How / Why...would a dealer overfill the transmission?

[cali_beemer]

I was doing my service on the new to me RT. I went to go change the tranny fluid and I folloed the clymer manual by warming the gear oil up, then putting the bike on its centerstand. It also states to put a jack under the front to get the bike resting on its back tire instead of the front. I did all this, then I opened up the fill plug first before the drain plug. Once I opened the fill plug I had alot of oil coming out, not a little but alot. The bike was on a level surface. The only thing I could imagine is that the dealer that serviced it overfilled it. My question would be how they could overfill the tranny that much? Did they put the bike on its sidestand before filling?....Scary!

[NonComp]

Hmm... you may want to take the info in the Clymer manual with a grain of salt. The Haynes manual says nothing about putting a jack under the front or checking the oil when its hot. It simply says check it on level ground after letting the bike stand for "a few hours". It take that to mean the bike is 'cold'.

 

I never check the oil levels hot. The aluminum cases expand and contract significantly from hot to room temperature and from room temperature to sub-freezing temperatures. You will see noticable fluxuations in the engine oil levels when the ambient temperatures get below freezing.

 

I think there is no likely way to overfill the the gearbox. The oil runs out of the filler opening when full. How did you warm up the gear oil? I can't see the oil level being so critical in the gearbox that you would have to jack up the front of the bike to check it. I think this info may be incorrect information. It's not mentioned in the owners manual either.

[cali_beemer]

Hmm... you may want to take the info in the Clymer manual with a grain of salt. The Haynes manual says nothing about putting a jack under the front or checking the oil when its hot. It simply says check it on level ground after letting the bike stand for "a few hours". It take that to mean the bike is 'cold'.

 

I never check the oil levels hot. The aluminum cases expand and contract significantly from hot to room temperature and from room temperature to sub-freezing temperatures. You will see noticable fluxuations in the engine oil levels when the ambient temperatures get below freezing.

 

I think there is no likely way to overfill the the gearbox. The oil runs out of the filler opening when full. How did you warm up the gear oil? I can't see the oil level being so critical in the gearbox that you would have to jack up the front of the bike to check it. I think this info may be incorrect information. It's not mentioned in the owners manual either.

 

My apologes... the heating up the oil and putting a jack under the front is for changing the oil but not a requiremetn for checking. In any case, opened the filler cap without the jack under the front when it was cool to check where the level was and it started to come out as well. Thats when I decided to heat the oil up per the manual and put the jack up for changing the oil. I then did the same thing and the oil poured out from the filler. My concern with it being so full is that this could possibly put additional pressure on the seals and casue a leak. The clymer manual says the oil change needs to be done with the transmission warm, there definition is about 15 minutes of riding. It also states that when you refill, the oil level should only go to the lower lip of the fill hole. My assumption is that the tranny was overfilled if severla ounces of oil came out by opening the fill cap.

[georgeb]

They likely filled it when it was on the side stand vs. the center stand. this would allow the bike to be leaned over and accept more than the normal amount. Not sure what a few ounces might do to over pressurize the seals however.

[dan cata]

That's the exact thing that happened to me

 

Next time I will undo the filler bolt while the bike is on the sidestand, then put it on the centerstand And I guess the oil expands when hot vs. cold.

 

Anuway, no need to worry since both the gearbox and the FD have the breathing hole in them, and it's there for this exact purpose: when the oils expand from the heat, the air inside gets out trough that hole instead of making seals leak

 

Dan.

[Danny caddyshack Noonan]

How could it get that full? Remember that Prop 19 thing that just failed? Maybe there was some aniticipatory participation......

[NonComp]

The gearbox is vented. It can't build up pressure and blow the seals.

 

I think that it would be highly unlikely that a dealer would check/fill/change the gearbox oil when the bike is on the side stand. That would mean that were working on the bike with it sitting on the floor. If it was on jack-table, it will be sitting straight up in the front wheel clamp.

 

Sure, it is faster to change the oil when it is warm. But it still runs out when it is cold - it just takes a little longer. I don't like burning my knuckles, so I never change the oil with the bike hot. With the oil warm and the front of the bike jacked up, I would expect some oil to run out of the filler.

 

The gearbox is not like the engine. There are no connecting rods to splash into an overfilled crankcase and foam up the oil. A couple of ounces of extra oil in the crankcase is not going to do any harm.

 

 

[cali_beemer]

With the oil warm and the front of the bike jacked up, I would expect some oil to run out of the filler.

 

 

 

As I noted before, oil was running out the fller wehn cold and the fornt end not jacked up as well. It started to pout out as I was opening it, so I tightened it back up and then proceeded to warm it up, put it back on the centerstand and jack it up to see if that made a difference. Both times oil came out the filler. I am just happy it wouldnt have casued any damage. However, I have seen people make notes of not to overfill the FD so that you dont blow the pinion seal, yet if both the FD and tranny have vent lines, then why would people say not to overfill the FD? I would agree that if there is a vent line, overfilling shouldnt have any negative affects.

[kmac]

The other possibility is that they stuck in the funnel or the nozzle and pumped oil till over flowed, then while it was trying to level off, they just stuck the plug in and wiped off the excess. But the oil was up above the plug.

 

You can verify the possibility of this by pushing a funnel in to your filler hole and pouring in oil until it is up a couple of inches in the funnel, pull out the funnel, then watch how much oil will run out of the cap opening before it levels off. Alot can come out sometimes. So if they just stuck the cap in before it balanced out...no biggie tho.

[dirtrider]

Afternoon cali_beemer

 

I would imagine a lot of people slightly over-fill the 1150RT transmission including myself. AFAIK the trans actually holds about .85 quart (and that’s assuming all the old oil drains out).

 

The oil usually comes in a quart container so I (and most of the BMW riders I personally know) just dump the whole quart in. In my case I drain it warm and let it drain overnight so it drains out pretty thoroughly. I would also imagine dealers do the same by just tossing in a quart but as a rule they probably don’t get it warm first and I doubt they drain it for very long, or overnight (time is money to them).

 

As long as the oil isn’t coming out the trans vent at high speeds in cold weather then a little overfill won’t hurt.

 

[ragtoplvr]

The oil in the bottle is completely without air in it from sitting so long. Once you use it in the transmission, it gets air in it. I bet the color was different. There are anti-foam additives. They of course do not work 100%. They might wear out, evaporate out the vent over time, many additives do. Your oil simply has a small amount of air entrained in it, and that increases the volume. Just put in your fresh oil and ride on. If your next fill does the same thing, switch brands if it bothers you. I really doubt if the transmission cares unless it is real bad.

 

If the transmission was overfilled for real, it would leak out the vent. Under fill is the thing to worry about.

 

Rod

[cali_beemer]

The oil in the tranny was bright red and probably didnt need to be changed. The bike has 14k miles on it and it had the 12k service done at 13k, but in 2007. It hasnt seen alot of miles since then. I am changing all the fluids and doing maintenace just as a precaution since I just bought it. Realistically it didnt need an oil change. This was just for peace of mind.

[elkroeger]

My R100 tranny used to fill up with water. I parked it uncovered all winter so water would run in there somewhere, probably at the vent. If I changed the oil while cold, the water would pour out, then the oil. If I changed it hot, the oil-water emulsion would pour out. Either way, it would be overfull due to the water intrusion. maybe that's worth considering? (btw - I rode it like that for 40K miles)

 

Other than that, my own personal opinion is that the oil levels aren't really all that critical. The engineers probably figure that 1/3 of the people will do it right, 1/3 will overfill it one way or another, and 1/3 will never even check it, nevermind change the stuff.... They have allow for that. Where would BMW be if ovefilling it a bit really did damage something? They'd be replacing a lot of transmissions, and everyone would be pissed at the guy who designed it. Anyway, as for filling it on the sidestand vs. centerstand - there's a chrome head outside my office now. It doesn't even have a center stand. How do you suppose he changes his tranny oil? Prolly never crossed his mind [to put it anywhere but on the sidestand], and there's 83K on the clock. YMMV.

[Paul Mihalka]

Short hijack: Airhead gear boxes filled up with water because of old rotten rubber cover on the speedometer cable. /hijack

[cali_beemer]

My R100 tranny used to fill up with water. I parked it uncovered all winter so water would run in there somewhere, probably at the vent. If I changed the oil while cold, the water would pour out, then the oil. If I changed it hot, the oil-water emulsion would pour out. Either way, it would be overfull due to the water intrusion. maybe that's worth considering? (btw - I rode it like that for 40K miles)

 

Other than that, my own personal opinion is that the oil levels aren't really all that critical. The engineers probably figure that 1/3 of the people will do it right, 1/3 will overfill it one way or another, and 1/3 will never even check it, nevermind change the stuff.... They have allow for that. Where would BMW be if ovefilling it a bit really did damage something? They'd be replacing a lot of transmissions, and everyone would be pissed at the guy who designed it. Anyway, as for filling it on the sidestand vs. centerstand - there's a chrome head outside my office now. It doesn't even have a center stand. How do you suppose he changes his tranny oil? Prolly never crossed his mind [to put it anywhere but on the sidestand], and there's 83K on the clock. YMMV.

 

I appreciate the feedback, but there was no water in the tranny. As for filling it without a centerstand, its not that hard. Most table lifts such as mine have a front wheel vise, or get a person to hold the handlebars.

[elkroeger]

Short hijack: Airhead gear boxes filled up with water because of old rotten rubber cover on the speedometer cable. /hijack

 

Well, it certainly would have been that! The whole bike was old and rotten... :-)

[4wheeldog]

Short hijack: Airhead gear boxes filled up with water because of old rotten rubber cover on the speedometer cable. /hijack

 

Well, it certainly would have been that! The whole bike was old and rotten... :-)

 

Well, so am I.......But liquids don't leak.....In, anyway.

[kmac]

No liquids dribble OUT here...at least not on my BIKE...