Help - doing my 6K tomorrow - what is replacing brake fluid in wheel circuits?

[lthj75]

That is the only line that confuses me....

 

On Maintenance Schedule - Page 5

[ScottT]

Perhaps you are confused because the 6k service schedule does not call for any brake fluid to be changed. It does show up under the annual service page as this:

 

34 00 608 Changing brake fluid in entire Integral ABS control circuit (during servicing)*) every two years

[TowJam]

FWIW, that's not the most current maintenance schedule - I noticed there was no FD flush/refill for the 1km "run in" service.

[lthj75]

Perhaps you are confused because the 6k service schedule does not call for any brake fluid to be changed. It does show up under the annual service page as this:

 

34 00 608 Changing brake fluid in entire Integral ABS control circuit (during servicing)*) every two years

 

Nope - I believe you read it wrong - page 5....

CHANGING BRAKE FLUID IN WHEEL CIRCUITS. Page 5 is at the initial 10km (6K miles).

[lthj75]

Bump......anyone know what this is??? Doing my 12K in 2 weeks and its listed there too. The dealer ended up doing my 6K as I had head bolt issues which were covered under warranty.

[motoguy128]

There are 2 hydraulic circuits in the ABS system. One is the circit from the module to each wheel. This is the "wheel circuit". The other circuit is the internal circuit from the master cylinder and the servo motor/valve.

 

The general thought is that the wheels circuit sees a lot of heat cycles since the caliper gets hot form hard braking, or even normal braking. High temps and heat cycling can bake the fluid over time and lower the boiling point or at minimum it gets darker. The other circuit, does not get hot from use.

[Ken H.]

Yellow flag going up here...

 

Before you get into your brakes you need to be clear how the system works on your '06, and reading between the lines I suspect you may not be.

 

There are four separate hydraulic circuits for the brakes on your bike. And separate is the key word. Front lever to ABS unit, ABS unit to the front calipers, rear pedal to ABS unit and ABS unit to rear caliper. None of the fluid in each of these four circuits ever touches any of the others. So when flush and bleeding the brakes there are very specific procedures to follow. You can't just put new fluid in the top reservoirs and expect it to bleed out the calipers. Look in the FAQ section here for two threads that describe the procedure. The threads are written for the R1150xx, but the '05 & '06 R1200xx are the same.

[marcopolo]

In terms of frequency of changes, I was told by my independent BMW Master tech that, for "new" bikes with steel-braided brake lines, the schedule was doubled to: every two years for wheel circuits, and every four years for control circuits. I have an '06 R12T and he said these intervals applied to my bike.

[Jim VonBaden]

In terms of frequency of changes, I was told by my independent BMW Master tech that, for "new" bikes with steel-braided brake lines, the schedule was doubled to: every two years for wheel circuits, and every four years for control circuits. I have an '06 R12T and he said these intervals applied to my bike.

 

Exactly, so unless you have a problem, or excessive miles (6K is not excessive), or your bike is 24 months old, you should not yet be due for fluid replacement.

 

I am just about to do mine, at 40K miles and 2 years. Of course I have already done is dozens of times, so no big deal.

 

Jim