Piston Failures 12RT

[Pickaxe]

Several police forces have reported piston failures in low mileage R1200RT patrol bikes.

BMW are reporting they've had a total of 18 failures and say the cause is a material defect.

Have there been any known failures or problems in civillian machines.

[Mike]

That's the first I've heard of this issue.

[Tapatio]

Apparently holes are developing in the center of the piston.

 

 

I couldn't resist, sorry.

[erkmania]

Apparently holes are developing in the center of the piston.

 

 

I couldn't resist, sorry.

 

 

Oh my, you're killing me.

[AZRTRDR]

Apparently holes are developing in the center of the piston.

 

 

 

 

The engines were not broken in properly.

It is obvious when you look at this piston's crown that there is excessive glazing. Possibly from being fried in synthetic oil.

 

[SageRider]

That's the first I've heard of this issue.

ditto.

[StuGotz]

<Several police forces have reported piston failures in low mileage R1200RT patrol bikes.>

 

Could you be more specific here??

 

What type of piston failures?

 

There can be many reasons for piston failure...

[keithb]

All I can say is when are all of you comedians from this website showing up at my local comedy club? I will certainly attend this event!!

[Martyn]

The first indications are that, despite being told not to, bikes are being left running whilst on the stand, even the side stand.

Also, cheap supermarket fuel is being used - in the UK Super Unleaded is the recommendation.

Civvie bikes appear unaffected.

All you need to know about police officers is this:-

"Put three of them in a padded cell with a golf ball each, & within an hour one will have lost his, one will have broken his, & the third one will have eaten his"

DAMHIK

[Pickaxe]

The first indications are that, despite being told not to, bikes are being left running whilst on the stand, even the side stand.

Also, cheap supermarket fuel is being used - in the UK Super Unleaded is the recommendation.

Civvie bikes appear unaffected.

All you need to know about police officers is this:-

"Put three of them in a padded cell with a golf ball each, & within an hour one will have lost his, one will have broken his, & the third one will have eaten his"

DAMHIK

 

Martyn

 

I totally agree with your three policeman analogy. It's the ultimate enviroment to test any motor vehicle. However, I can asure you that our bike was run in correctly, filled with 98 octane fuel and not abused in any way. It has about 4000 miles on the clock and is a one man bike, used by an experienced rider.

The most annoying aspect is, according to BMW, there aren't any parts available to fix them? It has now been in dock for three weeks.

The other two occurencies I know of are in Cambridgeshire.

[gadgetgaz]

Hi, Martyn. Good to see your sense of humour is still intact :-)

 

Anyway, we have all been issued with agency cards for our RTPs so we can fill them up with 98 octane at petrol stations. We have been forbidden to fill them at our own pumps.

[motoguy128]

I wonder if there is a tendency of motor officers to lug the motor at low speeds instead of fanning the clutch? I know if I drove in a lot of stop and go traffic, I wouldn't want a BMW. So you have a very hot piston, then a little knocking from runing it at full throttle under 2000RPM, and I could see some problems. The mtoor however, needs ot be desined ot tolerate this behavior.

 

I think there still has to be some other meterial defect.

 

hopefull BMW sorts it out. Just saying the officers did something abusive is the wrong attitude and creates an image that the bike is not durable enough for police service. Long idling should not cause problems as the police models should have a oil cooler fan to allow the bike ot idle for long periods. Perhaps they need small auxilary fans on the cylinder heads as well.

[Pickaxe]

Our bike failed at approx 70 mph, in top gear on a light throttle. I haven't seen the piston, but I'm told it hasn't any signs of over heating

[ShovelStrokeEd]

I would be hard put to credit piston failure to any prolonged period of idling or even lugging. Absent a machining or metalurgical problem, it takes a considerable set of forces to build enough heat to melt a piston top or collapse a ring land or skirt. The afore mentioned being the most common failures. Prolonged detonation could cause the first two but, it ain't happening in a short period of time and never at idle.

 

I would suspect a bad lot of pistons from the supplier, either poor castings of forgings, an out of spec machine tool or just a wrong lot of metal from the foundry.

[motoguy128]

Sounds like defective materials then. They must have gotten some bad pistons. They should be able to trace the LOT# of the pistons through the VIN.

 

The truth... BMW knows exactly what the problem is but doesn't want to say anything for fear of a possible recall.

 

It at least sounds like the problem is isolated. I'm guessing they've made several thousand R1200RT police bikes so far.

 

I

m sure you'll keep us posted as to what the outcome us.

[Pickaxe]

Unfortunately, another of our 12RTs has gone down with the same fault. That's two of our five 12RTs off the road and the parts for the first failure, have only just been supplied for the first bike (6 weeks).

 

I don't imagine fleet managers being over impressed with the reliability or parts supply.

 

On a more positive note, my bike, which was one of the original five, has now done 8000 miles without a major problem.

 

It's just completed 2000 escorting miles on the Tour of Britain cycle race and were as harsh as you could imagine a bike could be treated. The other RTs there, were also reliable.