The Bogeyman in the room!

[TEWKS]

I’ve heard the stories and may have actually pulled my head under the covers late at night once (ok twice ) 

but then quickly calmed down and convinced myself that BMW wouldn’t setup their loyal customers for such a nightmare repair bill down the road. Hmm, I sure hope this is as rare as a Bigfoot sighting but, apparently it does exist. The vid is a little light on the actual transplant procedure but gives you a pretty good idea of the work involved.

”Generator Repair”

 

[MikeB60]

That's definitely ugly especialy since the warranty just ran out on the GS.

 

That bike hoist is awesome.  That would have been just the trick when I changed the front shock on my K1600.

[TEWKS]

Mike if you were brave enough to take on a shock replacement with the K16, I bet you could handle this.   Lots of pieces, I'd have leftovers, I'm sure!  Hopefully it's a rarity though!!

[dirtrider]

4 hours ago, TEWKS said:

I’ve heard the stories and may have actually pulled my head under the covers late at night once (ok twice ) 

but then quickly calmed down and convinced myself that BMW wouldn’t setup their loyal customers for such a nightmare repair bill down the road. Hmm, I sure hope this is as rare as a Bigfoot sighting but, apparently it does exist. The vid is a little light on the actual transplant procedure but gives you a pretty good idea of the work involved.

”Generator Repair”

 

Afternoon  TEWKS

 

I sure hope that you are correct about BMW, they sure missed the  boat on the BMW 700/800 bike stator failures as there were quite a number of those.

 

Lot easier to install the 700/800  stator but sure wasn't cheap as BMW forced the purchase of a stator kit that included a new flywheel to correct their lame design of the poor original flywheel cooling.

 

If BMW did their job correctly then the stators should be starting to fail just after the  warranty runs out   (they have been pretty good at this in the past)

 

There was a re-design on the 1200WC  stator by adding more coils so hopefully that stopped any future stator problems. 

[TEWKS]

Don't know if I should laugh or cry, DR!   

[Antimatter]

My sense from reading other forums is that if you're a high mileage rider and you own a wet-head, you'll be looking at this repair some time between 50,000 and 100,000 miles.  I have to admit that this is one of the big reasons I'm not buying another BMW; but I'm conditioned by past experience with other motorcycle's electrical systems going bad at much lower mileages.  Suzuki especially seems prone to this, with the late 90's and early 2000's GSXR model being the worst offender.  I really wish BMW would revise this design, or offer a warranty on this particular repair as a way of setting a possible owner's mind at ease.

[Cap]

2 hours ago, Antimatter said:

My sense ... is that ...you'll be looking at this repair some time between 50,000 and 100,000 miles.  

 

If you think you will keep your bike that long, you can choose to buy an extended warranty that will cover the stator replacement, or a cam failure, or a water pump, or an exhaust flap.  Any of those repair costs individually would exceed the cost of an extended warranty.  Or, you can avoid big repair bills by choosing a new BMW every 3 years.  Or, you can buy a Suzuki instead.  Choices are awesome.

[WBinDE]

5 hours ago, Antimatter said:

My sense from reading other forums is that if you're a high mileage rider and you own a wet-head, you'll be looking at this repair some time between 50,000 and 100,000 miles.  I have to admit that this is one of the big reasons I'm not buying another BMW; but I'm conditioned by past experience with other motorcycle's electrical systems going bad at much lower mileages.  Suzuki especially seems prone to this, with the late 90's and early 2000's GSXR model being the worst offender.  I really wish BMW would revise this design, or offer a warranty on this particular repair as a way of setting a possible owner's mind at ease.

 

I had 150,000 miles on my wethead when I traded it, no charging issues ever. I've never heard of wethead stator issues and I regularly monitor 5 forums. The nature of forums is that people report failures, not successes, and even with failure-biased commenting, nothing I've experienced or seen supports your assertion.

[realshelby]

I can tell you from my Suzuki clutch basket business.....Suzuki has a LOT more charging system issues than BMW Wetheads!!!!

While I have certainly heard of a few alternator failures on these bikes, honestly it just isn't all that many percentage wise. These bikes are racking up miles with many at 100,000+ so if it were a guaranteed failure we would be seeing them right and left. 

I did replace the clutch in my '04 RT. So, if needed, I will replace the alternator in the '14.  I think the chance of having to do that is a LOT less than needing a clutch replaced in an Oilhead. 

[MichiganBob]

Agree with WMinDE. No bike is perfect and things can go wrong. There are lemons and weird failures. I've followed this board for 17 years and read about a myriad of failures that BMW owners  have experienced. Yes, it's frustrating when it happens to you . But I am a true believer in sampling theory and how large a sample is needed to generalize to the population.  Once you have the sample and population, you can calculate probabilities and the chances of sampling error. Reporting a failure is helpful if it guides us towards preventive maintenance (e.g., checking splines and lubricating them on my R75/5.) I probably should have replaced the slave cylinder or at least drilled a weep hole before my clutch got ruined on my 03. So don't hold back please on what's going on.... it can be helpful. But I caution you about freaking out at every report of a failure. As with everything, there are multiple variables to consider, some we might never know about.

 

Be safe out there.

 

MB

[AndyS]

On 5/10/2020 at 2:42 PM, Antimatter said:

My sense from reading other forums is that if you're a high mileage rider and you own a wet-head, you'll be looking at this repair some time between 50,000 and 100,000 miles.  I have to admit that this is one of the big reasons I'm not buying another BMW; but I'm conditioned by past experience with other motorcycle's electrical systems going bad at much lower mileages.  Suzuki especially seems prone to this, with the late 90's and early 2000's GSXR model being the worst offender.  I really wish BMW would revise this design, or offer a warranty on this particular repair as a way of setting a possible owner's mind at ease.

Well, that is interesting and questionable at the same time. 

I have heard of one failure on a GS and one on an RT. The one on the RT was not an actual alternator failure it was a bolt that can adrift that led to mechanical failure.

I'd like to see the stats. Because I think for the most part this is an urban myth. 

However, I do recognise that BMW did decide to tidy up that alternator somewhere along the way, so there must be some issues...just not that many!

[Antimatter]

I thought you guys might get a kick out of this - yesterday I spent my hard-earned freedom dollars on a 2018 R1200GS Adventure (low) with 9,600 (ish) miles on the clock.  I made the mistake of test-riding the new 1250 GS when BMW came to town with their test fleet.  I had decided that I wanted an RT, and rode the GS on a whim as I was there on Friday and turnout was pretty low then.  So, I'm going to try to not let my fears get the better of me and, if something breaks, I'll be fixing it or paying someone else to do it.  Life's too short, I think.

 

So there, I took the human prerogative and changed my mind.  Enclosed electrical system, here I come.

[LAF]

11 hours ago, Antimatter said:

I thought you guys might get a kick out of this - yesterday I spent my hard-earned freedom dollars on a 2018 R1200GS Adventure (low) with 9,600 (ish) miles on the clock.  I made the mistake of test-riding the new 1250 GS when BMW came to town with their test fleet.  I had decided that I wanted an RT, and rode the GS on a whim as I was there on Friday and turnout was pretty low then.  So, I'm going to try to not let my fears get the better of me and, if something breaks, I'll be fixing it or paying someone else to do it.  Life's too short, I think.

 

So there, I took the human prerogative and changed my mind.  Enclosed electrical system, here I come.

You made a great choice and you will never look back.  Enjoy your new bike.