system went from the original I-ABS (wizzy) brake system to the post 08/2006 I-ABS gen 2 brake system.

 

You probably won't find any pre 08/06 (no drain plug final drives) on post 08/06 1200 bikes as the internal tone ring tooth count was different. Well at least if they wanted the speedometer & ABS to work correctly.  

 

After 2009 (possibly even on very/very/very late 2009) 1200 bikes BMW added an external vent to the final drive so if the drive has an external vent it is typically 2010 up. I have seen a number of the later vented final drives used as service replacements on 08/06 to 2009 1200 bikes.  

 

 

[Hati]

7 hours ago, 6speedTi said:

The 2013 has a fill port plug.  Do not use the ABS sensor to fill the final drive. 

 

Sorry. I was thinking of the hexhead final drive I had, that was an '06 model, fitting in with DR's summery. 

[FuzzyRider]

Guys, thank you for all the input. I realized that I would have to move the muffler and the rear wheel to get to the fill plug after (1)  Not finding the fill plug where it should be and (2) Seeing a video on YouTube. After that i began ro wonder that perhaps the plug is where it is as a money maker for dealers. Now i know that BMW allows junior engineers to make stupid mistakes. Perhaps this is one of the contributing factors for the ( former i hope ) high incidence of HD failures.

[dirtrider]

30 minutes ago, FuzzyRider said:

Guys, thank you for all the input. I realized that I would have to move the muffler and the rear wheel to get to the fill plug after (1)  Not finding the fill plug where it should be and (2) Seeing a video on YouTube. After that i began ro wonder that perhaps the plug is where it is as a money maker for dealers. Now i know that BMW allows junior engineers to make stupid mistakes. Perhaps this is one of the contributing factors for the ( former i hope ) high incidence of HD failures.

Morning  FuzzyRider

 

BMW didn't make a mistake. If you look inside the final drive you will see how close the ring gear comes to the thin walled final drive housing. It would be difficult to re-design in a fill plug with enough material around it without a major re-design from the original (no-fill-plug casting).

 

It was much easier/cheaper to just add a fill plug to the side cover than a major change (plus weight addition) to the existing alloy drive casting. 

 

To keep service simple you just need to change your final drive service to be done when you change a rear tire. With the drive only holding about 6 ounces of gear oil, personally, I typically change my final drive oil at each rear tire change. 

 

BMW did add a fill plug to the final drive alloy housing when they made a major drive casting change on later 1200/1250 motorcycles. 

 

 

[FuzzyRider]

Well, I definitely DO NOT want to see the inside of the final drive unit and I will take your word for it. It just seems to me that most of the maintenance is so simple that even I can do it ( if I am willing to stand on my head for a while ) while this operation seems so complex. Oh well, I haven't tried to check the valves yet. Anyone know how much a dealer typically charges for that?