TECH
I just needed anoil change
By Wes Fleming #87301 A multi-part saga
Part One: A small oil leak and a post-Christmas breakdown
VERY EARLY ON IN MY RELATION- ship with BMW motorcycles, I dis- covered I had difficulty sticking to the mother ship’s prescribed 6,000- and 12,000-mile maintenance sched- ule. Maybe I got bored, maybe I was forgetful, maybe I was simply stub- born; whatever the cause, I got myself into a maintenance cycle based around 5,000-mile increments. In retrospect, I think it was because that was the maintenance cycle on my car. At any rate, I settled into a mainte-
nance cycle that suited me well – change the engine oil and filter every 5,000 miles (which I call “minor maintenance”) and do more exten- sive work every 10,000 (“major main- tenance”). Major maintenance always includes checking the valve clear- ances as well as changing the gear oil in the final drive and transmission, also checking what drained out for any suspicious coloring, viscosity variances or chunks of metal. The major maintenance cycle could also include things like changing the air filter or fuel filter, flushing and bleed- ing the brake master cylinders and ABS unit, and flushing and bleeding the hydraulic clutch line and master cylinder, but it was primarily an excuse to give the bike a thorough going-over. Unless there is a pressing need to interrupt this cycle, I save big tasks for the 10,000-mile intervals – wheel bearings, steering head bear- ings, and the like. My 2005 R 1200 GS was creeping
up on 80,000 miles, growing closer with every commute back and forth
to my various part-time jobs. I live in an apartment building, luckily one with copi- ous sheltered parking on concrete slab. One morning when walking up to my bike, I noticed a tiny, fresh trail of oil on the
on the lift at the shop where I work part- time soon enough, I didn’t worry about it and kept on riding. December was unsea- sonably warm, and I made up for not riding to my family’s Christmas gathering by get-
Oil leaks better when hot; a trail of oil leading to the motorcycle can be a telltale sign of a problem.
ground. The floor isn’t quite level where I park my bike, so I could see that the oil dripped off the bottom of the cylinder and ran downhill as it cooled. “Time to change the cylinder head cover
gaskets at my next major maintenance,” I thought. “And I better do the donut gaskets, too, just in case.” Knowing I would be putting my GS up
54 BMW OWNERS NEWS March 2016
ting out both days the following weekend. Saturday was uneventful, but Sunday’s ride ended with my bike in a trailer. Going down a four-lane divided US high-
way at about 70 mph, my GS cut out com- pletely. I squeezed the clutch lever, coasted for a few seconds while I gathered my thoughts, and thumbed the starter button. The engine started right back up, but as
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124