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1200RT 12k mile sevice....

KER

By KER
in Hexheads

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KER

KER

Posted
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Doing my 12k mile service on my 12RTP and was wondering if I should replace the trans/final drive fluid? The bike is 1 year old, and has 12k miles on it, should i replace it or wait for the the 24k mile service?

 

 

If I should, is the 75w-90 synthetic the recommended oil for these bikes?

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Rapala 50

Rapala 50

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I have a 2008 rt that I bought used in April 2011 with 6000 miles and did a lot of research on when to do the trans/final drive. Decided at 12000 miles to go ahead and do it, its not hard at all and it seams to shift a little better now in 1st and 2nd gear then it did before. I didn't notice anything unusual about the fluid that I removed color wise, ( final drive was red in color ) and used 75-90 full synthetic in both trans/final..it never hurts to do early maintenance in my opinion :wave:

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dirtrider

dirtrider

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Morning KER

 

At 12k & IF you have the tupperware already removed might as well go ahead with the trans gear oil change. Only takes a quart so not much involved there. Save the removed gear oil in a clean pan then strain it through a paper towel or coffee filter. That will give you a base line on how your trans is doing. A premium quality 75-90 gear oil should work good here.

 

On the final drive -- not a bad idea to do that also just to be sure it has the correct (reduced volume) 180 cc of gear oil. BUT the time to really do the final drive is at rear tire change time. You need to remove the rear wheel to fill the final drive so if you have a tire change coming up that is the time to change the final drive gear oil.

 

Here is one place that I personally use the BMW branded specific gear oil for the final drive. It is rather expensive but with only 180cc used per change you get lots of changes per quart of gear oil.

 

With all the problems BMW has had with the final drives on these bikes (personally) I don't like to give BMW any reason to deny warranty coverage or deny good-will extended warranty coverage.

 

Might not make a difference but for the little amount of gear oil used & small amount of money per gear oil change it just could make future haggling over who is going to pay for a slightly out of warranty final drive failure a bit easier.

 

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Ponch

Ponch

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If the FD blows up because I used Mobil 1 instead of whatever BMW sells, then I bought the wrong bike. As far as I know, as long as it meets the spec, it should be fine.

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dirtrider

dirtrider

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Posted
---- As far as I know, as long as it meets the spec, it should be fine.

 

Afternoon Ponch

 

There lies the problem, just what are the SPECS?

 

Nothing in the riders manual showing anything on final drive gear oil specs. My BMW service manual calls out Castrol SAF-XO (no specs though).

 

Who, authorized by BMW anyhow, says it will be fine?

 

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KER

KER

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Morning KER

 

On the final drive -- not a bad idea to do that also just to be sure it has the correct (reduced volume) 180 cc of gear oil. BUT the time to really do the final drive is at rear tire change time. You need to remove the rear wheel to fill the final drive so if you have a tire change coming up that is the time to change the final drive gear oil.

 

 

glad you mentioned the tire removal! I also have a new tire set ready to mount so I guess I will do it all at the same time.

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marcopolo

marcopolo

Posted
Posted
---- As far as I know, as long as it meets the spec, it should be fine.

 

Afternoon Ponch

 

There lies the problem, just what are the SPECS?

 

Nothing in the riders manual showing anything on final drive gear oil specs. My BMW service manual calls out Castrol SAF-XO (no specs though).

 

Who, authorized by BMW anyhow, says it will be fine?

 

That's why I use SAF-XO in the FD (easy to get here; every BMW bike dealer sells it. As far as I know, in Canada, there are no BMW-branded fluids sold at dealers). That said, that Castrol product is a fully synthetic, 75W90 GL5 gear oil. Nothing too magical there presumably. Small anecdote, when my FD bit the dust in 2007 while I was in Wyoming, the dealer in Salt Lake City asked no questions whatsoever about how I had maintained my FD, or what fluid was in it. The dealer, of course, had to get BMW to authorize the warranty replacement of the FD (which they did without hesitation).

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Ponch

Ponch

Posted
Posted
---- As far as I know, as long as it meets the spec, it should be fine.

 

Afternoon Ponch

 

There lies the problem, just what are the SPECS?

 

Nothing in the riders manual showing anything on final drive gear oil specs. My BMW service manual calls out Castrol SAF-XO (no specs though).

 

Who, authorized by BMW anyhow, says it will be fine?

 

API G-L5 and SAE 75W-90, 80W-90 or 90.

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dirtrider

dirtrider

Posted
Posted
---- As far as I know, as long as it meets the spec, it should be fine.

 

Afternoon Ponch

 

There lies the problem, just what are the SPECS?

 

Nothing in the riders manual showing anything on final drive gear oil specs. My BMW service manual calls out Castrol SAF-XO (no specs though).

 

Who, authorized by BMW anyhow, says it will be fine?

 

API G-L5 and SAE 75W-90, 80W-90 or 90.

 

Afternoon Ponch

 

That spec is for the transmission.

 

What is your BMW source (in writing) for the 05-09 final drive specs?

 

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dirtrider

dirtrider

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Posted

Afternoon Terry

 

That would definitely mean the Castrol SAF-XO meets the BMW specs but that doesn't necessarily tell us what he given specs actually are.

 

It's pretty well understood that a quality 75w90 synthetic gear oil "should" work in the F/D but what I was getting at in the above posts is BMW hasn't officially published the specifications for the final drive.

 

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simonjrwinter

simonjrwinter

Posted
Posted

'scuse me for butting in here, but has anyone tried redline shockproof in their gearbox's and FD's? I've used it with great success in my LT and plan to use it in my new 2005 RT. Made the gearbox much slicker and I like to think it helped protect my FD.

 

Simon

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dirtrider

dirtrider

Posted
Posted
'scuse me for butting in here, but has anyone tried redline shockproof in their gearbox's and FD's? I've used it with great success in my LT and plan to use it in my new 2005 RT. Made the gearbox much slicker and I like to think it helped protect my FD.

 

Simon

 

 

 

Afternoon Simon

 

You probably don't want to use it in the final drive but you should have no real issues in the transmission. The final drive on the 1200RT ONLY holds 180cc of gear oil so using something too heavy can spin off then pack up away from the gear teeth & you can lose tooth scuff protection under load in cold weather.

 

As far as I can tell using different gear oil's in the BMW transmission is a hit & miss situation.

 

Some, like my 1100's actually shifted better with Red Line heavy in them. One of the 1150's I had shifted OK with the Red Line & the other you could hardly up or down shift using Red Line. One of my 1200's could really care less & my current 1200RT is very fickle on what gear oil is used in the trans. I think it boils down to how much running clearance is in the sliding parts used for shifting.

 

 

On the 1200 hexhead you probably don't want to use Red Line heavy but seeing as most of the bearings are sealed it probably won't hurt it either.

 

Bottom line here is: try to stay within the specification range & oil type set forth by BMW then try a bunch of different gear oils until you find one that shifts the best both hot & cold, then stay with it.

 

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