final drive

[mig]

ok guys

coming up on the 12K service on the 2007 RT I just got. The BMW guy mentioned draining the final drive, which got me to wondering. According to him ( service manager) the 2007 did not have a drain plug, so its a big deal to drain remove rear wheel and disconnect final drive, tilt, and drain,. then i thought, why not put a syringe and pull out the old oil. I know that its not prefect and there might be metal in the bottom, but why not suck out all the oil and re-fill to the right amount.

All bashing welcome.

your thoughts

Miguel

[RoSPA_man]

ok guys

coming up on the 12K service on the 2007 RT I just got. The BMW guy mentioned draining the final drive, which got me to wondering. According to him ( service manager) the 2007 did not have a drain plug, so its a big deal to drain remove rear wheel and disconnect final drive, tilt, and drain,. then i thought, why not put a syringe and pull out the old oil. I know that its not prefect and there might be metal in the bottom, but why not suck out all the oil and re-fill to the right amount.

All bashing welcome.

your thoughts

Miguel

 

There is a drain plug but it's at the 9 o'clock position and the FD has to be disconnected from the driveshaft and then rotated 90 degrees so that the drain plug is in the 6 o'clock position- not difficult.

[dirtrider]

Morning Miguel

 

 

Using s syringe or suction hose isn’t much of an option as the ring gear fits so close to the case that you really can’t get anything in there deep enough to get the crud out of the bottom.

 

It’s really not a big deal to remove the wheel, remove the F/D bolt, disconnect the drive shaft then tilt the drive down so the rear hole is facing down.

Remove the speed sensor to re-fill the F/D through that hole.

The book calls for a new torque prevailing nut on the removed bolt but some of us just re-use the original nut using Loc-Tite.

The new fill quantity is 180cc per BMWNA.

 

[10ovr]

Good Info,, http://www.r1200gs.info/howto/reardrive.html

[chaparral]

Also make sure your drain plug is magnetic. I have an 05 and mine wasn't magnetic. I order one from Max BMW.

[chaparral]

Also make sure your drain plug is magnetic. I have an 05 and mine wasn't magnetic. I ordered one from Max BMW.

[hopz]

see this:

http://bmwsporttouring.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=131174&page=1

[Albert]

I have an 06 (same setup) and it's easy to do. I've found that with the new 180 mL fluid spec I drain and refill via the 9 o'clock drain hole instead of the tiny, messy, fill plug behind the brake rotor. Much cleaner and easier.

[basilr]

The amount of oil to put in is confusing to me. I had a FD service done and was informed that it took 180ml to fill to specs.

 

Then I had another dealer, 14000kms later check it and he said he had to add 50, which assuming there was no leak (because I asked) would bring it up to 230ml, which is a figure I have seen elsewhere on some other thread.

 

Now the pictorial I just watched link posted at 5:22am and it says to add 220ml.

 

Do some FDs have different amounts? I have a 2005RT.

[Albert]

I think you're referring to Phil's (1bmwfan) excellent pictorial on changing the fd oil. He put that together before BMW revised the original amount. If you scroll near the end of that same link I think you'll find references to that. As far as I know the current number is 180 mL. My own experience (again an 06), at the original fd oil change I went with the manual (230 mL I think). At 16k miles I had a seal weeping (changed under warranty). At that time the new spec was in play so 180 mL. Since then I've gone with the lower number. No FD problems and no leaks (now 41k miles). There may be no correlation whatsoever but I'm happy and sticking to it.

[Hall Vince]

Worth lubing the FD splines while you draining the oil on the early FD's

 

I wonder if the later ones with drain plug at 6 oclock will suffer from lack of spline lube over time.

\v/

[CoarsegoldKid]

so its a big deal to drain remove rear wheel and disconnect final drive, tilt, and drain,

Come over to my house and I'll show you how. The 5 hour ride will do you good.

[JayW]

so its a big deal to drain remove rear wheel and disconnect final drive, tilt, and drain,

Come over to my house and I'll show you how. The 5 hour ride will do you good.

 

Or you can come to mine - the 30 hour ride will do you even better, and this would ensure that the FD oil is fully warmed up . Seriously, it is not hard to tilt down the FD, especially after you have done it once.

 

Jay

[mig]

Hey guys:

Yeah I just got the JVB videos and went right to that chapter.

Looked very easy. So now the hard part with all the previous post is:

which gear oil and weight do I get? I also saw that the tank has to be removed to get to the air filter. That lookes harder.

Hey coarsegold, you might see me one day

or on the Death Valley ride.

[Nomad Indy]

The upgraded bearing for the R1200RT is a 6013 RSR double sealed bearing. Changing the oil in the final drive does not change the oil in this bearing, unless the bearing is failing.

The life of this bearing is independent of the oil change frequency.

If the bearing seal fails then the final drive oil enters the bearing, but if the seal fails the bearing is failing.

Since this large ball bearing 6013 RSR bearing is the bearing that fails it is not a lubrication issue but a design/overload issue in this application.

[BerndM]

I did mine in less than 2 hours solo.

Once the FD is reattached and with the bike on the center stand, filling the FD thru the drain hole until the oil starts to flow out (of the drain hole) is almost exactly 180ml. Easy. Just like filling the tranny.

Make sure you have some Honda Moly 60 Paste to lube the shaft splines before putting it back together.

[mig]

yup got the moly paste when i was doing my honda ST.

BTW sold the ST yesterday to the same dealer i bought it from 15 years and 1 day exactly. Crazy

[Firefight911]

180cc is the oil amount. I updated further along in that post. I like thatthread as it exposes, errr, shows how BMW changed over time.

 

I use BMW 75w90 synth as that is the BMW recommended.

 

Change every 12k.

 

Psssst, 2 hours to here via direct route.

[JFab]

I have an 06 (same setup) and it's easy to do. I've found that with the new 180 mL fluid spec I drain and refill via the 9 o'clock drain hole instead of the tiny, messy, fill plug behind the brake rotor. Much cleaner and easier.

 

That's great to know! I did the 180ml fill through the sensor hole and it took a long time to get the oil in that tiny hole.

 

Does the 180 ml fill reach the level of the drain hole?

 

Joe

[JayW]

I also saw that the tank has to be removed to get to the air filter. That lookes harder.

 

Not true. You just have to remove some tupperware and an access panel to get to the filter. Then pull out the old and put in the new. Piece of cake.

 

Jay

[marcopolo]

...I had another dealer, 14000kms later check it and he said he had to add 50, which assuming there was no leak (because I asked) would bring it up to 230ml, which is a figure I have seen elsewhere on some other thread.

 

If a dealer told you this relatively recently, they don't know what they're talking about. BMW changed the fill quantity for a FD oil change to 180ml sometime in 2009, if I recall correctly. Makes you wonder what else they're not up to speed on. Was this a tech, a service manager, or some guy at the counter who told you this?

[basilr]

I was into the dealer at around the end of July, so it was fairly recent.

 

When I got my invoice, the service manager showed me a list of handwritten notes on the back of the invoice to draw my attention to them.

 

One of the notes said "added 50ml to FD" or something similar. It was in for a 30,000km service while we were on the road, so I took it as just checking all the fluid levels and topping up where necessary.

 

He mentioned in passing that the FD was fine, but they did top it up.

 

In reprospect, I think it is really important to spend time with the manager/tech about what was done to the bike and what their recommendations indicate. Ask the right questions.

 

Also what happens is, they do what they do 50 times a day with 50 different people. I deal with them (hopefully) one or two times a year and it can be intimidating to figure out what they tell you and what questions to ask.

 

Probably best to realize that time is on my side, and go over what they have to say until I understand it to my satisfaction.

 

No doubt they all try hard to please, and they (hopefully again) have to have competent staff or they wouldn't be in business. On the other hand, no one is perfect.

 

You pays your money and you take your chances.

[RodB]

Worth lubing the FD splines while you draining the oil on the early FD's

 

I wonder if the later ones with drain plug at 6 oclock will suffer from lack of spline lube over time.

 

There is no reason not to lube the splines on the later final drives. The procedure is the same.