Fuel Strip

[nail24]

I had a long conversation with the Albuquerque PD that uses the R12RT extensively. Their captain said that other than tires and brake pads, the digital fuel strip has the highest failure rate in their fleet of bikes. BMW needs to come up with a fix that's more lasting than just another bad strip. They are not that hard to replace. It's the calibration that I can't do that aggravates me.

[Catbird]

I had a long conversation with the Albuquerque PD that uses the R12RT extensively. Their captain said that other than tires and brake pads, the digital fuel strip has the highest failure rate in their fleet of bikes. BMW needs to come up with a fix that's more lasting than just another bad strip. They are not that hard to replace. It's the calibration that I can't do that aggravates me.

I would surmise that the PD probably has its own staff of mechanics that has been trained to perform the fuel strip replacement saving them many thousands of dollars.

 

Since my bike is way out of warranty, if I knew how to replace the strip, I would do it myself and then take it to the dealer to calibrate. I think it would cost substantially less than the $400 they want to charge me.

[dirtrider]

I had a long conversation with the Albuquerque PD that uses the R12RT extensively. Their captain said that other than tires and brake pads, the digital fuel strip has the highest failure rate in their fleet of bikes. BMW needs to come up with a fix that's more lasting than just another bad strip. They are not that hard to replace. It's the calibration that I can't do that aggravates me.

I would surmise that the PD probably has its own staff of mechanics that has been trained to perform the fuel strip replacement saving them many thousands of dollars.

 

Since my bike is way out of warranty, if I knew how to replace the strip, I would do it myself and then take it to the dealer to calibrate. I think it would cost substantially less than the $400 they want to charge me.

 

Morning Catbird

 

All the training in the world won’t help as a sophisticated BMW service computer is needed to calibrate the new replacement fuel strip at installation time.

 

I seriously doubt the police department has such a computer in their maintenance department.

 

Even replacing it yourself is not easy or easily possible as the new fuel strip needs to be plugged in to the tank harness then hung DRY outside the tank during the initial calibration process. About all you can do yourself to save a little is to remove the Tupperware before taking to the dealer.

[NewBlue]

Has anybody tried it? Just plugging in a new fuel strip?

If the new strip has the same R values it should be somewhat accurate, no?

 

Maybe riders who attend rallies should start wearing arm bands to signify a fuel strip failure. Maybe BMW will get tired of looking at them and fix this. Wear them for FD and FPC failures also. Be a pirate and use bandanna's.

[dirtrider]

Has anybody tried it? Just plugging in a new fuel strip?

If the new strip has the same R values it should be somewhat accurate, no?---

 

 

Afternoon NewBlue

 

Yes/no, I tried that with the new design strip when they first came out (install new strip without re-cal) . It would only read to a little over ¾ tank.

I can’t comment on the empty side reading as I didn’t trust it’s accuracy with it only showing ¾ with a full tank. Big mistake as it took 2 days to dry it (the strip) back out to get a decent dry initial cal.

 

Those strips are not just a simple resistor as there is a secondary powered heating resistor co applied with the level sensing resistor, that heating resistor heats the strip so the cool fuel can effect the temperature/resistance at and below fuel level.

Those fuel strips are very touchy as far as fuel level vs heating vs fuel level resistance change.

There is also the fuel warning light operation that is tied in with the strip’s heated resistance and it’s (exact) level at low fuel light appearance.

 

 

 

[RTs4me]

Since my bike is way out of warranty, if I knew how to replace the strip, I would do it myself and then take it to the dealer to calibrate. I think it would cost substantially less than the $400 they want to charge me.

 

You shouldn't have to pay! Ask your dealer to chase BMW for a 'goodwill' replacement. If BMW won't front up the money, then pay your dealer, keep all receipts and hassle BMW for recompense. I know that I will be doing this if my FOURTH strip fails.

 

I've driven cars and ridden bikes for over 30 years. I've NEVER replaced a fuel guage on any other vehicle. They have all been reliable and reasonably accurate.

 

There is no service requirement for the fuel strip, so dealer/non-dealer service history or within/outside warranty period are not relevant factors. Failures have been reported in USA, Europe and Australia. It's not dependent on ethanol content or fuel quality. It's a crap quality component, pure and simple.

 

NOT good enough on any vehicle in the 21st century, completely unacceptable on such an expensive bike.

[NewBlue]

Oh well didn't hurt to ask, thanks dr

 

I still think bright orange arm bands with the number of failures would get their attention

[Catbird]

Since my bike is way out of warranty, if I knew how to replace the strip, I would do it myself and then take it to the dealer to calibrate. I think it would cost substantially less than the $400 they want to charge me.

You shouldn't have to pay! Ask your dealer to chase BMW for a 'goodwill' replacement. If BMW won't front up the money, then pay your dealer, keep all receipts and hassle BMW for recompense...

[THE FOLLOWING IS WELL DOCUMENTED IN A PREVIOUS THREAD OF THE SAME SUBJECT FROM MANY MONTHS AGO.]

I already had quite a heated discussion with my dealer's service manager soon after my fuel strip failed. He made every possible excuse for BMW regarding why they wouldn't/shouldn't have to perform this goodwill service. Anyway, I got him to commit to approaching BMW on my behalf and appealing to their sense of fairness. The bottom line is that they refused based simply because my bike's warranty had expired.

 

I am still not willing to pay the $400 repair cost with the hope that BMW will grow tired of dealing with me.

[Huzband]

They are not that hard to replace. It's the calibration that I can't do that aggravates me.

 

And don't count on it being calibrated as it was from the factory, or even as it was last time replaced. I used to have a little over a gallon left when it hit zero miles to empty. I could easily go another 35 miles. With this latest one, the third on an '08, I was quite surprised when it quit with 1 mile to go showing on the display. Fortunately, I was in town, planning to stop anyway, & the gas station was only a half mile away. On the other hand, Florida's hot in July, & even though it was flat, that RT sure got heavy in a hurry.

[KDeline]

 

You shouldn't have to pay! Ask your dealer to chase BMW for a 'goodwill' replacement. If BMW won't front up the money, then pay your dealer, keep all receipts and hassle BMW for recompense. I know that I will be doing this if my FOURTH strip fails.

 

 

Ha! Let us know how that goes for you. I won't bore everybody again with the details but to keep our 2007 GSA on the road for a 7 week, 13500 mile trip to Alaska, we visited 5 dealers and spent $2500.00. BMW NA basically told us to go pound sand.

[nail24]

I should clear up where I was talking to the Albuquerque PD. I was at the BMW dealership getting my fourth fuel strip installed on the way back from Paonia, CO. The had a couple of bikes in the shop at the same time. My bike ran tank dry with 16 miles showing on the computer last week I'm going to drain and measure the fuel remaining in the tank the next time the reserve light illuminates. I'll make my adjustments from there.

[I812]

BMW=Big Money Wasted! Bring Major Wad! Bring Money With! These ongoing failures have finally made me realize, I will be using the odometer until it fails.....

[John]

All UK fuel is 5% ethanol minimum.

 

Ansy

Ansy - interesting. AFAIK - Australia hasn't gone to laced fuel (and there are significant failure reports from OZ..)

Don,

The only Aussie fuel to contain ethanol is what we call "regular unleaded" (10% ethanol, also called "E10") - this is low octane stuff that the R cannot run on. We have 2 other grades: 95 and 98, which are not adulterated with ethanol.

 

I'm on my second fuel strip with my 09, and suspect I'm going to be on number 3 very soon... So I doubt ethanol has anything to do with the failures. I keep a detailed fuel log for my bike, and have always run 98 in it. The only time I ever used a different fuel was on a trip through our Snowy Mountains. I had to fill with 95. The strip failure was many tanks of 98 later. As I mentioned, 95 has no ethanol, either.

[mikewarax]

Re: The fuel strip issue.

 

I have a 2009 GSA and the fuel gauge seems to work fine, the range function on the on board computer is what is giving me problems. I can fill the bike and once the gauge resets to full the range function may only show 120 miles. Then it slowly starts to increase one mile at a time sometimes going all the way to over 400 miles and sometimes not. Is this a known problem with the fuel strip as well as the gauge issues ?

Anyone else have the same problem as me ?

 

Thanks, Mike

[dirtrider]

Evening Mike

 

What you are seeing isn’t unusual at least on the RT computer systems. Not sure on the GS as my GS doesn’t have the fuel computer but probably works the same as the RT.

 

In any case the fuel computer uses existing/ (Re old data) to figure range and fuel mileage. So if you don’t reset the range and fuel mileage at each fuel fill up the computer takes a while to recalculate the new data. To make matters worse if the computer isn’t reset very often it can really give you some skewed readings.

 

SO, be sure to reset both at each fill up then see if it still acts strange.

 

[JayW]

SO, be sure to reset both at each fill up then see if it still acts strange.

 

This is of course worth a try, and easy to do, but I never do it on my RT and the range feature works as it should, ie, a reasonable estimate pops up within a minute or so each time after filling up, then counts down as I ride.

 

Jay

[Catbird]

As I previously reported in this thread, my fuel gauge hasn't worked for quite some time. Lately, it has become unusually erratic. Last week, for the first time, the on board fuel gauge showed (1)no vertical bars to indicate fuel level, (2)the lcd gas pump icon was steadily blinking & (3)the yellow warning light was ON to alert me that the fuel level was down to the reserve level. I actually had over 5 gallons remaining in the tank.

 

A little while later, after I changed the oil and filter, I started the engine to check for leaks, etc. and the (1)vertical bars showed a full tank of gas, (2)no lcd gas pump icon & (3)the yellow warning light was OFF.

 

I don't understand the technical reason(s) for this bizarre behavior, but it certainly is annoying.

 

 

[mikewarax]

SO, be sure to reset both at each fill up then see if it still acts strange.

 

Thanks dirtrider,

 

I recently completed a 4800 mile trip from Tn. to Big Bend and did reset the average speed and mpg after each fill up. I guess I will let the dealer have a look see.

 

Mike

[dirtrider]

Morning Mike

 

Definitely have your dealer take a look, at least get it in record.

 

Also keep in mind that if you re-set at each fuel fill up it will still take a few miles/few minutes for the computer to catch up to real world fuel mileage and projected fuel range.

 

First off, on vehicles that use heated fuel strips like the current BMW’s it does take a short time for the fuel strip temp to stabilize and the fuel level reading to become accurate (ask your dealer but if I recall correctly BMW used to say could take up to ½ hour or something like that).

 

Secondly, remember the bike’s computer uses actual real time fuel mileage to figure range so once you reset the computer it uses the new data it receives to figure range so if you sit idling at the gas station, or waiting to pull out into traffic, or pull out and sit at a stop light you are getting 0 miles per gallon or at least very very few miles per gallon The computer uses that initial data until you get moving and it can get a more stable and longer term actual fuel mileage baseline. It takes a few miles at speed before the fuel computer has enough data to average out that 0 mpg at first start up ride off.