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

I know this has been covered somewhat in previous posts but I want to make sure I do things right, so please forgive me if I rehash old ground...

The BMW Service Manual implies that gear oil does not require changing until 2 years or 12,000 miles, not at the 6000 mile service. I assume the same is true for lubing the final drive. I know that more frequent oil changes and lubes are good, but are they required at this service if the bike is less than 2 years old?

Thanks.

My DVD shows that the final drive fluid is only to be changed at the 600 mile service. Like you said, it doesn't hurt to change fluids more frequently. The tranny is every 12000 miles.

Yes you are correct, no gear or final drive change at 6000. At 12,000 you do all the fluid's except brake.
I think that statement about the final drive only being changed at 600 from BMW is outdated. They now want to include a final drive change @ 12,000 / 24,000 / 36,000 etc. along with air filter, spark plugs and so on.
Denver BMW is doing a 36,000 mile full service on mine right now, the first time a shop has done the service since the 6000 one. I wasn't going to have them do the final drive change because I just did it 6000 miles ago ( a new FD-did the 600 mile break-in change at a rest stop), but when they quoted me $75 to change it I figured what the heck it won't hurt, especially since I'm out of warranty and have no time to do it myself...

Even though there's plenty of experts around here you should always consult your friendly neighborhood BMW service department if you're not positive about something. Things change so even a old BMW document could be wrong...

Unless I'm reading from a different service DVD - tranny is 24,000 miles. It sez:

23-00-510 Gearbox-oil change (maintenance)*) - every 2 years or 40,000km (24,854.847 miles which is close enough to 24k miles to be good for me..)

*) = Billed as a seperate item

It won't hurt to do it more often, but unless you're submerging the bike it won't do much good either.. (unlike the old airheads where water ran down the speedo cable into the transmission..)

Thanks for all the replies -- it's good to know I won't be leaving out anything important.

You are correct, Don, I misspoke and meant 2 years 24,000 miles not 12,000 miles.

And to all, FWIW, by "lubing the final drive", I was referring to lubing the final drive splines, not changing final drive gear oil. Is there any explicit information on when to do the lube?

Shows what I really know... look what happens when I'm away from my bike for 3 months... withdrawals, memory lapse,etc...

rtallent wrote:Thanks for all the replies -- it's good to know I won't be leaving out anything important.

You are correct, Don, I misspoke and meant 2 years 24,000 miles not 12,000 miles.

Better too often than too infrequently..

And to all, FWIW, by "lubing the final drive", I was referring to lubing the final drive splines, not changing final drive gear oil. Is there any explicit information on when to do the lube?

I haven't seen anything, so I figured I'd do it when I do the final-drive fluid change (since I have to drop the drive anyway..)

My apologies for incorrectly quoting a 12K mile tranny change, I was speaking from memory which isn't always accurate.(I did use the DVD for the FD info) I was curious about the FD oil change and I've heard some info about BMW changing the FD oil change interval , but when I emailed my dealer they confirmed that the DVD is correct. FD oil change only at the 600 mile mark and tranny every 2 years or 24K miles. If you have questions on lubing the splines, just email your local dealer, they'd have the most current info.

Kevin

What dvd are you refering too

The BMW maintenance DVD. The cover reads:

BMW Motorrad
Repair Manuals
R Models K2x Street

6000 mile done today...$170.05 + tax using dino oil.

took 1.7 hrs labor