BMW R1200R R1150R/T F800 K1200R R1100R/T R1250R RnineT Message Board

I went for a short ride this evening on my R1200R to visit some friends and when leaving the I turned on the ignition and waited for the computer to cycle so I could start the bike. Well I waited and nothing happened so I tried again and it cycled correctly and started. I had to make another stop and it did the same thing but I carry a spare key and it cycled and started with the spare key. I got home and parked the bike and went back later to see if it would do the same thing and it worked a few times and then failed. I tried the spare key and it failed I then tried another key but to no avail.
I read the manual and EWS is a theft fault. I had the spare key ( I call it the plastic key) in my pocket and put the normal metal key in the same pocket which I have done many times. The manual says not to store the keys together...I missed that when I browsed the manual. It appears that I have to take the keys to the dealer to get them refreshed. Have any of you guys encountered this?

Hi Charlie

There has been a lot of discussion about this phenomenon in the German fora.
Sorry to tell you, but this typically is not a key fault, even if sometimes changing the key helps. It is a broken "ring antenna", that means the receiving antenna of the theft prevention system on the bike side. That then has to be exchanged. Seems to be a cheap component but due to the unexpected frequency of this fault there have been delivery delays occasionally.
BTW Not storing the keys together is afaik only a hint that you should try not to lose them together....

Cheers anyhow

qgaex
*sofarwithouranydefectsknockingonwood*

Get to your dealer immediately and make sure they replace the antenna/receiver ring around the ignition switch. If not you will get stranded on the road. I was stranded in a very remote area when my bike had only 300 miles on it. Once the antenna fails there is nothing, I repeat nothing, you can do to start the bike. Fortunately this was on a Saturday morning and the dealer where I bought the bike was able to send an employee with a trailer and pick me up. The tech said mine was the first one he had seen fail, but when I was in the shop the other day, he told me that since replacing mine, they had done several more. Good luck.

Mr. Average wrote:. If not you will get stranded on the road. I was stranded in a very remote area when my bike had only 300 miles on it. Once the antenna fails there is nothing, I repeat nothing, you can do to start the bike. Good luck.

This does not make me feel good at all. A workaround would be a valuable thing.
Mark

this doesn't make me feel good either. Is there some type of requirement for the number of times this happens before a recall needs to be issued. I know the R1200GS had a surprising number of recalls (which were fairly minor but noteworthy) when it first came out in 2005.

celticus wrote:

Mr. Average wrote:. If not you will get stranded on the road. I was stranded in a very remote area when my bike had only 300 miles on it. Once the antenna fails there is nothing, I repeat nothing, you can do to start the bike. Good luck.

This does not make me feel good at all. A workaround would be a valuable thing.
Mark

Mark, I agree, but was told that there is absolutely no way to start the bike. A desperate man will try everything. When mine stranded me, I moved the key around in the ignition, tried the plastic duplicate key, moved the bike down the road to a different spot, rubbed the key against my belt buckle, prayed, threw the key up in the air, repeated ancient karmic incantations, stood on my head with the key between my feet...you get the picture. You are totally helpless. BMWNA's response was not as sympathetic as I had hoped when they replied to my complaint, "that is why we have warranties".

Also very valuable to the wrong people don't you think?

Also very valuable to the wrong people don't you think?Well yes but you still have the key. I wonder it the best of the "Wrong People" don't already have a workaround? It would be hard to put into words just how pissed I would be if that happened to me.
Mark

Normal keys are pretty useless and the bikes without electronic protection in keys are often just stolen with nothing more then a screwdriver. Things like the AWS work very well and normally work very good but BMW seems to have had some problems with the ring antenna's allthough if I look at how little it happens on GS forums(and there are a lot of R1200GS´s sold already). That said I would demand a new ring antenna when problems start to occur as I wouldn´t like to be left stranded at the roadside. Even the best off the wrong people won´t have an easy fix as I understand you at least have to change the complete ignition system without having the proper key. I guess the problem isn´t mutch bigger as anything else that might go wrong on your bike that couldn´t be instantly fixed so leaving you stranded.

Off course I understand people are pretty pissed off when this happens to them though and I certainly would be too(knowing myself this would probably be an understatement ), but if I found out that I would be able to go around the system with some simple trick like using a BIC pen(remember the Kryptonite tubular locks) or whatever I probably would be just as pissed off.

I wonder how easy it is to order a new antenna and keep it for a rainy day in case such a situation arises and if it's simple to replace on the road?

Or does the antenna need to be programmed for the key and if so could be done in advance? Obviously we'd need to pay for this out of our own pockets since it would not be a warranty issue but would be nice insurance on a long trip.

LeonardoNYC wrote:I wonder how easy it is to order a new antenna and keep it for a rainy day in case such a situation arises and if it's simple to replace on the road?

Or does the antenna need to be programmed for the key and if so could be done in advance? Obviously we'd need to pay for this out of our own pockets since it would not be a warranty issue but would be nice insurance on a long trip.

If it's being done as it is on BMW cars - it's a simple ring antenna - multiple turns of fine wire molded into plastic with two leads coming out from it. It probably is "tuned" to work with the radio frequency the system uses. I've R&R'd them on BMW cars when I've had to replace the ignition switch (for other reasons) and it wasn't a big deal. No "coding" is possible since it's a passive device, no active components in it.

So quick answer - probably. I thought of that and seem to remember looking it up..

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do ... g=51&fg=15

PN: 61357696463

Chicago BMW gives MSRP $155, their price $124. That's why I didn't buy it as a spare.. had some other farkles to buy. I do have a standing order in with BeemerBoneyard for when they get one in on a wreck..

BTW - if you crossreference the PN on RealOEM - it's used on ALL the 1200 bikes (R and K) and the F800 also.. so if they were failing all over the place, I'm sure we would have heard about it..

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/partxref.do? ... showeur=on

I was at my semi-local dealer today (getting a new Conti for the rear - luckily free - and I'll give Conti 5 stars for standing behind their product!) - and asked the service department if they've seen any ring-antenna failures. They've had one, and they do sell and service a lot of bikes. Given the number of bikes out there using them - I'm not going to stay up late worrying about it failing..

I have had the EWS fail on my R1200R and so have two of my friends on their GS1200R's in the last few months. My dealer tells me that they are getting about one a week fail. Twice while visiting my dealer I've heard customers phone in with the problem and I now do not trust my ignition and carry a spare EWS ring under my seat. The ring is not easy to change as it involves removing the top yoke from forks, but it is only needed for starting and not whilst running. It is possible im told to disconnect the wires from defective EWS ring and plug them in to a new EWS ring without it being fitted, ie the orginal ring is still in place and the new ring is dangling on the wires. Now hold your spare key in the middle of the new ring like it would be if it was fitted properly, and the ignition should sense it and enable itself, put your original key in the igniton and start the engine. Then remove the spare key from the dangling EWS ring. The bike should be ok until the next start up then do the same again till you get home.

ukkenb wrote:It is possible im told to disconnect the wires from defective EWS ring and plug them in to a new EWS ring without it being fitted, ie the orginal ring is still in place and the new ring is dangling on the wires. Now hold your spare key in the middle of the new ring like it would be if it was fitted properly, and the ignition should sense it and enable itself, put your original key in the igniton and start the engine.

This is rather commonly done on BMW cars where people want remote starters. An antenna ring is mounted up under the dash with a spare plastic key tie-wrapped into it - and the one around the real ignition lock is disconnected and the wire connected to the one under the dash.

There is a lot of discussion on these frequent failures over on the I-BMW.com site (K1200) right now. Interesting times.

my mate has this issue with his k1200s - poor guy has jsut rebuilt it after it was "damaged"